puri puri puritty.

I had the pleasure of shopping in Shibuya with Linda a couple weeks ago. She was in Tokyo researching for Burton's new high fashion line B by Burton. After going through several stores our final stop was the game center where we took print club pictures, otherwise known as purikura. Puri is taken from the first two syllables of print and kura from the first two syllables of club; put them together and you have purikura. When I first came back to Tokyo two years ago, I was a year and a half out of college and feeling kind of serious and blue. Naturally, I shunned purikura. To my regret, even when my dear friend, Christina, came to visit me all the way from Los Angeles, I neglected to take purikura pictures with her because of my negative sentiments toward it at the time. I considered it a juvenile form of entertainment exclusively for teenagers. Indeed I have little file books filled with page upon page of purikura from when I was a little pawn caught up in the popularity game of highschool. Also I thought it was vain; I mean have you been inside of one of these machines it's filled with blinding white lights to block out all your flaws and there are full-length mirrors outside to fix your make-up and outfit. Having said that I had forgotten one thing maybe the most important thing about this self-conscious assessment of one's looks and social standing: purikura is really FUN, hilarious and FUN. Yes, I was a joyless sourpuss that forgot how fun and bonding purikura can be. Making stupid poses with someone you just met is an interesting way to get to know them and decorating the freshly taken pictures with sparkles and rabbit ears cements that new bond like nothing else. Where else can you do that but in a print club booth. I mean I can still say more negative things than positive things about it but I can also say that about ice cream. But who doesn't love ice cream? I don't want to become one of those joyless people who don't eat desserts. It's not like you eat it everyday. So I say hooray for ice cream and purikura.



purikura: 400 yen
time spent: 15 minutes
not taking yourself too seriously: priceless