I asked some of those girls what they found to be so cool about purikura. They excitedly told me that it was the electronic pen, which allowed them to scribble in messages, affix icons and draw over their faces to create an image totally different from their own.
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ETIENNE'S COOL JAPAN: 'Purikura' adds exciting dimension to photos
BY ETIENNE BARRAL, SPECIAL TO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/02/27
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Users can add their own decorations and creative flourishes to "purikura" photo stickers. (ETIENNE BARRAL)
On her 12th birthday, my daughter invited some French friends over for a party. Of all the fun and games they enjoyed that day, the one thing that everybody seemed to get the biggest kick out of was posing for purikura, or photo stickers.
Why purikura, which was no longer a novelty?
While we have something like purikura in France too, the technology is primitive when compared with Japan.
The selection of background patterns is limited. What's more, the pictures do not come with the adhesive surfaces, rendering them mere extensions of the photo booth snapshot.
For many French girls who came to Japan with their parents when they were posted here, the encounter with purikura was a revolutionary one. They would often meet up at the nearby game arcade, jump into a booth together, and give their best poses.
They carefully evaluated each machine to find the one that offered the widest variety of patterns. While most of this was nothing new for my daughter, who was born and raised in Japan, just being with her friends was enough to have a good time.
I asked some of those girls what they found to be so cool about purikura. They excitedly told me that it was the electronic pen, which allowed them to scribble in messages, affix icons and draw over their faces to create an image totally different from their own.
Many kids noted wistfully that they would miss purikura upon leaving Japan for France. So my suggestion to the manufacturers is, how about introducing some of this cutting-edge technology to France?
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Editor's note: This column, originally published in the vernacular Asahi Shimbun, is written by a French journalist who has lived in Japan for more than 20 years.
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