Japanese cities are filled with arcades full of the most amazing game machines. The most popular of these machines are Purikura, dance machines and machines that let you play musical instruments.

'Purikura' stands for 'Print Club' (Japanese: Purinto Kurabu). Small booths allow friends or lovers to pose in front of a camera while they choose different illustrations and text to go with the photographs. The photographs are printed as tiny stickers which are exchanged among friends. Purikura machines are astoundingly popular and can be found just about any place where young people hang out. The stickers cost very little and are stuck on diaries, agendas and mobile phones. Many high school kids stick them on special pages in their agendas; they are literally collecting friends. Many of them spend hours looking at each others' agendas with pages and pages full of the stickers.

Dance machines are a relatively new craze and are often positioned on the street in front of game arcades because they tend to attend crowds watching the dancers. Since some time the 'Para Para', a dance with set foot and movements which are memorized by rote, has become very popular among Japanese teenagers. Game makers have jumped into the market and created 'Para Para' machines that show the movements as the music plays. The 'Para Para' machines are not the only dancing machines. They is a wide selection of them; each machine allowing the user to choose a song they like. A sort of computerized jukebox.

The latest fad in game machines are machines that let you play a musical instrument. The screen tells you what to do and eventually rates you against previous players.

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