Purikura

Purikura… Do you ever ear this word? It sounds so Japanese, isn’t it? Purikura comes from “Purinto Kurabu”, which means print club in English.

What is the concept of Purikura? The concept is to make alone or with friends some small pictures into a cabin, like in a automatic photo booth but at the end, you can customize it.

You could find Purikura machines in the arcade game galleries or in department stores. The style of the machine is very Japanese, it means that the style is “ the fantastic world”, wonderful and magical. Girls principally use Purikura. But you can see some boys too.

They enter into the cabin. You take pictures; you choose the style, the background. After the photo shooting, you customize the pictures that you have shot. You put or write whatever you want. The idea of the purikura follows the wave of the Japanese cosplay: it is the young people who disguise themselves to be in another world (Snow-White, Alice in Wonderland, gothic, Marilyn Manson…) because they want to escape themselves from the traditional japanese way of life. Purikura are for them, a mean for cosplays to express theirselves. Some purikura machines rent Cosplay wigs.

Purikura are very famous because Japanese are crazy about photography and they love to be take in photo. Young people are crazy of purikura, and one of their favorite games is to take at least one picture on each purikura they can find. In addition to that, in the 100 yens shop they can buy some purikura books to stick the pictures. Purikura are a real hobby for teenagers; indeed, for having used them, it is very funny, it can make great memories for a day or a good time with friends.

For the moment purikura stay in Japan but they are developing in the rest of the Asia.

How a Japanese can live whitout cell phones?

How a Japanese can live whitout cell phones?

Japanese people are crazy about cell phones it’s not? Who did not know this thing? It is normal because cell phones are born in Japan.
Did you ever see Japanese people in the subway? It is amazing. Everybody use a cell phone, to surf on the Internet, to watch TV, to interact on the TV show.
Cell phones are the tools of the everyday Japanese life. Japanese have a big interest for mobile phones, more than in the western countries.
If you walk on the streets of Tokyo, you could find cell phone shop at all street corner and many people with a phone in their hands.
It is very particular, because in Europe people use cell phone only to call someone, or read its email whereas in Japan people use it more for multimedia activities.
In Japan, some people consider cell phone like a jewel, especially women. They can choose the color of their phones. They can add to their phone a kind of phone jewel that look like a kind of key holders. The phone becomes a part of them. In Japan there are cell phone for every body: kids and seniors: there are cell phones adapted for these people.
The phone shops make efforts about the presentation of the phone. Design is very important for the consumer.

In addition to that, the Japanese mobile phone uses technologies and functionalities that we could not find in our Western countries: the TV on Phone, or the pet on phone ( Japanese people are crazy of pets and virtual pets).
The problem if you love Japanese phone, is that you can use it only in Japan…

The "Konbini"

When you live per the Tokyoite, you cannot miss the convenient stores. There are more than 40,000 convenience stores, known as konbini in Japan. There are different competitors such as Seven Eleven, Am Pm, Lawson and Family Mart. They primarily sell food such as snacks (ramen, pasta, onigiri, sandwiches…) and sweets, instant ramen, beverages including alcohol. Other goods available include body care products, cosmetics, batteries, blank CDs and tapes, umbrellas, newspapers, magazines and manga.

We can also find a wide range of services, for example banking services (withdrawal of money), Copier and fax, ticket reservation (concert, highway buses), bill payment, delivery services (post card and stamp).

These convenient stores are very useful for the Tokyoite life in general because we can find them everywhere. They are close to your residence. The services that they provide avoid going the bank or post.  In addition to that they correspond to the rhythm and Japanese life style, because most of them are open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Moreover the Japanese food has very short purges dates its because they are adapted for the Japanese life.

It is very surprising because in France, we cannot find this type of store. We can find little supermarket but they don’t provide these types of services. If we need to carry out a money withdrawal, you have to go the bank to do it.

Japanese will never be thirst

In Japan, people will never know what thirst means. Indeed, there is a incredible things, you can find everywhere drink distributor. If you walk in the street and suddenly you need water, you just have to walk on 50 meters and a drink distributor is waiting for you. You could find whatever you want: water, soda, energizing water, iced coffee (I thing that it’s a Japanese specialty…), iced tea…

It’s a very incredible thing because you can find this distributor everywhere. For example, you are in the Japanese countryside, you can find distributor in the middle of nowhere. In France, you can’t find this kind of distributor in the street. You just can find it in the metro station, sport center, airport, and department store. In France, the law is regulating the establishment of the distributor because of the increasing of obesity. It’s because we can’t find distributors anywhere. 10 years ago in France, we could find it in school but it was forbidden for the same reasons. The government tried to protect children against the overweight risks.

Kellogg's Frosties

Kellogg’s Frosties　

The Frosties are cereals sell by the company Kellogg’s. They target children and adolescents. We eat Frosties during the breakfast.

In terms of packaging, the box is the smaller than the French box. Usually, in Japan, goods are sold in smaller quantity than in France. For example, the French standard Frosties box is of 335g whereas the Japanese box is of 135g. This standard is the same for everything Kellogg’s products sold in Japan.
Moreover, there is no toy sold in the box whereas in France there are always toys in the box. This toy creates an attraction for the kids who want eat Frosties to get the toy. Behind the French box there is an explanation of the toy, and they could find on the box all the toys that you could get in the Frosties boxes. In addition to that, there is some games. The Japanese boxes talk about dietetics and how to eat a balanced meal. There is no ludic interest on the Japanese box.
The Frosties are more expensive than in France because a box costs the same price but the quantity is not the same.