We stumble upon Butch, possibly the last remaining iPhone liner-upper in the wild, and see what makes him tick.
The year was 2010. A young cub reporter named Mr. Sato, still fresh off the farmland of Shimane Prefecture, emerged from the east exit of the labyrinthine Shinjuku Station and met his new colleague for the first time. It was a young urbanite with long hair named Go Hatori, who about a decade later would become Mr. Sato’s editor.
The two dined at a nearby McDonald’s before Mr. Sato went off on one of his first assignments to wait in line for an iPhone 4 at the Softbank Store in Omotesando.
▼ Mr. Sato in 2010
After spending three nights on the sidewalk and enduring heavy rain, he ended up unable to purchase a phone because to do so he would have to switch providers from Docomo to Softbank and he couldn’t do that because he didn’t pay his Docomo bill.
Still, over that half a week, he learned that lining up for an iPhone was more than just being one of the first to own a piece of electronics. It was about challenging yourself and the sense of camaraderie that comes with being around those doing the same. In fact, this was when Mr. Sato and our website formed a long-lasting friendship with Butch a.k.a. Big Wave.
▼ Butch in 2010
In the years that followed, Mr. Sato and Butch would both become regular fixtures on the iPhone line-up circuit, with Butch waiting in front of the Omotesando SoftBank and Mr. Sato haunting Docomo shops. They both became…
TSO, Photo Credit – Bob Carey 
