Apple Store Kyoto

 

My wife's 7 year old 10" iPad had become almost useless. The System had become so big, there wasn't any room to run most apps, backup or upgrade. Line still worked though, and what she used it for most. It had originally been a gift my daughter and youngest son had bought her as a birthday gift.  I hadn't been involved with setting it up or anything.  She has really become quite dependent on her iPad, even without understanding passwords, pin numbers and APPLE ID.

I thought getting a new 10.2 256GB 9th Gen iPad would be useful to her for the next 5 or so years, so yesterday we went to the APPLE STORE KYOTO and I bought one for her and have them help her, with me watching,  move the old iPad data to the new iPad.  It is also her birthday Sunday, so again it is a gift.

I had a Mac Performer 640 decades ago, and have used an iPad the company had at my last tech gig at, but I never had the passwords or such required to keep recent Apple gear updated and running. The business owner did that.

The Gion Shijo Station on the Keihan line takes about 20minutes to get to for us from home. So close. From there we walked the 15+ minutes west. We had never been in this area before so it was interesting and it was a nice fine day. The Apple store is in the expensive shopping district with GUCCI, ROLEX and the like stores around it.  So that is how APPLE and its customers see themselves now. Quite the status symbol Apple gear must be. In Sydney we visited the Chatswood Apple Store which was the closest to where we lived. That is where I bought my daughter her MacBook when she started university some 14 years ago. Chatswood I wouldn't say is an area as exclusive as Kyoto Shijo-Dori is.   

My wife had made an Apple Store Purchase appointment online for 11:00AM. It ended up taking around 3 hours to buy and transfer the old iPad data. All the staff seemed so young.  Spent the first 2 hours standing at the iPad table on the 1st floor, as there are no chairs or stools.  To do the final data transfer we went to the second floor, where there were tables with stools.  That was tiring. Far more so than the walk.

There are like 4 Americans and many more Japanese Apple staff there. One American was the helper to transfer the final data to the new iPad. My wife was really impressed with his Japanese.  Would have to be good to be a Salesman and support guy in a Japanese store selling and explaining to Japanese customers. I guess they must have spent a lot of time here in their school years, but I don't know.  So yes, their Japanese is better than mine, but I spent my years in locked away in Research & Development.   

Anyway, we got out of the Apple store about 2:30PM and wanted lunch. We ended up at an Italian place in the 7th floor restaurants of Takashimaya Department Store, on the way walking back to Gion-Shijo Station.  Lunch set was ¥2,200. Expensive but was REALLY GOOD.  Salad, spaghettis, Panna Cotta desert and Lavazza coffee.

So an expensive day for me in a place we wouldn't normally go. 

A few Foreign, unmasked tourists walking around Shijo-Dori. Must have near by hotels.  But it was the first day Chinese tourists have had restrictions of entry to Japan removed, so it should be far more crowded in the coming weeks.  Good for business in Kyoto, but not so much for people that live there trying to get things done.