Wesley's Tool-Box

On the early afternoon of September 19, 2014, the first launch day of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, I was catching a plane to Fukuoka, Japan. All because those phones wouldn't officially launch for another month or more in Korea.

So why Japan? It used to be that Japanese iPhones were locked to the local carriers, but SIM-free version is now offered after some changes to the telecom policy. Also, pre-ordering in Japan doesn't require a national ID like what Hong Kong asks. Lastly, it's right next to Korea. And so, with my pre-order successful on the afternoon of September 12, all I needed to do left was picking it up at the store.


The airplane left sunny Incheon, flew for about an hour, and landed on rainy Fukuoka. I forgot to bring an umbrella, so I got one at a convenience store eventually. It had been more than 6 years since I set foot there.

Since I only had about 5 hours and half of total stay in Japan this time, I had to move quick. Good thing that transportation systems were well-connected. I took an airport shuttle to the subway, then I rode the subway to Tenjin Station. There, I walked down the street for about 10 minutes to get to the destination.


That would be Fukuoka Tenjin Apple Store, of course. It was already nearly 5PM at this point, having already spent about 90 minutes for going through customs and moving around. There was a report of a long waiting line here in the morning, but that seemed to have all disappeared well before my arrival, thankfully. I asked one of the staff to get my pre-ordered iPhone 6 Plus from the reserved stock.


After my 128GB Gold version of the phone was successfully found and paid for, I took this shot of myself using Photo Booth app on a Mac to leave a proof of my visit.


The walk-in stock was said to be depleted within a few minutes of the store's opening, leaving only the reserved pre-order stock. There were plenty of those around, since the store wouldn't be closing for several hours at that time. Of those, only one would ultimately be for me.