What Is Purikura, and Why Should You Try One?
Purikura (プリクラ, short for “print club”) is Japan’s version of the photo booth, but calling it that undersells the experience. Instead of a plain black-and-white strip, you get a sheet of small, sticker-backed photos where your skin has been smoothed, your eyes enlarged, and your legs subtly lengthened by software that’s been refined since the machines first appeared in game centers in 1995. It’s less “photo booth” and more “mini beauty studio crossed with an arcade game,” and it remains one of the most popular things Japanese teenagers, university students, and groups of friends do together on a day out. For visitors, it’s a fun, cheap souvenir that’s more personal than anything you can buy in a shop, and a genuine slice of Japanese youth culture rather than something staged for tourists.
Where to Find Purikura Booths
You don’t need to search hard — purikura machines are tucked into game centers (arcades) all over the country. The reliable chains to look for are GiGO (formerly Sega), Taito Station, Namco, and Round1, all of which dedicate at least part of a floor to purikura booths alongside claw machines and video games.
For the biggest selection, head to a dedicated purikura arcade rather than a general game center. In Tokyo, Purikura no Mecca in Shibuya is the standout — a multi-floor arcade near Center Gai (a few minutes on foot from Shibuya Station’s Hachiko exit) that’s entirely purikura, with dozens of machines running different themes, backgrounds, and camera effects. Harajuku and Ikebukuro also have strong clusters of machines aimed at a younger crowd. In Osaka, the Amerika-mura (Amemura) district near Shinsaibashi is the equivalent hub, packed with purikura shops alongside secondhand fashion stores.
Most purikura arcades open around 10:00 or 11:00 and run until 23:00–24:00; some locations in Shinjuku and Osaka’s Dotonbori/Amemura area stay open later or even 24 hours. If you’re combining a purikura session with other Tokyo pop-culture stops, Nakano Broadway makes a good pairing for the same day trip, since both scratch the same otaku-adjacent itch.
How Much Does It Cost and What Do You Get?
A single session typically costs ¥400–¥700, paid in coins or occasionally by IC transit card (like Suica or Pasmo) at newer machines. That price covers the booth for one round of shooting and printing, split however many people are crammed into the booth — most machines are built for 2–4 people, so the cost per person is often less than a vending-machine drink.
What you get is one sheet of stickers, usually cut into a grid of small photos you can peel apart and stick on phone cases, notebooks, or postcards home. Many modern machines also let you save digital copies to your phone, either through a dedicated app (frequently Japanese-only) or by scanning a QR code that appears on screen after printing — factor in a data fee of roughly ¥100–¥200 on top of the base price if you want this option.
Step-by-Step: How to Use a Purikura Machine
The process is fairly consistent across brands, even if the touchscreen menus are almost entirely in Japanese:
- Pick a machine and pay. Look for an empty booth, check the coin slot or IC card reader, and insert payment. Newer machines show a language toggle (look for “English”) on the opening screen — use it if available.
- Choose your background and frame. Before shooting, you’ll usually select a themed background (seasonal, pastel, glittery, etc.) and sometimes a filter strength for the skin-smoothing/eye-enlarging effect.
- Pose for the shots. A countdown timer fires off 6–10 photos in quick succession. Machines often display sample poses on screen — copy them if you’re not sure what to do, and move fast, since the timer doesn’t wait.
- Move to the decoration side. After shooting, you shuffle to a separate half of the booth (sometimes behind a curtain) with a stylus and touchscreen. Here you write text, add stamps and stickers, and crop/arrange the layout.
- Print and collect. Hit the print button, wait roughly one to two minutes, and your sticker sheet dispenses from a slot, usually alongside a QR code for digital copies.
Best Times to Go (and Crowds to Avoid)
Weekday afternoons, right after arcades open, are the quietest window — you’ll often have your pick of machines. Weekends, especially Saturday afternoons and evenings, get busy with local students, and popular arcades like Purikura no Mecca can have every booth occupied with a short queue. If you’re traveling in December, some machines rotate in Christmas- or New Year-themed backgrounds for a few weeks, and similarly around Halloween in late October — a nice bonus if your trip timing lines up, but not something worth planning a whole visit around.
Common Mistakes First-Timers Make
The most frequent stumble is bringing too large a group — booths are physically sized for 2–4 people, and squeezing in six means someone gets cropped out of every shot. Another is assuming every machine accepts cards; many older units are coin-only, so keep ¥100 coins on hand. Don’t be startled by the auto-applied filters either — the enlarged eyes and smoothed skin are standard, not a setting you can easily turn off, and some visitors find the effect stronger than expected the first time they see the preview. Finally, don’t skip the QR/app step if you want digital copies: walk away without scanning it and your only record is the physical sticker sheet, which fades over time and can’t be reprinted once you leave the booth.
Budget, Mid-Range, and Splurge Options
For a no-frills first try, any GiGO or Taito Station machine in a general arcade runs about ¥400 and is perfectly serviceable. For more variety in backgrounds, props, and camera angles, spend the extra ¥100–¥300 at a dedicated arcade like Purikura no Mecca or an Amemura purikura shop, where machines are refreshed more often with newer effects. If you want to make an afternoon of it, some purikura shops near Harajuku and Amemura rent costumes, wigs, and colored contacts for an extra ¥1,000–¥2,000, letting you theme the whole shoot — a fun splurge if you’re traveling with friends and want more than just a quick sticker sheet. Whichever tier you pick, bring some cash, since even in a country that’s increasingly cashless, purikura remains a coins-in-the-slot experience at plenty of machines.