iQueue

Around 10am on Friday morning I ambled out of Harajuku Station headed towards the Shibuya Ward Office where I was planning to report a mutation in my status as a registered alien. I wasn't particularly surprised to noticed a long queue of people snaking around the pedestrian bridge at the top end of Omotesando - it's not as if queues in this vicinity are an uncommon sight. I was mildly impressed to see that it actually reached all the way over the bridge towards the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, seen in the background of this picture I was moved to take:

To my surprise though, that wasn't the end of the line. Oh no. It went around the corner and down the road which runs parallel to the Yamanote Line. And it looked a very determined sort of queue, complete with essential queuing items such as small portable stools (though oddly enough few people had thought to bring along anti-sun equipment such as parasols or hats).

And it didn't stop until it reached the crossroads at the south side of Yoyogi National Gymnasium, about a quarter of the way to Shibuya, where the presence of a Softbank employee holding an "End of Queue" sign alerted me to the fact that today was the day Apple was launching its ineffably trendy, fashionable and stylish iPhone in Japan.

Unfortunately I have applied for and failed to receive a Coolness License several times, so I was not permitted to join the end of the line in the quest to be among one of the first in to Japan to be hospitalized for sunstroke while queueing for an iPhone.