From San Francisco Chronicle
January 23, 2009
The purikura king is at PikaPika in Japantown
By Patricia Yollin
When Ryan Kimura graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004 with a degree in Asian American studies, he kept running into the same question: "What are you going to do with that?"
He wasn't sure. So he spent two years in Japan teaching English to high school students, who introduced him to purikura - the art of making photos, which are often turned into photo stickers - in a fancy, high-tech photo booth...."Purikura is the opposite of serious," said Kimiko Ryokai, a UC Berkeley assistant professor in the School of Information. "It is just for fun."
Ryokai, who grew up in Tokyo, said, "It is always a social activity. Nobody really takes purikura by him- or herself."