Japan will be among the first batch of countries to receive Apple Inc.’s new iPhone 5 when it launches on Sept. 21, but will it be missing a key selling point?

While the new smartphone will be available for two Japanese carriers KDDI Corp 9433.TO +1.07%. and Softbank Corp 9984.TO -0.91%. when it goes on sale next Friday, there’s one small hitch: neither carrier currently operates the high-speed mobile network — known as Long-Term Evolution — which is compatible with the new iPhone.

If the networks aren’t up and running by then, the new iPhone may be without one of its key selling points: the ability to access data at faster connection speeds.

Nonetheless, that may do little to quell enthusiasm for a new iPhone in Japan where it is the most popular smartphone and long lines accompany the debut of any new Apple product. Also, the absence of a compatible LTE network didn’t prevent Softbank from selling the latest iPad earlier this year.

Softbank and KDDI have announced that they plan to roll out a LTE network compatible with Apple’s products sometime this fall — although both companies declined to say whether the new network will be available by Sept. 21.

Softbank already runs a high-speed LTE network using a different standard, but it has said it plans to debut a FDD-LTE network — the one that works with the iPhone 5 — in autumn 2012. KDDI had originally said it would roll out its LTE network by the end of 2012, but it pushed forward those projections to fall of 2012.

Both companies said they plan to offer more details about their LTE plans in the coming days.

NTT DoCoMo 9437.TO 0.00%, Japan’s largest mobile carrier, already operates a LTE network compatible with the iPhone 5, but it does not offer the iPhone among its handsets.

Now that you’re all grown up, holding a stable job and happily attached to an amazing boy/girlfriend, the atmosphere during Hari Raya just seems so different. Here’s a recollection of the past moments and the things I miss during Hari Raya Celebrations that got me excited most of the time.

You miss staying up late till the wee hours in the morning because you’re too excited to sleep, thinking about meeting your cousins whom you’ve not been in contact with for five months now and all the fun you’re probably gonna have with during Hari Raya.

Now, you just can’t be bothered, at least not that much anymore, and you tuck yourself to bed early to brace yourself for the long day the next day.

You miss being awkwardly stuck next to your parents in every relatives house. What’s even more frustrating is the fact that you had to endure listening to your parents bragging about your fantastic grades and achievements in school. Along comes your aunt who starts comparing you with their kids. Let the battle begin!

Now, you put on a fake smile, maybe speak a couple of sentences or two before you flip out your iPhone, refreshing your Twitter newsfeed every two seconds (even when there’s no new updates, you just do it) to avoid looking awkward.

You miss ‘salam’ (giving greetings by the traditional handshake) every single person in the household in the hopes of getting the Green Packets (ka-ching!) at the end of the day. Even those Chinese uncle and Auntie also, you ‘salam’ them.

You miss counting your green packets secretly inside the lift or at the back of the car and having this reaction, “Huh?! $2 only? Why so cheapskate? Next time we don’t go to their house anymore! What a waste of time!”

Now you don’t even get Green Packets any more because you’re either working or in National Service to the extent that you’ll be so contented when a stranger offers you a green packet containing $2. “Whoa! Uncle (so and so) gave me $2!”

You miss bugging your parents to leave their friends place earlier (when you’ve only just reached like 10 minutes ago) just so you could go to your Uncle’s place slightly earlier because that meant that you could spend more time with your cousins! Even though you’re probably gonna be stuck there for at least 4 hours anyway.

Now, the number of houses you visit together with your family has significantly decreased to a miserable number that you just can’t wait to go home and lie down on your bed!

You miss getting yourself drenched with sweat in your baju kurung outfit. Because you were playing catching previously and sparklers before that.

You miss staying at your cousins place for hours.. and hours playing castle games that involved building a fort made of pillows, mattresses and blankets. Boys will have their own fortress and girls will have their own. And we’ll be in heavy battle the whole night.

You miss laughing at the simplest and the stupidest of things. Like that time when your cousin was eating Pineapple Tarts and almost choked on it because her baby tooth got stuck in the center of the filling and it fell off.

You miss going for Hari Raya visits together with all 8 uncles and aunts (and all 10 of your cousins), which involved taking more than 5 cars and two vans etc. It was always that chaotic week after week. We’d start from morning and end at about 1am. Whoa!

You miss getting stuck at the back of the van together with all of your cousins, irritatingly swaying your body in motion with the van and standing and jumping inside the van (I feel sorry for whoever had to drive all of us back then cos he had to tolerate our loud shrieks every now and then). When the van came to a sudden halt (I still think the driver did that on purpose haha!), all of us will, without a doubt, end up in uncomfortable positions on top of each other and laughing at the top of our lungs because we’d be lying on our back with our feet perpendicular to our body, splitting our pants and showing off our underwears. Laughing as hard as ever after that. Oops.

But the best part? You miss pretending to be asleep when it’s finally time to go back home in the hopes that your parents will allow for you to stay over at your cousins place. And when they finally leave, your eyes are wide open and the night has only just begun! Your cousins and yourself take out their tent and you pretend to be campers for the night, sleeping inside the tent, inside your cousins room.

Hari Raya can and will never be the same anymore now that you’re older. You’re too tired to do anything much and you sleep at every chance you get. Oh what I’d do to relive in those moments once again. Bittersweet moments. I’ve definitely had a great childhood and these memories especially during Hari Raya still remains to be one of the best ever.

The True Meaning of Hari Raya

Hari Raya is not about pleading for forgiveness from those close to you, it is not about rekindling bonds between family and friends, it is not about appreciating the sacrifices made for you by people closest to you.  Hari Raya is only about one thing… one thing that reinforces the existence of man……Lemang.

No one really cares about anything else except eating the contents of what can only be described as home-made nuclear rods, or some weapon crafted by the Mayan civilisation to inflict mass extermination on the neighbouring tribe.  There is something very appealing about eating food that only barbarians could have created.  Everything about Lemang conjures up notions of power and strength.  Even the cooking process is like lining up surface to air missiles aimed to demolish Moscow- holding it is like holding pipe bombs or a barrel of a chain gun during World War 2.  In fact, you can’t carry Lemang from the stall to your car without scalding off the skin on your forearms or hands because when they deliver it to you straight off the fire- it is delivered to you straight offthe fire.  No one but a well trained commando, seasoned by the Vietnam or Pacific war could purchase Lemang.

Additionally, no one but a navy seal or the leader of the Dohtraki or Klingon race could slice open the Lemang so that people can saviour its glorious contents.  Slicing Lemang requires the strength and precision of a warrior skilled in the use of a blade, a warrior strong enough to withstand shards of bamboo piercing through his skin, flesh wounds on your hands- as that would be an inevitability when one undertakes to slice open the fire breathing bamboo to expose that out of this world glutinous rice contained inside.

Once the warrior has sliced upon Lemang and offers its contents to those around him, its like rewarding your entire army with gold.  The smiles on everyones face, the sight of relief and jubilation after waiting patiently almost an entire year since the last Raya to savour the glory of rice cooked in bamboo klingon style.  That ecstasy and jubilation is what Raya is all about.  It is the only thing Raya is about.  Lemang is king during Raya- even the finest rendang would have to blemish itself into the background, ketupats might as well be fed to the dogs- or cats, since its Raya.  At every Raya dinner or lunch function there will be abundant leftovers of all the other mediocre, inferior foods but Lemang would deplete into extinction, devoured by those who have starved themselves for a whole month-longing for this one day when Lemang is made available.

It is no doubt that Lemang is meant to be made or eaten by those who wish to reinforce their existence as man on earth-as a hint of evilness is injected into every seed of rice.  That evilness is opium or it could be heroin.  It is no question that an addictive drug of that nature has been absorbed into the Lemang to ensure utmost euphoria from those savouring it.  This is obvious because after one afternoon of enjoying Lemang, you will almost certainly pass out due to extreme uncontrollable lethargy for the rest of the day.

Raya is great- only for the reason we get to eat fire breathing home made nuclear rods capable to injecting mass euphoria and subsequent death.