Purikura/Neoprints in Singapore

Purikura Machines (short for "Purinto Kurabu", or "Print Club" in Japanese) were all the rage a decade ago in most Asian countries, and still prove to be a popular hit with the female Asian youth of today. The Purikura Machine is pretty much a glamorized version of a standard photo booth - it takes your picture, runs it through several filters that will make any camwhore shed rivers of envy, then lets you prettify it with cutesy graphics and cool Engrish phrases before printing them out into ready-to-stick glossy miniature photos (more commonly referred to as "neoprints") that you can share with friends or paste on letters to pen pals.

Here in Singapore, these neoprint machines are normally found in most popular shopping complexes, usually in buildings which have cinema theaters in them. The one we frequent is in Bugis Junction and the shop is often crowded with schoolgirls and women with their unfortunate boyfriends:

...well, except today. Today wasn't as busy. Which was good for us.

 We're both pretty camera-shy people and kinda self-conscious about how we look, but the fun of taking the pictures and decorating them afterward pretty much outweighs whatever confidence barriers we have. This is how a neoprint machine works:

Click for a larger view and more explanations!

It's pretty simple: You go into the booth, insert your coins (normally 11 - 13 SGD), take 5 - 6 shots of yourself and/or your friends; exit the booth, go into the decorating booth, decorate your images, and then collect your photo from the print out station located at the bottom of the side of the machine. You're given about five seconds to pose for each shot, so get ready!

You can choose to mimic the poses the models adapt on-screen or come up with your own poses beforehand. After you've taken your shots, you're allowed to select which few you would like to send for printing. Once that's confirmed, it's on to the decoration!

You even get to choose how many shots you'd like printed! You can't decide exactly WHICH shot gets printed in what size, unfortunately.

The unfortunate thing about Purikura Machines is that every single one of them is in Japanese. There are no translations, no subtitles, and selecting the types of lighting/decoration you want to use involves a lot of guesswork or familiarity with the machines. Most of the machines run on a time limit too before the shots are sent to print, so try to get all your pictures decorated evenly before focusing on any single one. The decorations vary widely depending on the Purikura Machine used, and some of them offer much wider ranges of backgrounds/borders/accessories than others.

If you don't mind showing your face to the world, there's a little board on the far wall that lets you stick up your neoprints for everyone else to see!

It's really all about luck and experimenting if you want to take the "perfect neoprint". For now I'll just take my pleasure in chronicling how long my hair gets with each successive picture we take.

Michi was quite happy with how this set of photos came out, though~

Visiting Sri Mariamman Temple

Sri Mariamman Temple is probably a site Pris and I should have blogged about long ago, as not only it is one of the most popular sites for tourists in Singapore, but it's also about a thirty second walk from my office. Although I've had the chance to walk past this amazing temple twice a day, five times a week for almost a year now, I've never bothered taking the time to really appreciate it until this week.

 (even the entrance is gorgeous)

Fortunately, with our trip to Ohio only about a week away now, Pris and I happened to stop at Chinatown outside of work hours to finish off a little shopping for family and friends. While we were there we thought it might be worthwhile to spend a bit of time inside the temple, definitely one of our better stops!

(it's really okay to enter! don't be one of the dozens of tourists milling around outside without daring to step in, they don't bite!) 

This is actually the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, and since it became a National Monument in 1973 it's also been one of the most visited sites in the country. The temple itself is open to all, no matter your religion, but everyone is required to follow the Hindu ritual of removing their shoes before entering as a sign of respect. As there is no storage or check in for shoes, they will be left outside the temple entrance, so do make sure you aren't wearing your favorite pair, just in case. Photography and videography is allowed for a small fee (3 SGD for a camera, 6 SGD for video), and it would be well worth your time to purchase the ticket.

 (this is the ticket you get allowing you to take pictures)

As soon as you enter, you are surrounded by beautiful colors and paintings, statues and religious articles. Take all the pictures you'd like, but do be sure you don't pass the ropes sectioning off the area only for those offering prayers.

(we picked a good time, i think we were the only ones taking pics in the temple while visiting)

 The entire ceiling is covered with paintings of Hindu deities. While some of the pictures are definitely a little out of the ordinary, the colors they use are very eye grabbing. The temple is very well maintained as well, you're not likely to come across any faded statues or paintings here.

(you'll need to see these in person to really appreciate them, they're a thousand times more gorgeous when you're staring up at them)

After you've had your fill in the inner part of the temple, you're also free to explore the courtyard. There is a metal gate at the side of the courtyard most tourists stop at and take their pictures from, but I promise you'll get better shots and a much better experience by just going in. The courtyard is surrounded by colorful statues of yet more deities. 

 (as much as i enjoyed the temple, i'm afraid i couldn't name any of these beauties)

  (full view of the courtyard)

If you time yourself properly, you may get lucky enough to wander in during prayer time, as we did. I'd highly recommend stopping in during those times for a chance to see a few traditional outfits and rituals.

 (these guys were part of the ceremony, and nice enough to give us permission to snap a few shots!)

Chinatown overall is a hotspot for temples and other interesting sites in Singapore we'll likely be posting more of soon, but Sri Mariamman Temple in particular is one stop you don't want to miss.

 (if nothing else, it's worth the trip to get a picture of this one. she really wants you to visit)

NLB: Book Exchange 2011

Michi covered this in her previous post, and it's my pleasure to share with you our experience!

 
It's exactly what it sounds like: the Singapore National Library organized (and will continue to organize!) an event where you can exchange your used books for other peoples' used books. I had a bunch of books I never touched anymore sitting around at home, and Michi is an avid reader, so we decided why the heck not. For every book turned in we were issued an exchange coupon, and when April 16 rolled around we went with 9 coupons in hand. We figured since the event only started at 8:30am, getting there by 8:00am wouldn't be too bad--

...just kidding!

...yeah, that's how long the queue in front of (and halfway around) the building was when we got there by 8:10am. According to some of the volunteers at the event, the first people came to queue up as early as 6:00am in the morning! Gotta love the kiasu (afraid to lose) mentality of Singaporeans... In any case, the queue moved quickly enough and we were able to enter the exchange area by 8:45am.

The place was packed.

That's got to be at least a third of the population in there. And this was just the exchange area; there were tons of others still queuing to get in!

It was our first time attending this event and it was surprisingly well organized despite how chaotic it looked. Books were piled moderately neatly in different bins according to their categories - fiction, non-fiction, adult, children, Chinese, English - and despite the amount of people present, it wasn't too loud or pushy.

A lot of folks actually brought their own carriers, tote bags, and even trolleys! to the event. Many seemed to just grab whatever books were within their reach before sifting through their picks on the nearby stairs, and everywhere there were loaded baskets and people struggling with carrying their mounds of books to the checkout counter. And even while we were queuing in the checkout, there were yet more books being unloaded! Just boxes and stacks and cartons of them continuously being brought in. I can't even begin to imagine how many books must have gotten turned in overall.

It's like a warehouse!

We didn't honestly expect to use up all nine of our exchange coupons since we figured there might be not great selections or that the best books would get snatched up quickly, but Michi seemed pleasantly surprised when she found at least four books she'd been searching for within her first minute in. Forty minutes later and she'd gotten all the books she'd wanted, and she was pretty darn happy with her finds.

Her final selections. Well, no, she put back War of the Worlds for Arabian Nights in the end. ...It was a hard decision. Sorry, H.G Wells, we'll pick you up from the library.

I'm not much of a book person, so I'm glad my unloved old books are out there making someone else happy. We even got a free Aloe Vera drink for filling out a satisfaction survey after we turned in our coupons! We've both signed up for the NLB e-newsletter in any case, so if there're any other upcoming book events you can bet we'll be blogging about it.

That's mine! ...hush you, I liked it.

MPH Warehouse Sale

Sorry about the long delay in posts, guys! We'd been wanting to update for a while now but found ourselves pretty caught up the last few weeks. We've moved houses (alright, it's really not a big deal, our new room is about a 25 minute walk from the last one...) and been working to get everything together for our upcoming trip to Ohio from the end of this month through about halfway through May.

 (yeah, this doesn't have anything to do with the post. but look how pretty it is outside our place now!)

We finally got a bit of downtime today and took advantage of it to get down to the MPH Warehouse Sale at Expo. Unfortunately, we're a bit late to be informing anyone as it ends in about two hours. In any case, the sale ran from Friday until today and it's definitely something we'll be visiting the next time one pops up.

 

(look at the low number of people! what is this elbow room?)

We're thinking whoever was in charge of advertising didn't do such a hot job because not only did we just manage to find out about the sale in time but there was seriously hardly anyone there. For a sale in Singapore this is unheard of.

MPH isn't a name that many will recognize in America. And to be perfectly honest, with branches of Borders and Kinokuniya across Singapore, it isn't nearly the most recognizable name in book sales in Singapore either. But they do have good sales. Rather than the typical book sale fare of books no one's ever heard of, it seemed nearly all the books here were classics or popular books they simply had too many of. The prices were pretty awesome too, with hardbacks going for $8 SGD and most paperbacks for only $5 SGD. All books are brand new in excellent condition too!

Although I only grabbed a few books this round, they were well worth every cent. We made sure to sign up for the mailing list so we'll be informed for the next sale, and if you're interested you can join in too here. And if you're the type who loves getting some new books, the National Library Sale will also be coming up in the next few months (English books for $2 each!), and there's going to be a NLB Book Exchange in about a week as well. There's no info out yet about the first point, but for the exchange you can find what you need here.

(not bad for about $10 USD, eh?)

And just so I don't feel so bad for not letting anyone know about this sale until it was too late, remember to get your free Ben & Jerry's ice cream scoop this Tuesday for the Free Cone Day! Locations here.