purikura - ƒvƒŠƒNƒ‰
Short for Print Club. It's a kind of tiny little photo that's immensely popular among schoolgirls. Usually the photo booths are in game centers, but they can be found in a wide variety of locations. All the best ones are at the game centers, where there is usually a whole floor dedicated solely to them, and crammed end to end with nothing but high school and junior high school girls. For this reason, guys aren't allowed there unless accompanied by a girl. Anyway, there's a booth, into which it is possible to cram as many as eight very friendly people, although usual is probably two to four. First, you put in 400 yen and set some option on the touch screen, and then you get your picture taken in lots of funny poses with wacky backdrops or whatever. Then you go around to the other side of the booth, where you have some time to pick the best ones and draw all over them, adding fruity borders, shooting stars, poo icons, and whatever you feel like writing. A lot of people write the date and location and what they were doing and cute little messages about each other. Then a sheet of tiny little photos pop out of the side of the machine and you cut them up and distribute them among the participants. Typical girls have a book bulging with page after page of these pictures, as well as boxes of extras to give to friends to put in their books.