Purikura Caravan

We all know about the earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan last March. The region is still struggling to find its feet but the people there are carrying on as best they can. One of the purikura companies, Make Software, who make Bambi-Na, Essence and Me Her Jyoshi decided to try and bring smiles to the young people in affected areas.

They took a truck and installed one of the Bambi-Na2 machines and have been travelling around offering free purikura to people in the region. I know it sounds kind of silly but I know from personal experience that when you are in the middle of a personal or major disaster that silly normal things can be the things that you need most.

The main news page is here.

Under concept (コンセプト) they say that they heard that young girls in affected areas were saying that they wanted to take purikura so they came up with the project. They fitted up a truck with a Bambi-na2 machine and started a tour of the area offering free purikura to anyone who came.

They say they want to provide fun and smiles to those who memories are of the tsunami.

There’s an on-going series of reports of the days when they go to visit.

First report is from September 9th and shows pictures of the crew building the puricaravan.

Second report is from September 17th and shows the truck joining a festival day in Iwate prefecture. It says a line formed very quickly and even in the queue people were smiling. This time the purikura models Natsuko Goto and Yenah Hirano were there too and people were very happy to take purikura with the real models.

Third report is from October 29th from somewhere else in Iwate prefecture. It says they started early and they had all kinds of people from a small child taking purikura alone to groups of boys. This time two talents, Jun Shirota and Hitomi Nishina came too. They took purikura and played soccer and tag with the children. There’s also a picture of the thanks messages from the people who took purikura.

Fourth report is from October 30th also in Iwate. This time they went to a high school and a junior high school (I think it’s a combined school). It says that high schoolers, teachers and visiting elementary students took purikura. It was that school’s culture festival so the puricaravan was part of the celebration. It says the line got really long and they saw lots of people that day.

I don’t know how long the caravan will be running for but I’ll keep my eyes open for updates. There’s dates listed through November for Iwate and Miyagi prefectures at least.

I think this is a really nice practical idea to bring a bit of fun and normalcy to the lives of the young people in the affected areas. It’s easy to give money but it’s great to see companies thinking about what they, with their specific companies, can do to help people.

If you want to see more photos there’s some facebook albums here, here and a set of the actual purikura here.

And to the people in the area.

What do you guys think about the purikura caravan?