Purikura – Japanese Photo Sticker Booths

Originally developed in Japan in the mid 1990’s, purikura has become a craze and an important part of youth culture in its home nation today. Recently, its popularity has spread throughout many other countries and has even begun making its way into the United States.

What’s so Great about Purikura?

Purikura involves taking pictures at a photo booth, but unlike the photos produced in other photo booths, purikura photos also double as stickers. Purikura are, essentially, nothing more than sticker photo booths, but the wide variety of themes and backdrops, as well as the lighting choices and music played during production, have made the hobby a huge success among Japanese teenagers. Many carry around albums full of hundreds of photos, just waiting for the chance to pass-by any unknown photo booth and take even newer photos to help fill their books.

So How Does it Work?

Purikura are fairly easy to operate. Generally, up to about 5 people can enter a single booth to pose for up to ten different photo sets. Money must first be entered into the machine, and then a variety of selections can be made. Most photo booths offer a choice of lighting effects, borders, and backgrounds, but many of the newer machines also offer additional effects, such as fans and bluescreen options. Customers are able to choose the number and size of the pictures they want, which will generally print-out on a glossy, 4x6 inch sheet. At some establishments, customers are even offered costumes and wigs to borrow to aid in the photo-making process.

So What Does Purikura Even Mean?

The name purikura is actually a shortened form of Purinto Kurabu, a Japanese word combination that is actually borrowed from the English word pair, Print Club. In Japan, the word purikura is used to refer both to a photo sticker booth and the product, or sheets of stickers, of such a photo booth.

So How Can I Get my Own Purikura?

If you are interested in taking part in the purikura phenomenon, you can always just go to Japan, of course, where there is bound to be a purikura booth in just about every city you may visit. If Japan seems like too far a trip for just some silly photos, then you may be surprised to find that a photo booth may not be as far away as you may have thought. Try taking a trip to your nearest arcade, and you may just be surprised to find that there is a purikura booth not too far away from the comforts of your own home.

Popular Japanese Rice Dishes

The most important ingredient and main staple of all Japanese food is rice. It’s such an important part of Japanese meals that the Japanese word for rice, gohan, is also used as the same word to refer to any meal in general. Most Japanese eat rice daily, and if it’s not an ingredient already included in the main dish, then it is usually served with the meal as a side dish. The following list includes some of the most common rice dishes found in Japan:

Onigiri

Onigiri are balls of rice, which are often wrapped in nori, or seaweed, and contain a salty or sour filling in the center. Popular fillings include umeboshi, or pickled plums, salted salmon, tuna, and even miso. Onigiri is a popular snack that is available at most convenience stores in Japan.

Sushi

Unlike the rice used to make Onigiri, which is only slightly salted, the rice used to make sushi is actually mixed with vinegar. There are many different types of sushi, but the vinegared rice is common to them all. In nigirizushi, ingredients, such as raw fish or seafood, are placed across the top of a block of vinegared rice. In makizushi, or roll sushi, the rice and other ingredients, often fish, are placed on a sheet of seaweed, rolled into a cylindrical shape, and then sliced into smaller pieces. Temaki, Chirashi, Gunkan, Inari, and Oshizushi are all other types of sushi that are popular in Japan.

Donburi

Donburi is basically nothing more than a single, large bowl of cooked rice with some other food and sauce added on top of it. The different types of donburi available are defined by the type of topping included with the meal.

Popular donburi dishes include:

Tamagodon (egg and sauce over rice)
Katsudon (fried pork, onion, and egg over rice)
Oyakodon (simmered chicken, egg, and onion on rice)
Tendon (tempura shrimp and vegetables on rice)
Gyudon (beef and onion on rice)
Unadon (grilled eel over rice)

Kare Raisu

Kare Raisu, or Curry Rice, consists of cooked rice topped with a curry sauce. Though the dish is not native to Japan, it was introduced to the country over a century ago and has grown to be one of its most popular dishes. It is not as spicy as its Indian counterpart.

Chahan

Chahan is basically stir-fried rice, originally introduced from China. It tends to be lighter in flavor and style than the Chinese version, though it contains many of the same ingredients, such as peas, egg, carrots, and pork.

Kayu

Kayu is a type of rice congee, or porridge, which often consists of nothing more than water and rice, though sometimes egg is added to thicken the mixture. The gruel is very watery, with an average water to rice ratio of about five to one, making it a perfect meal for infants or sick people, since it can be easily digested.

Ochazuke

Ochazuke consists of hot green tea or dashi poured over cooked white rice and often includes other ingredients, such as umeboshi or tsukemono. A previous meal’s leftover rice is often used to make a dish of Ochazuke.