Today we woke up at 4:30 am for the purpose of lining up to buy a Nintendo DS Lite. In Japan, the Nintendo DS gaming handheld is so popular that when the white color of the brand new Lite version shipped last week, it sold out within hours. Also Nintendo DS is here not just popular but a cultural phenomenon. You can see old people, woman, children, businessman playing the DS anywhere.
At 5 am.
We lined up at Yodobashi Akiba, the newest and I think largest electronics store in Tokyo in Akihabara district (where all the electronics stores are located). When we arrived there at 5 am, the line already stretched around the perimeter of the building. We had thought that since we came so early, we would be among the front of the line.
As time passed they eventually announced that they only had 600 units for sale of both Navy Blue and Ice Blue colors. They had only started to give tickets for purchase at around 7:30 am and the store was to start selling at 8 am. But unfortunately, they ran out of tickets 11 people ahead of us. So it seemed that all that waiting was for nothing.
The ticketing stopped at around where that guy is holding the sign:
But then we went to another store, Sofmap, which was going to open for 10am sales. The line didn’t look that long so we lined up. When they started giving out tickets, we were the last ones to be given tickets, all the rest of the people behind us could not buy one.
But unfortunately we could only buy the Ice Blue color as the Navy blue color was sold out.
Why buy a DS Lite? Because its so popular we could sell back it “second-hand” later for more than what it cost to buy it in the first place...maybe a profit of 6000 yen...
Final Fantasy XII comes out on 2006/3/16 here and because of that there are lots of promotions like the one on the Final Fantasy Potion energy drink. The small bottle cost 200 yen and it tastes horrible, it tastes like mouthwash or worse, I had to force myself to finish it in one gulp.
Awful drink.
Also here it seems that there is new flavored Kit Kat every month or something. This is French style Kit Kat. In Hokkaido, you could buy Melon Kit Kat...only sold in Hokkaido.
4 comments:
Wow, you're lucky to get the last tickets from the second store you went to. DS rules! Also, I should thank you for taking my suggestion of reviewing the FFXII energy drink. Now I don't have to go and try one. ^_^
The premium edition bottles do look cool though.
Did the blue potion increase your mana? Why would you think a drink released by a videogame maker would taste good? Actually... a hard liquer drink released by the makers of GTA may be interesting.
-CV
man i cant believe u actually have the time to line up for a DS lite. haha if u were here, i dont think u wouldve done it haha but still the only times i lined up for somethin are boxin days haha
sn
I am telling you, by the time you come back from Japan, you are going to have 5 versions of GBAs, and 10 different colours of DSs. It's hard for me to see the hype considering I am anti-Nintendo. Go Sony!
DaYvid
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