Dimitri - SL Week 1

From the beginning, I've had a rather severe avoidance towards programs like Second Life. My initial experience with it was that it was slow and unresponsive and unintuitive (at least in the opinion of someone who spends 99% of their free time playing video games of all varieties). I realise my opinion is slightly biased because I come from a background of newer systems that handle large open-world maps with little sacrifice, but Second Life has building capabilities over the sort of programs I'm used to, so I figured I should at least see what has been done in it.

My main interest has always been around Japan, so Darryl suggested the Higashiyama sim, a Japanese town sim. On a trip around the town, I found that even though it didn't directly resemble any Japanese town that I have been to, it had the same sort of feeling as many of the towns, especially like the town where I used to live in Hirosaki, Aomori. Many of the towns in Japan are a mix of almost stereotypically generic Japanese traditional style with modern areas.

The first modern area I found was a bowling alley (a popular passtime especially among university-aged students, alongside pool).

The bowling game was set up to run automatically, with anywhere from one to four players. Although the input lag and video lag made playing the game more difficult, it ran pretty much like an actual in-real-life bowling game (apart from the fact that I actually did well).

For scoring over 100 points, I was also awarded a crown.

Inside the bowling alley, there was also a few vending machines. These are incredibly common around Japan and the best way to describe how common they are is through the experience of a summer day. You will buy a cold drink from a vending machine, and by the time you have finished that drink (regardless of whether you're a fast drinker or a slow drinker), you'll be right next to another one.

This blue on in particular caught my eye. These Boss Coffee vending machines are very common and have this exact layout, including the promotional photos with Tommy Lee Jones (who is the promotional face in every single Boss advert these days). The white vending machine is another typical vending machine design, though I remember normally seeing these almost exclusively as beer vending machines rather than anything else.

 After I was finished in the bowling alley, I began to explore the more stereotypically 'Japanese' areas. The parks and gardens I came across didn't really stand out as 'Japanese', though I suppose this is because a park is a park and only really set apart by what's inside it. The presence of cherry blossoms, shrines or bamboo frames which are used to protect trees from snow in the winter would make it feel more like Japan.

I came across a small ramen cart, and my only complaint was that I could not actually buy ramen.

In a tunnel, I came across this interesting sight. While I don't know where exactly the photo is from, I know that it is from a train station. The yellow sign on the right reads 'Coin Locker', a common sight in Japanese train stations for commuters to store bags in the station so they don't have to worry about carrying them everywhere. These lockers range in size from backpack to suitcase size.

In another part of the sim, I came across a sushi restaurant. By clicking on one of the plates, you were given a menu to choose from. However, all the options are written in romaji (romanisation of the Japanese word). When you select one, it then in chat gave a short Japanese phrase commonly heard when ordering in a sushi restaurant, as well as the English translation of what you actually ordered.

Upstairs from the shop was a small tatami room, a traditional style Japanese room found in pretty much every Japanese house. The purple object in the back is a futon, a mattress bed used in tatami rooms which is folded away during the day to allow for the use of the room.

The most interesting thing I found in the entire sim, however, was this sign. The Japanese rubbish collection system is incredibly complex and follows a rigid system of both separation of rubbish and collection dates, but the systems are also different for every town, so if you move, you have to relearn everything again.

Elsewhere on the island, I stumbled upon a retail area. In the middle of the area was a big courtyard full of cats. There were cats of all different colours and sizes, and even one dressed up as a giant cow.

I also came across a floating bar area on the edge of the sim which feature a piano that played theme music from various Final Fantasy games.

In week two, I will continue to explore around, perhaps in areas outside of Japanese sims if I can't find any others. It has been difficult finding a focus for my SL wanderings, so hopefully next week I'll be able to find a direction of some sort.