Hiroyuki Sano hadn’t blown out any candles as of Wednesday, but his birthday wish had already come true when he landed at the head of the line to buy Japan’s first iPhones.

The graduate student from Nagoya, who turns 25 that week, wanted an iPhone so badly that he ditched class and headed 160 miles northeast to Tokyo. He showed up in front of mobile carrier Softbank Corp.’s flagship store in the trendy Omotesando district at 6 a.m. Tuesday and began the 73-hour wait until Apple’s much-hyped handset goes on sale at 7 a.m. Friday.

A longtime Apple fan, he brought along his MacPro laptop and iPod, as well as a change of clothes, an umbrella, snacks and a folding chair. He even got permission to skip school.

“My professor is a big Apple fan, so when I told him I wanted to come line up for the iPhone, he told me to go for it,” said Sano, wearing

an Apple T-shirt. “My mom told me I was crazy.”

About 15 other iPhone enthusiasts had joined Sano in line as of Wednesday wee hours, willing to endure sleepless nights, rain and boredom to get their hands on a device that hasn’t been available in Japan until now. The previous generation of iPhones, which operated on GSM-based networks, were incompatible with Japanese systems.

Softbank, Japan’s No. 3 mobile phone company, won the coveted right to sell the new 3G version and will launch nationwide sales at noon Friday. Its shop in Omotesando will open five hours earlier and devote Friday, Saturday and Sunday solely to the iPhone, said company spokesman Naoki Nakayama.

Nakayama declined to reveal how many iPhones Softbank expects to sell or how many units it will have on hand at the store. The company is limiting sales to one unit per customer.

When the iPhone 3G…

Orginal post by Top Tech News