Pika Pika

About a month ago, I had to change my beat neighborhood to Japantown and the Western Addition. After getting my beat neighborhood changed, I decided to start my exploration with the Japantown mall. As I head upstairs and looked around, I see this business that seems out of place within the mall.

The business has a pink and black sign on the top left corner that say “Pika Pika”. I found myself curious about the shop and entered cautiously. The shop has many pictures of Japanese girls posing, but as I looked around, they are actually photo booths with many Japanese characters plastered around the confined space.

Ryan Kimura, the owner of Pika Pika, was the person who brought puri kura, Japanese version of the photo booth, to the San Francisco Japantown community. Puri kura was introduced to Japan in 1995 and continues to be popular. He learned about puri kura while teaching English in Japan for two years.

When he came back, his parents bought this business and asked if he wanted to join in. It came with a puri kura machine and decided to expand by buying more machines from Japan.

“It has grown to what I expected. It’s loud and crazy,” said Kimura. “And it has become a part of the community.”

Also, he said it’s a place for young people to be creative and crazy with no shame involved.

The people who work at Pika Pika are just as fun as the place itself. The employees there will help you with the process since the photo booths are only in Japanese. They will leave a lasting impression on you like the place itself.

In the future, I would like to visit Pika Pika again, but I am going to bring someone to get the full-on experience of puri kura.

*On a side note: After talking to Kimura, he suggested I go experience puri kura for myself since I have never tried it. My experience was awkward because I was taking pictures of myself, but I still had fun and decorating my pictures with random additions was just as addicting.*