Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Secrets of Purikura... プリクラの秘密!!








































Purikura is big business in Japan as you might already know. Pretty much all young Japanese people loves it and nowadays they're making new kind of machines with all kind of funny effects every month. Here is some Purikura photos together with Leon and Jenni.








































Purikura = Japanese photo machines
The word Purikura is an abbreviation of the words "Print Club" which with Japanese spelling becomes "Purinto Kurabu". Japanese people loves making words short, so they put those words together with the result "PuriKura".

So why is it called "Print Club"!? I guess it's because the main thing used to be that you get the photos printed out as stickers when you're done with the photo session.








































I once asked Leon how many times he have been taking Purikura photos, and he thought it was more than 700 times. So he has some experience, as well as Jenni. No wonder why they look so great at the pictures!! =)

This was at the time when Leon had just learned the expression "LOL" so he finished almost every sentence he wrote with it as you can see in the right bottom corner. XD

Japanese people use the Kanji for the word "Warau" which means "Laugh", inside of brackets to express somthing similar to "LOL". It looks like this:
(笑)








































One time me and Leon had a discussion about the point of Purikura machines:

Leon: -"How come you always take pictures of everything?"

Me: -"Because everything in Japan is so interesting and different for me,
since we don't have it in Sweden. 

Doesn't Japanese people take photos when they go out? Overseas Japanese tourists are known for always taking a lot of photos, you know."

Leon: -"Japanese people usually don't bring cameras with them when going out here. I guess that's why there is Purikura-machines. Whenever you go out with your friends here, you take Purikura photos together with them to remember that time."








































Leon is right about that taking Purikura photos together with friends is nice as memories. This Purikura makes me remember when Jakob and Jonathan from school, Penny that used to live in my guest house, the journalist Thomas and me ate at a nice Izakaya and then went to club Atom for example! =)

One of the fun things with purikura is that you can edit the photos and choose backgrounds. This is made possible by having the same kind of green background in the photo booth as they use when they have special effects in movies.





























So what happens if you use green clothes when you take purikura!!??
I accidently used this green striped cardigan when I took purikura together with Yukino and here is
the result:

 




































What!? The stripes on my cardigan that used to be really green are now colorless! The color are so similar to the one of the Purikura booth's background so the machines thinks it should not be visible.






































So if you weared clothes with exactly the same green color as the background I guess you would become invisible! Gotta try that some time! :D






































I finally realize why green clothes aren't popular in Japan! ;)





























Since that Purikura session was ruined we had to take new photos.
Useless green cardigan!! ;D Luckily it's cheap, just 400 yen.





























I love Yukino's hat! It's a bit similar to the black one I have, but bigger.






































Wearing that hat is almost like a whole outfit! Imagine how comfortable to wake up in the morning and only need to put on a hat before going to work or school! XD

  






































You might have noticed that people often look really good at Purikura photos like Mathilda and Shun in this photo. But it is actually possible to fail... Just look at me on this photo with dry lips and blemishes all over my face... :(








































That was before I learned the secrets of Purikura! ;D

So what are the secrets!!?? :O




































 

Well, if you're the whitest, most pale guy alive like me and not born with perfect skin
there is solutions in Japan... ;)

Many Gyaru-O use foundation and make-up made for men. The Men's EGG-model Ayumu doesn't only have his own clothing and fragrance brand, he also has a make-up brand.

Since "Make-up" sounds a bit girly, they call it "Men's Maintenance" instead.





























There is sometimes detailed tutorials in the Men's EGG magazines for putting on facial masks and
doing make-up.

I've heard from people that for girls in Japan it's even an unwritten rule to always have make-up on when they leave the house which sounds crazy, so I guess it's no wonder that people like to wear those "hospital-masks" instead as a reader mentioned in a comment.





























And then there's the eye enlargement effect...
Japan might be the most techinacally advanced country in the world. Some of Japan's professors works with rocket science or trying to cure cancer, but there's no doubt about that they put their best men on the task to make people's eyes look bigger! ;D





























One of the most popular Purikura machines ever is the "Honey Heart Haafu Kao".
"Haafu Kao" = "Half Face" which means that your face will look half foreign if you
take photos with this machine.





























According to the machine, this is the natural eye-size. Level 1.

















But this machine will give you the perfect eye-size. Level 3!! So sick...





























But that's not all, it will also change the volume of your lips, your noseline and your cheaks...
I don't know if this eliminates the demand for plastic surgery or only promotes it!?






































"Half-Purikura" with Kenichi and Lloyd.

























































Afterwards you can put on all kinds of eye shadow, color contact lenses and lipstick. So you can go
into the Purikura booth looking like crap and still look like a super model on the photos! Almost... ;D





























In this machine you can also put special stamps from Russia, UK, France, Netherlands and even Sweden! :D






































I put one of the most common Swedish souvenirs the "Dalahäst" in the left corner. ^_^

  



























When I did this with Yulia that's partly Russian and partly Japanese she put one of those Russian wooden dolls at her side and I stick with the Swedish "Dalahäst"...





























The first time we took Purikura together we didn't really know how to act when the photos were taken. So this time we looked at all the example pictures on the machines and practiced different poses for half an hour before starting. That actually made it even more fun!

After taking the Purikura photos Yulia said that she thought there should be cameras with the same functions as Purikura machines.






































I guess it's hard for a personal digital camera to achieve as great light as it is in the Purikura booths. The Purikura booths are almost like small modeling studios when you think about it, with light reflectors all over the place.

But recently I heard that many upcoming cameras in Japan will have something called "Purikura functions". So maybe Yulia's wish will come true after all! =)



























One of the funniest Purikura-memories gotta be when Erik to the right in this picture, who's a member of the band Wild Flowers, was here for a while to visit his Japanese girlfriend.






































Erik thought that everybody always looks so happy and cool on the Purikura pictures
so he wanted to see if it's even possible to look bored and angry in Purikura! ^^






































Erik proved that it's possible to look very bored and angry on Purikura haha!! :D

As you can see in this video he was really happy when the results came!! He has been living in Hollywood for too long now so he has really catched up that American movie star accent! ;)



However, if you really wanna become good at something you better study how the professionals do it!!





























The EGG Youth-models Masshu and Akkiina sure know how to take a cool Purikura photo!





























Their model colleagues Shouya and Naokyun are no beginners either!





























It's pretty nice to take Purikura together with friends but after all it's much more fun to do it alone! ;D

I guess I'm just one of many poor souls that has become a Purikura addict. If I don't get my daily doze of Purikura it will start to itch, and I won't be able to think about anything but that! ;)

My friends has even started to call me FurePuri. "FurePuri" is an abbreviation of my name Fredrik which becomes Furederikku in Japanese, and then Purikura. XD

29 comments:

  1. thanks you for all your posts, they are very intresting :)
    Can I ask you? Does Yulia has a blog? I'm from Russia too, It will be intresting to read same from Russia, living in Japan :D

    Thanks you so much and sorry my English:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Purikura looks like so much fun in Japan *_* There's so many options and things to do!
    That background trip happened to my friend in Purikura too, and she ended up with no top half of her body, haha..

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  3. ☆Jun☆:

    Thank you!!!! =)
    Oh cool that you're from Russia too!!^^
    I'm sorry but I don't think she have a blog, but she seems to have an intresting life so it would be fun if she started one! But I guess she's pretty busy with work etc. :/

    No you're English is perfect!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eden:

    Hahah wow only half of her body, I would look to see that photo! :D

    Yeah it's fun that there's so much to choose between, and that they make new things all the time!! =)

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  5. Oh I would love to have purikura-machines near my town.. Those puris just look so funny and happy!
    How much does it cost if you took a purikura?

    ReplyDelete
  6. ahhhh I miss purikura!!!!
    and your fucking blog is fantastic!!

    im planning on going to shinjuku for 7 weeks in june! maybe i'll see you arounnddd :3

    ReplyDelete
  7. haha great entry! :D
    Funny to read it~♥
    Hope we'll get the chance to take purikura sometime together ;)
    Maybe in December?!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow this article is so interesting!
    Please keep up the good work, I love your blog!! :D Can't stop reading it ^o^

    ReplyDelete
  9. teipattu:

    Yeah there should be Purikura everywhere!! :)

    It usually costs 400 yen. That's like 3 Euro, 5 US Dollars or 30 SEK maybe... I'm not sure about the currency exchange rate right now though.

    ReplyDelete
  10. エミリー:

    Thank you soo much!!^^

    Ah cool, yeah let's take some Purikura together or something! =D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kanako_ageha:

    Thank you!! =)

    Yeah I hope so!! You're coming to Tokyo in December??

    I only have payed for school here until October for this year right now, but maybe I will extend if possible! =)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yumi:

    Thank you very very much!!!^^

    I will do my best!! =)

    ReplyDelete
  13. yeah, wanna go to language school there too ;)
    can I ask where u are living? :O Cuz I've been thinking of my possibilities for then ^^

    then u absolutely have to extend hihi : D

    ReplyDelete
  14. haha this was really fun to read~ i have done this a couple of times but i'm not really good at it!! my poses are sort of boring and i am not good at quickly editing photos...oh no!!! i need more practice~

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  15. Really cool & interesting post! like it =)

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  16. That will be fun to try and purposely wear green parts so they dissapear. Like, paint your around eyes green so you look like a monster n shit :D hahaha

    I miss purikura in japan, its so cheap! Here is like $8 or $10 :(

    ReplyDelete
  17. LMAO omgg i wore a green shirt one time when we took purikura~~~ D; i forgot bout that green background>< my whole upper body was gone only my neck, head, legs and arms were visible! hahaha but it was funny :P

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  18. I'm a legit purikura addict too, but have been avoiding it intentionally because it just means... obsession! Every time I go with friends, one time just isn't enough, haha! I need to do the pracitsing before as well though, because I'm soooo slow and end up going "Eh!? what!? Noooo" ;P Ahh well, practice makes perfect. ;)

    You should give a guide on how to do the decoration part most effectively too! Or maybe it's just when I go with one certain friend there's a porblem... we end up talking too much and doing too little! XD

    ReplyDelete
  19. I laughed so bad at Erik's face in purikura!

    Thank you for posting this!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Great entry, like allways! I laught a lot with your invisible cardigan xD

    I give you an award in my blog ;D

    ReplyDelete
  21. I am so envy you! you make me wanna go japan again and again and again. i miss that place too much XDD~~

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  22. I love you blog! I'm always looking forward to your posts! <3

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  23. Omg, im wondering if i should choose Japan or Korea when choosing a country to go to as a foreing exchange student, gah, you make me want to choose Japan so much.. gah, im just scared il end up far away in some village.. god, like in totoro.. xD its been so long since your last post! PLEASE post mooooree!!

    sorry for bad english.. xS

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thanks for these hints!! I've only used Purikura three times and it was always very crazy!

    I will use your tips in future, I'm always worried my photos will look bad but since they print so small, even bad photos can look cute too (I hope!)!

    Do you have a favourite machine to use?

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  25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeluy-rzEIg&feature=player_embedded - thought you might find it interesting :)

    heard the news and hope you're sound and safe~ take care ^^

    ReplyDelete
  26. Wow you make me miss Japan! I wish I had half as much fun as you are having hehe. It's funny these purikura machines make it seem like it's a desirable to look half, when most Japanese people would get offended if you said 'wow you look half' and meant it as a compliment on their looks xD

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  27. you are really a good story teller and observer. I love this article haha

    ReplyDelete
  28. Nice, det er et rigtig godt indlæg, synes jeg!
    Jeg er fra Danmark og studerer japansk, og jeg havde brug for en guide til purikura - så mange tak! Jeg kommer nok til at bruge det rigtig meget :D

    ReplyDelete