The PS Vita launched across Japan on Saturday, and shoppers queued through the early hours of the morning to be the first across the world to buy Sony’s new handheld.

Thanks to the PlayStation Blog we can see how the day unfolded as Japanese consumers queued and bought the PS Vita in Japan on the weekend.

Things kicked off for James Gallagher, Blog Manager at SCEE, when he arrived at the Tsutaya store in Shibuya at 5am. The stores in Japan don’t open at midnight like in Europe and America, but rather open an hour or so early to let the eager shoppers in.

Already the queue was winding its way around the corner, as storekeepers prepared for the shop to open and journalists from all over the world awaited the pre-opening countdown.

Andy House, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, gave a brief presentation before he started the countdown. Kaz Hirai, Executive Deputy President of Sony Corporation, joined House and the two looked over the journey that the PS Vita had taken, before the first gamer in the queue collected his PS Vita, the first console to go on sale worldwide!

Said gamer didn’t waste any time before sharing his exciting news via text or twitter, before the doors opened and the PS Vita officially went on sale. Customers presented their pre-order papers and wrote down which games and accessories they wanted to help speed up the process.

Images courtesy of PlayStation Blog