Purikura

Purikura プリクラ are photo booths where you can take digital pictures alone (if you're a Billy-no-friends or you're particularly vain), as a couple or with friends and then decorate said pictures using a touch screen and a stylus. They're very popular with young girls and couples in Japan and drunken idiot westerners such as myself. In some purikura centres men are not permitted to enter unless they are taking pictures as part of couple and down the shopping arcade here in Hiroshima this is made evident by the no man sign outside, which is essentially an outline of a man, like you see outside toilets, with a big red line through it. The wonderfully grammatically incorrect caption under the sign reads: No Men Only. 

You can add words, pictures, stamps and frames and on some machines sparkles that will print genuine glitter on your picture. Machines include an option to make your skin shiny and your eyes gigantic like a Japanese anime character, a cute-ify button if you will. People use them to decorate their phones, stationary, books, laptops... everything really. There are options to have the pictures sent to your phone which I decline due to my lack of Japanese ability and unwillingness to cough up my credit card details. There are also options to have the pictures e-mailed to you for use on a blog which I would love to be able to understand. Alas, I cannot.  Here are some of mine (apologies for the poor quality my camera isn't great):

 

This is a blood type Puri. The B beside my head has a bunch of question marks around
it because I don't know my type but that's what my friends reckon I am based on my personality

 

If you're interested in learning more about Purikura this girl has a blog dedicated solely to the art of Puri and she blogs about news, reviews and tutorials on Purikura machines.



You can also create Puri pictures online. Here's where I made this
fantastically flattering photo