Random geeky toy photos 4/An attempt at mental re-alignment 3

Whenever we (Doug, Jamie, Me, James, et.al.) went to Tenmonkan, one of us would invariably suggest, "Let's get purikura!" (Seriously, guys, how many of these did we do? Every time I open a box of stuff I sent home, three or four more fall out)

プリクラ is Japanese shorthand for the English phrase "Print Club", and it refers to photo stickers taken at booths in game centers all over Japan. After the requisite mugging for the camera, you scoot around to the other side of the booth and use the touch screen/light pen to decorate your picture. Quite popular amongst the young in Japan. Looked kind of odd with 30-year-old bald me doing it, but whatever.

The male lead of the manga "Love Hina", Urashima Keitaro, had a hobby of collecting purikura whenever he saw a booth. The sad thing was, he was the only one ever in his pictures. In real life, purikura is most popular among girls -- so much so that many game centers had rules preventing males who were alone hanging around the purikura machines (they'd stick their cameraphones under the curtains, trying for upskirt shots...)

It was always fun when I was at work and saw students exchanging these pictures. They were surprised when I started trading with them.


Clockwise from upper left: Me, Doug, Jamie and James; Students from Kamiichiki Junior High; Students from Higashiichiki Junior High; Japanese tutor and a fellow language-classmate from France, more students from Higashiichiki. (Note the fake cigs in the "No Smoking" pic.)


I used my Canon Wordtank as a repository for purikura and any other stickers that students would give me. Left: My Japanese language class from 2003.

I bought the Wordtank when I was in Akihabara during a trip to Tokyo to visit my buddy Jonny in the winter of 2002. At the time, my Japanese was not great, and after about ten minutes of me trying to tell the shopkeeper what I was looking for, I told him I'd be back later w. a friend who spoke Japanese. Imagine the annoyance on the face of the shopkeeper when I showed up with THIS guy:Now imagine the surprise on the shopkeeper's face when Jonny (who grew up in Kyoto and Kobe) started speaking perfect Japanese.

Good times.

(I paid ¥20,000 for that Wordtank, and the shopkeeper threw in an English manual for free. A week later, I saw the exact same model for sale in Kagoshima City for ¥15,000. Ah, well...)