I just bought my new shiny iPad from the Mac Store in Ginza, Tokyo. Stopped by for a beer expecting to use it straight from the box. No chance!

Luckily, I had my PC (although I'm a Mac guy through and through) so I could at least plug it into iTunes...but...

To download apps I need an account, which means my credit card must be in the US (ditto for Paypal accounts). So I guess I have to download the Japanese iTunes and use a Japanese credit card....or will that give me the Japanese language version even though I want the English one...who the f&%$ knows. But it's been 3 hours and I have yet to use it. And I still have no idea how to transfer PDF files that I need to read, which is one many reason I bought the thing anyway.

Apple, did you do any international UX design testing on this thing at all? So far, not so good.

Hi fareast!

I'm an International user myself.

You can register from the country where you're from even if you are in Japan. Use your credit card from your country .

There are a lot of free apps available for download in the app store.

Transferring of Pdf could be by thru pc, or you can use dropbox. A dropbox app for iPad is also free.

As j0yful says there is no problem with this issue anymore.
Create a us account, skip the creditcard procedur, and get some giftcards that u fill the us account with.

I live in Australia; my iPad is registered through the USA using a USA credit card and a USA address. That allows me to access the USA iTunes/Amazon/Kindle Store with and obtain all that is available.

GoodReader for iPad on the iTunes App Store

Great app for reading PDF on your iPad. It offers several ways to transfer files from your PC to your iPad.

You can also use:

DropBox for iPad on the iTunes App Store

Just put the PDF files in your DropBox on the PC and they will be copied to your account. Then you can see them from any other device with DropBox app or over the web at their website.

Thanks for all the posts, people. I saw the small line at the top of the registration sequence telling me to change my country. I did and was able to register with my card here in Japan.

I think my initial shock/disappointment was that when I first went to the Japanese app store I was slapped in the face with the typically useless stuff you see in Japan -- anime, English apps, and just, well, crap. But the workaround was to browse the US store and then search for ones that were also in Japan. Of course I can't access everything -- but I think I can get what I need.

But this community is great. Thanks for the support and the PMs about this stuff.

Oh, and I found a way to get PDFs over. Now I'm trying to find the best app to allow me to read and to mark them up as I go.

OK, I'm just cooking up a healthy serving of "crow" to eat.

I shouldn't have given up on the iPad so fast...

I still think that S. Jobs esq. could have built a product that was a bit better "out-of-the-box" and a little more in tune with needs beyond watching videos....

But now that I have a handle on the apps, I can see that this iPad is going to be with me ALL THE TIME. Ok, I can't use it for my major design work, etc, but for the research side of things -- where I read and mark up research papers (now I can do with iAnnotate PDF) and read PPTs and make summary files that I can later write into lit reviews (Quickoffice) -- I'm well set. Plus, I can dump, read and reply to my Gmail account even when I'm not online.

This is starting to sound like an infomercial. But all I want to say is that although it takes a bit of getting used to, this thing really is the biz!!

Mike