I feel like a tool. After waiting in front of Sofmap for all of five seconds, I head over to the nearby vending machine and quickly dub it my new haunt. My hands are starting to get cold, so I buy a can of warm cocoa and use it for heat.

There is a line forming, at the adjacent building. It's a computer store. Maybe, they've got 360s made of gold or something. I make a beeline for the store and talk to a security guard monitoring the crowd of thirty or forty.

"What's going on?"
"People are lined-up, waiting."
"For what?"
"There's a sale."
"A sale? What kind of sale?"

The security guard's eyes light up, like here's the best part of this gig — telling people what these folks are waiting for.

"This store is opening," continuing and showing me a flier, "and they're having a sale. All of these products right here are already sold out."
"Really? What time did people start lining up for this?"
"I got here at 8PM, and there were already like ten people."
"Yesterday."
"Yes."

There's two guys sitting at the front of the line, both sitting in cardboard boxes with space blankets. I ask the one that looks like dough if he's aware the Xbox 360 is going on sale next door.

"Me. No game. Don't play," doughboy says in broken Engrish as he makes the Japanese gesture for "no." Ironically, that gesture is an "X."
"You realize," I say, "I am speaking to you in Japanese. You do realize that, right?"
Doughboy's friend starts cracking up.
"I don't play videogames," Doughboy says. "I have zero interest in them whatsoever."

Ah, computer otaku. Different breed, same species.

"What have you been doing since you got in line?"
"Talking," doughboy says.
"About what?" I ask. Rude, I realize, but I'm dying to know.
"Stuff."

I thank them for their time and go back to Sofmap and stand next to the vending machine. Alone.

Japan Launch [Xbox 360]

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