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Mac Chick of The Month

Spying on the Tokyo Apple Store via iChat

May 22, 2008 by Dr. Macenstein
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, News, iChat, video

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Faithful Macenstein reader Aaron Cabral writes:

As a super Mac geek I have the AIM of like 30 Apple Stores, and when the people in Apple Stores log on I always chat with them â€“ sometimes even video â€“ and I have actually helped answer people’s questions. I have a recorded video chat with the Tokyo store. Enjoy!

I found the video to be pretty interesting. First, it was cool to see that the Japanese really DO speak in subtitles. I thought that was only in Godzilla movies. (Actually, Aaron unfortunately forgot to hit the “audio” button on his copy of Screenium, so we are forced to rely on the text.) It’s also funny to see that a least 2 “American-looking” customers can be seen browsing the Tokyo store (although I can’t blame them. I know visiting the Apple Store is pretty much the first thing I would do once my plane touched down in Tokyo, after getting my picture taken with Gadzookie, of course).

Finally, it’s odd to see an Apple Store where the employees outnumber the customers. Here in Awesometown NJ, the Apple store is always ridiculously packed. Is it a bad sign that the Apple store is the one place in Japan that is not overcrowded?

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Comments

15 Comments on Spying on the Tokyo Apple Store via iChat

Bdubs on Thu, 22nd May 2008 12:10 am

How do you get the screennames of the apple stores? that woudl be fun to do.

Shari on Thu, 22nd May 2008 1:04 am

If the audio had been included, someone could have translated any Japanese that was spoken (I might have if I had the time).

Macs are relatively unpopular in Japan as most people use their computers as little as possible and their cell phones as much as possible. The Apple store has English speaking employees at the Genius Bar, but I’m guessing they’re too busy to wander around the store the way the other employees were doing.

greg on Thu, 22nd May 2008 1:12 am

i lost my list, but here are a few… i think one is in mexico…fun.
i would love to get the tokyo stores screen name as my wife is japanese!
have fun!

ars023.17@mac.com,
ars095.17@mac.com,
ars095.18@mac.com,
ars095.20@mac.com

greg on Thu, 22nd May 2008 1:15 am

here a few screeen names, i think one is in mexico…
id love to get the screen name for the tokyo store as my wife is japanese… she might know somebody there… ha! have fun.

ars023.17@mac.com, ars095.17@mac.com, ars095.18@mac.com, ars095.20@mac.com
–
greg

Richard on Thu, 22nd May 2008 1:21 am

just remember, the time difference between japan and the states is huge, it could be like 7am over in japan (tourists still getting their camera ready for the days ’snap snap’ing) and could be the reason for low crowds (not to mention no iPhone yet over there)

check again next month

Martin on Thu, 22nd May 2008 2:00 am

Most large japanese stores are overstaffed - or so it may seem to us in the west. Stand in one place, in a large electronics store in Tokyo, and scratch your head for a couple of seconds - and you’ll have a salesperson running after you like you’re royalty.

Try not to look too much like a foreigner thou.

ob81 on Thu, 22nd May 2008 2:29 am

The Store is always packed in Tokyo. There are like 5 floors though. Japanese people really enjoy just hanging out in there. I only go early in the day time, because in the evening until closing, there are to many teenagers.

Ldn08 on Thu, 22nd May 2008 10:55 am

The ars stands for Apple Retail Store (pretty obviously) followed by three numbers identifying the store. The two digits after the dot identify which Mac it is.

Pretty easy to find all 30 store codes on the web, then try a few random numbers for different Macs.

Hello Regent Street: ars092.06@mac.com

minimum91 on Thu, 22nd May 2008 2:15 pm