Quick update for those visiting Japan over the holidays. With the yen hitting 113 during my trip last week, we found the Ginza Apple Store awash in foreigners cashing in on the currency discount and no tax (and no import duty in the US for laptops).

The average discount for a new Macbook Pro is around 250-300US$ depending on the model with similar percentage discounts on the phones. I can also confirm that using a kanji converter for your name and inputing the address of your hotel as the billing address will work for most credit cards and will result in a successful online order so you can hold stock until you get the store to pick it up - but they will need to refund your online order and re-charge a new order without the tax when you pick up your new Macbook (or iPhone, etc). Google Chrome's online translation is generally good enough navigate the Apple Japan website.

When you order, you might not be able to select the Macbook English keyboard during the online ordering process, but the shop will generally have some stock - otherwise the Japanese keyboard is a little different, but still quite usable.