I always choose which region of system I buy very carefully by considering a number of factors: where I'm currently living, ease of importing games, cross-region compatibility between systems/games, where the best versions of games are and of course, price.

Right now, there are so many unknowns about the 3DS's region locking; it's been said that it is up to the developer to include the lock or not, so does that mean only first-party titles will have it? But then Miyamoto told us he designed some StreetPass features to be compatible between all regions. I'm so confused!

That coupled with the fact that the US version will be considerably cheaper (about 20,000 Yen compared to 25,000 Yen here), plus the relatively slim launch line-up, has made me a 3DS fence-sitter, until we have a better understanding of all these regional things.

But that doesn't mean I won't be doing my bit to cover the Japanese launch, so here are some photos to give you a flavour of what it was like in my area of Japan, Chiba.

Launch day - not as busy as you'd think

As I arrived, the queues had already formed, although there weren't as many people as I expected, no where near as many as the Wii launch.

You want a 3DS? Come see this guy.

This man was responsible for handing out tickets that guaranteed you a Nintendo 3DS if you took it to the counter. There were plenty of tickets left when I got there. He also had a printout of the available launch titles, possibly to make sure people got the right version of Nintendogs + cats.

3DS display box, about the size of a 3DS game box.

Presumably after the launch day ruckus has settled down, these space-saving boxes will be used instead of the ticket system.

Sampling Samurai Warriors, Ridge Racer and Street Fighter.

Playable demo units were on display; I played Ridge Racer 3D and Samurai Warriors Chronicles, neither of which impressed me that much.

Ridge Racer 3D

Ridge Racer looked very much like an iPhone game, possibly worse, and Samurai Warriors felt like a downgraded version of the PSP game. Buying launch titles is a tricky business.

The back of Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle showing its massive cast list of famous voice actors

One interesting thing I noticed on the game boxes, aside from the usual genre type, number of players and save data slots, was a "displayed in 3D" box, for which Professor Layton was labelled with "yes". 

This is not only confirmation that 3D isn't mandatory for Nintendo 3DS games, but that there could well be a whole host of non-3D games, easily identified on the back of the box. Also displayed was a warning (in Japanese and English) that this game is only for use with a Japanese Nintendo 3DS system. Whether that is the entire game or just the online features remains to be seen, but I'm not optimistic.

A 3DS Station

The old wobbly DS station had been replaced with a shiny new 3DS station, allowing not only demo downloads, trailers and game information, but an interactive movie selector. Users can navigate the huge DS-like display by pushing buttons located between the two screens, the menu is displayed on the bottom while the movies play on the top. 3DS demos were not yet available.

3DS accessories

A full range of accessories were available, screen covers, styluses, AC adaptors, all kinds of hard and soft cases and more. As with most things in Japan, they are approved by Nintendo, even the Hello Kitty case.

Docking station, 1080 Yen ($13)

If you need a replacement dock or want one in every room in your house, now you know how much it'll set you back.

That kid was playing Face Shooting as he walked around the store, unaware of who or what he was bumping into. I can see the next lawsuit against Nintendo already...

From what I could see in people's hands in the queue, and what I heard people talking about on the shop floor, Nintendogs and Winning Eleven seemed to be popular choices at launch.

Free magazines to read while you wait for your 3DS

With so few decent games at launch, these magazines are important in that they show which titles are coming up in the next few months. The Resident Evil Revelations poster inside it took me back to the awesome time I had at Nintendo World back in January.

That's all I have for now, but be sure to check back to the site regularly as my fellow Japan corespondents Matt Walker and Danny Bivens (who both actually bought the system) will be doing hands-on impressions of games as well as an unboxing.