Japan Haul: Puri Cubes!

The last time we went to Japan, Paul and I saw a Puri Cube Machine at the Hakuhinkan Toy Park in Ginza.  Not even sure how I found it, but I remember finding  a link to it on the internet, so we decided to check it out.  I recall getting to the Toy Park just before they were going to close, so we didn't have much time to check out everything.  Paul really liked the idea of making Puri Cubes for our friends back home, but the problem was that they weren't with us to take their photo!  So my husband.. being the maverick of figuring out ways to make things work, figures out that he can use photos from his phone, hold it up to the camera on the machine, and have the camera take a picture of the picture on his phone!  

By this time, the store had closed, so we vowed to return again before the end of our trip to get the job done.  But then the earthquake struck.... the day after the earthquake, we tried to go to the Toy Park again to see if we could accomplish our goal, but they were closed after the earthquake to fix up the store.  Poor Paul.. he was really bummed.

So now that we had a 2nd shot to make this happen, he was determined not to fail this time.  Akemi and I roamed around the store while he got busy and made 5 by camera photos alone.  We also saw that the machine would take memory cards from cameras too.  That would have been so much easier!  Oh well...  Then Paul, Akemi and I all got our's done too.  I gotta admit, it was pretty funny to see our faces printed on these little discs... It pops out of the machine in the black cartridge below....

Then you choose your Puri Cube character (write down the number of the item) and give it to the cashier.  They then pull out each character charm and you pay there.  Total cost was about 200 yen for the Puri Cube photo and between 300-400 yen for each figure.  Total was about 500-600 yen each (~$5-6).

Paul and Akemi couldn't wait to go back to the hotel to assemble each one.  Can you see which one  is me?

They had a great selection of figures, but I ended up choosing the Maneki Neko.  Akemi choose a Daba (bunny) and Paul wanted to be Godzilla.   What a cool & fun omiyage gift!  Hope the boys like it (that includes you Stef).