Rik,

I believe they intend to open one in Osaka next.

John,
I hope they do, they don't have enough Mac stuff down here. I'll be the first in line to check it out. It will be nice to walk into a store and not see a windows machine in sight.

I went to a techno event last saturday and all the staff, dj's had powebooks/iBooks. Slowly but surely we are catching up and one day we will rule the world!!! oopps, got a little carried away, Apple fever, but yeah, an Apple store is needed in Osaka, my wife probably won't want one to open up here, she knows I'm gonna spend all my extra money there.

I couldn't find an external DVD burner that is compatible with DVD Studio Pro at Sofmap so I had to order one from MCE Technologies. Hurry up Apple and open up a store down here.

<<<-- Originally posted by John Locke : ...with a little guy in uniform at the end of the line holding a sign that read "Tail End." (I asked him if he's marking the end of the line, or if he just has a poor self-image). -->>>

You can see that guy right here...

Yes, indeed! And it looks like someone else might be asking him the same question!

Why is the sign in English? Is there a Japanese equivalent on the other side?

Holy cow! I wonder what day that was. See the covering over the sidewalk? That's some construction going on across the street. That means that on the day this picture was taken, the line even wrapped across the street. I can't imagine how long those people waited in line.

Thanks for the pic, Mark.

<<Why is the sign in English? Is there a Japanese equivalent on the other side?>>

Ha! You know, I didn't even think about that, Patricia. Good question. No...it was only in English. I guess because only we gaijins would pester the poor guy with questions all day à la "You mean THIS is the end of the line?"

Actually, thinking about it, the sign bearer is probably expected to be able to tell the Japanese who ask that it is the end of the line. The sign (besides helping him with the importunate, impatient gaijin) just gives him something to laugh about with them - the unfortunate gaijin who don't know the protocol. In any case, if Apple set this up, I'm impressed that they are so well prepared for opening in Japan. For the previously mentioned selfish reasons vis-a-vis camcorder compatibility, I hope it bodes well for making significant inroads into the Japanese market. (They're going to have to start getting some Asian pop music into that iTunes store, though.)

<<They're going to have to start getting some Asian pop music into that iTunes store, though.>>

One thing that Apple isn't good at, Patricia, is making international purchases available to worldwide customers. Seems to me they've saddled themselves with a corporate makeup that divides the world into regions that prevents cross-border purchases of any kind. Only U.S. stuff for U.S. customers. Only Japanese stuff for Japanese customers. Too bad.

I'll bet the iTunes store over here will be packed full of Japanese music, and probably will include some Korean, Chinese, and Taiwan music as well. But for an English-reading customer to gain access to that material, and then be able to get their credit card accepted since it's overseas (or even be able to fill out the initial credit card info is a hassle since it's all in Japanese and the information order is different than in the U.S.) is all pretty unlikely.

Apple over here should wake up. I bet 20% of the people I saw in the Apple Store were foreigners.

In a sense, it is. It's basically a foreigner in Japan, esp. Americans.

Oooooh...let's not get into that subject. You'd be astounded.

No problem. I was surfing Apple's site and ran across it in their coverage of the opening of the store, and remembered this thread - I should have mentioned the source in my original post.

Apple's coverage starts here.

John,
2 of my friends are having (had?) opening lectures there. One on music, 'Logic+VJ' and one on computer graphics. I also have a friend that works there as a attendant. I haven't been there I figured there will be no surprises.
Will take a peak once things settle down I guess.
Takeshi

Takeshi,

Sounds like you'll be well taken care of when you go there...with so many friends on staff.

The lecture hall is really nice.