How this idea hasn’t caught on yet in the rest of the civilized world I have no idea, but “Print Club”, (as it is less commonly known, since it is yet another example of Japanese trends being named after words they cannot possibly pronounce), is surely the greatest thing to come out of Japan since the cult 80’s game show “Takeshi’s Castle.”

In 1995, Japanese people learned just how much fun you can have in a big box with friends. Choose the background, strike a pose or six and proceed to spend the allocated time trying to work out what all the various buttons do whilst doodling on your own face, before pressing the “erase” button seconds before the time runs out. And they’re stickers too!!! Cramming pictures, comments and glittery accessories onto purikura within the time limit is soon to be declared an Olympic sport, and when it is, the school-children of Japan will win gold.

For such a simple idea, the range of expression is amazing. ¥100 purikura result in round-the-shop queues, whilst higher quality machines can charge up to ¥400 for glitter effects and various background themes. Purikura have entered the 21st century with machines which can download images straight from your phone for you to personalize, and apparently in 1997 a machine was installed at LDP headquarters for fashion-loving politics fans to have their purikura taken with then-Prime Minister, Ryutaro Hashimoto!

My personal favorite was a machine in Okinawa, where my best friend was living, which printed your pictures onto a playing card whose suit and number you chose yourself, allowing you to create your own personalized deck. Unfortunately, this tale has a tragic post-script, as the machine broke after four months and was never replaced, leaving my best friend to invent interesting new games requiring only twenty-three cards…

Like karaoke and circus trapeze acts, purikura is something which is never done alone, as I learned to my students’ amusement when I first arrived, but they do make surprisingly good prizes and presents, as well as confuse old folks back home, (my 91-year-old great aunt asked my mum why they were making Japanese stamps with me on them!).

Once you’ve discovered the many joys of purikura, be it teacher-and-student purikura, drunken-purikura or the rare, naked-purikura, you’re likely to come to the same conclusion as most Japanese students: purikura really ARE more exciting than your English lesson!

Let’s enjoy taking a picture together with me. May be? MUST be!

Written by Doron Kelmer and originally appear in The Tombo Times, October 2004.