Reading Radar

Updated 11/26 - Hoshikuzu
Updated 11/17 - Samurai Edo

NOTE: this post is a work in progress!

Naturally I have an interest in a lot of the Japanese sims, and in how many Japanese content creators, designers, and artists there are in SL. I thought I’d make this post an ever-changing list of Japanese sims, stores, and related places or people that catch my eye.

Psst. Ever-changing means I’ll be adding things one at a time, and also I may not have all the obvious ones up for awhile, so hit me if you know of something good I’ve missed, I will go check it out and post it!

A little note here, my kanji reading skills blow chunks (as in, I can read a small handful of them), although I can read katakana and hiragana, so at times if it seems like I don’t know much about a location, it’s entirely possible. Kanji generally take some kind of formal study to get anywhere with, if you doubt the complexity of the undertaking, see for yourself. So I find myself in the dark a lot when written Japanese is my only interface to some piece of information.

Edo Japan - The Edo Japan sim is another Japanese sim that’s “old school” themed and is primarily commerce driven (aka, full of shops), but it’s a good look around.

My favorite store on the sim is the 19 Sosaku-Kobo, which sells some gear primarily for bikers with a Japanese flair, but what I REALLY can’t wait for is when the owner/creator PaintO Jie finishes and releases this beauty:

I’m getting one, ’nuff said.

Score: 3 out of 5 Well done, just not a lot besides shops.

Hoshikuzu - This store/mall area of Ayame Musashi’s is on the Musashi sim. By the way, Ayame Musashi has been around since 2004, is one of the C:SI (Samurai Island Combat System) creators, and is the designer of the Musashi Blades katana, which you can indeed buy at Hoshikuzu, as well as other places in SL.

There’s some kind of freaky big ass bluebird type thingy watching over, but it didn’t peck my eyes out or carry me back to the nest to feed to the little ones, so I guess it’s ok.

The whole place has been renovated and is different than last time I went. It’s not bad, but I liked the last build better, it had the whole thing indoors and you could walk around in a big circle to visit all the stores. Still, it’s not a bad place if you need to get a new katana or some other gear apropos to a samurai. Don’t all samurai ride motorcycles?

Score: 3 out of 5 Anything Ayame Musashi does has to be pretty much ok, and I like her sim/mall idea. Not sure about the build layout on this rev, but who really cares. The gear is where it’s at.

Samurai Edo - Samurai Edo is the first C:SI (Samurai Island Combat System) sims I visited and it was where all the action used to be.

Currently it says it’s under renovation, but it looks pretty good to me in its current state. It’s a LOT different than it was before - more centrally organized, before all the action took place in the sim corners, but it did have a more rural Japan feel to it before that was nice.

Score: 4 out of 5 The new layout looks like it should be less laggy than before, but it’s hard to say without getting a group of people over there in combat and finding out.

Tokyo College City - Based on the notecard, this sim seems related to the Metabirds sim, and is in a large group of Japanese owned sims around Metabirds. The College City web site, which renders horribly in my browser, calls it a city of business and education in Second Life!

The main attractions here seem to be a college/business building which is almost totally empty save a few meeting places sponsored by corporations, a gallery, and a student hangout, and an in-world build for the Tagged World Project, which is based on the creepy Japanese acceptance of RFID tags for everything under the sun. The in-world exhibit seems to be a kind of inter-building jaunt where you don a pair of scripted shoes, and wander around with doors opening based on recognition of your RFID simulated shoes. Sadly, I couldn’t get my shoes to rez so I couldn’t try it out. Although, if you are going to let RFID take over your life, better your second one than your first one.

Score: 2 out of 5 If I ever see anyone there, I might raise that a little. Sorry.