Meet Butch, an old friend of Mr. Sato’s who is carrying the torch in the noble pursuit of iPhone launch notoriety.
Long time readers of this website will no doubt know of our writer Mr. Sato’s experiences lining up days in advance to become the first owner of the newest edition of iPhones in all the land.
However, as the years have gone by, this fairy-tale relationship seems to have soured. Let’s let the pictures tell the tale.
In the last episode, Mr. Sato – despite being the first in line to buy an iPhone 7 – had been completely shunned by his mobile service provider Docomo. Not only was he not on stage for the launch ceremony, but they corralled him behind a partition where he had to jump to see what was going on. Needless to say, he was a Pikachu scorned.
So with the iPhone 8 on the horizon, Mr. Sato decided to forego the heartbreak and stayed away from Docomo altogether. Instead, he headed over the to SoftBank venue in Ginza, where his long-time friend Butch (a.k.a. Big Wave) was settling in three days before the 22 September release date.
Mr. Sato and Butch met each other through the line-up circuit and our reporter found himself instantly charmed by Butch’s unbridled positivity. Back during the iPhone 6 release, he told media that he wanted the phone so he could call his grandmother.
It’s a little hard to describe Butch, but he’s a very genuine character and the kind of guy who will do whatever it takes to cheer people up. Although not an official member of our Japanese language websites’ staff, Big Wave has long been a valued contributor.
Three days later, Mr. Sato returned to the SoftBank shop for the iPhone 8 launch, but this time solely as a member of the press. Nevertheless, he was still excited to cheer on his good friend Big Wave who surely was the first in line and thus the star customer of the show.
Unlike previous years, this ceremony was held inside the shop and hosted by SoftBank vice president Ken Miyauchi along with actors Aya Ueto and Arata Furuta. However, Butch’s conspicuously dressed large frame was no where to be seen.
Usually, the first customer or customers are brought up on stage to give even a brief comment about their love of iPhones and such. But instead of Big Wave’s bubbly voice, they brought up some normie who had only been waiting in line since 5 a.m. that day.
After that, they counted down the final ten seconds until the store’s opening amid great fanfare and a few steamers to boot.
Then they announced that there would be a closed photo-shoot and interviews elsewhere and left.
That was it, and still no Big Wave…. “Maybe he went home,” thought Mr. Sato, “Maybe he got diarrhea….”
“Yeah, that’s it, that dude always got the sh… oh wait!”
“He’s here!” shouted Mr. Sato as he saw the neon mohawk of Butch bobbing around in the front row.
But why wasn’t he on the stage? Mr. Sato would have to wait until Big Wave bought his iPhone 8 before asking him.
A short time later Butch emerged from the shop with his tiny-looking mobile phone bag in hand.
Despite seemingly getting royally screwed over by SoftBank, Butch looked as happy as if nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
Mr. Sato called out right away, “What happened?!”
“Bad luck dude,” replied the smiling Butch.
He explained the everyone in line drew numbers to determine their order and Butch couldn’t get the coveted number one. In other words he pretty much wasted all that time waiting outside the store.
Normally this would infuriate a person, but living up to his name, Big Wave is always one who goes with the flow and didn’t let it get to him.
“I made it through the iPhone 8 line up buddy,” Butch told Mr. Sato, “Thanks dude! Again, thanks for all the support and hard work! I really appreciate it! POWER HUG!!!”
Next month, Apple is set to release their most expensive smartphone ever in the iPhone X, and supplies are rumored to be very limited.
The chances for another disastrous encounter with Docomo are extremely high, but Mr. Sato – infected by Butch’s enthusiasm – mulled giving it just one more try before the sun finally sets on this half-decade chapter in his life and he passes the torch for good to the younger generations like Butch.
At least we think Butch is younger…
Images: SoraNews24
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