Purikura and Karaoke. Two very important aspects to any Japanese schoolgirl’s life, and both of which I experienced today. After I had finished my strenuous classes (1)--yes, there is school on Saturday--Noriko, our friends Reona and Yuka, and myself all boarded the train and headed down to Kurume, an area in the city filled with shops, restaurants, gambling parlors and other such cosmopolitan things. We traveled first to the karaoke place, which was called Magic Kingdom or Magic Palace of something equally Disney-esque. The whole outside of the place was outfitted with that fake blue cave stuff they use at Disneyland and there were comforting Disney characters painted about, while still retaining that urban charm that makes one want to slowly back away. Instead of having to sing in front of everyone there, (which always seems the sadistic nature of karaoke), this establishment had separate group rooms--again with an adorable Disney character painted on each door--which were essentially 6x6 foot boxes equipped with a couch, a table, a television, and more song choices than I could ever begin to look through, including a large number of English songs. According to the great and magnificent tradition of karaoke (2), I mostly chose songs which I would be embarrassed to be associated with normally, but which were ridiculously fun to sing. Sadly, I was utterly and completely shown up by my karaoke-seasoned friends, who all had naturally good voices as well as having much more practice in the art of singing without being able to hear yourself.
From there, we moved on to find purikura, something that I have discovered to be one of those things you must experience to truly understand and love. The establishment we visited was divided equally between two very respectable and mature (3) pastimes: purikura, and the claw-style arcade games. I have never in my life seen that many grabby-games in one place. For those who don’t know, purikura are Japanese photo booths, with effects taken to the extreme. The first step, after feeding the machine 400 yen, is to take the photos, during which you can choose from any number of backgrounds, from basic color to wild patterns to yourself inside a sandwich. Since there were so many booths, my friends and I play chose one at random, and set about taking our photos. And yes, I did choose the sandwich background. Once the pictures have been taken, you move to another booth, with a high-tech touch screen for editing the pictures. They have sparkles and writing tools, stamps and borders, celebrity pictures and every other possible thing to make you picture look fantastic.(4) You press “Finished” and it prints out your pictures.
Which are about the size of your thumbnail, all printed on one sheet of paper, with backing that peels of so you can stick your photos to things. To be truly honest, I do not understand the point in any way whatsoever, but I love them all the same.
Purikura, pasted in my journal.
With my hand for size comparison.
After purikura, we wasted some money on the grabby-machines and then headed home. I left with a burning hatred for all grabby-machines across the globe, as I had spent (5) 300 yen on attempts to get a stupid paper fan, all of which failed horribly, and received nothing for my efforts but a tiny Winne the Pooh keychain which Noriko won and gave to me.
Dastardly, evil machine with it’s deceptively easy buttons and big grabby claw.
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(1) Free time reading
(2) Which I have just made up to excuse my song choices.
(3) Pointlessly fun.
(4) Absolutely ridiculous.
(5) Wasted
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