Well, I broke down and ordered it. I had been told that I would have to fill out a special form in Japanese, so I called Apple Japan just to ask about that. The agent told me that wouldn’t be necessary, and all I had to do was tell him the name of my school and we were on. (I already had an account with Apple Educational anyway, from my ordering Tiger from them last year.) I was taken a bit by surprise by this–I wasn’t really ready to order right then–but then I thought, the hell with it, I know I’m going to get it, why wait? So I did.

I got a boost in going this direction by stopping by Yodobashi Camera earlier in the day. I was on my way up to the 2nd floor of the main Nishi-Shinjuku branch (where they have a Mac center) when I noticed their Mac island in the middle of the main floor. Even better, one of the iMacs had Parallels installed with XP running. I played with it, and it’s pretty damned nice. It should do everything that I need from a PC at home–most of which has to do with preparing lessons for my Computer course, where they still use Windows (though I think I stand a very good chance of switching them to iMacs next time they have to buy a new bunch of computers). Having played with Parallels and the 24-inch iMac at the store, I pretty much convinced myself to buy.

All told, the purchase was ¥259,852 ($2212) including sales tax (¥247,478 or $2107 base). That’s for the 24-inch iMac, an extra gigabyte of RAM, and the wireless Apple keyboard and mouse. I’m currently looking into how to get XP (academic or OEM) for less than the $200 regular pricing; parallels is a download and will be easy. I’m also looking at getting the Applecare (thanks to Dazza for the LA tip, I’m contacting them [Update: Dazza, the LA firm got back to me; they will sell at a lower price as you indicated, but shipping to Japan costs an additional $45, way too much. The Apple Store Japan has educational pricing for Applecare; I think I’ll go with that.]); I’ve never had a serious meltdown on a Mac, but with a 24-inch LCD on an all-in-one desktop, I think it’s worth getting the insurance.

The iMac is not upgradeable, true. But then again, I’m not much of an upgrade person. I wind up not getting any extra video cards, or whatever else. The iMac already has most of the bells and whistles you would upgrade to, in any case.

But I have to admit, it’s the 24-inch screen that really got me with this one. I never really owned anything bigger than a 17-inch CRT–heck, I don’t think I ever even worked on anything bigger than a 17-inch LCD. So the 24-incher is a huge step up, and probably impresses me a lot more than it does you. But as my sister-in-law put it, if it makes you happy, that’s the big thing.

So my Windows PC and old 500 MHz G3 tower, conjoined with a 17″ CRT monitor, will all get exiled down to my free desk space in a lesser-used corner of my apartment–in seven to ten days, that is.