紫の上ですか？

Who is this mysterious lady walking around tatsumi no machi? Is it the ghost of Murasaki no Ue? Keep a lookout for her when you visit and, if you're lucky enough to see her you may be able to persuade her to act as your guide around tatsumi no machi!!





Till the next time...

結婚式。。。

Today was a wonderful day at tatsumi no machi!! We were very honoured to host the wedding ceremony of two delightful people, Matsuda Akina and Wolverine Johin.
The day began with the usual bustle ~ last minute preparations and arrangements, followed by a total breakdown of the seat animations, which led to panic. Calm was restored however when an alternative script produced the goods reliably.
The ceremony was beautifully carried out by Bones Irata san, ably helped by his two Miko san (whose names I will insert here), and everyone enjoyed the gagaku wedding music 'Etenraku' streamed especially for the day. Modhuine was extremely honoured to be asked to stand in as the Bride's father for the ceremony. Although he did get a bit carried away ~ to the extent of advising the bridegroom *^_^*
Some of the pics are shown below...

The long walk to marriage

Almost there...

San san kyuu do ~ the sakazuke for the ceremony

Just married

It was an amazing day for us ~ and apparently might possibly be the first Shinto wedding on Second Life.
Anyway, we all wish them a wonderul future together in Second Life. Kanpai!!
Till the next time...

辰巳乃町の東対。。。

The Eastern walkway to Higashi no tai has now been completed and the little tea pavilion from the palace grounds has been moved to the water's edge in a little secluded area surrounded by autumn trees and facing 夫婦岩島 and 良縁神社。
I added some pics of the new landscaping below (taken using the windlight viewer). Come along and enjoy the views today.

The tea pavilion in it's new location.

One of the new garden sculptures just added.

Higashi no tai's completed walkway.

A view from Higashi no tai's tsuridono.

That's all for today. Till the next time...

海光院 and Windlight

I felt I had to add to the blog today, firstly to let you know that the nameplate for kaikou-in has been set in place, and secondly to let you know that if you are using SL Firstlook Windlight viewer, you can see some spectacular scenery at Tatsumi no machi.

I had used Windlight in its previous incarnation and wasn't too impressed by it, but I have to say that some marvelous tweaking and streamlining has gone on behind the scenes at LL and their latest production of Windlight is astounding! Try it out, although unless your graphics card carries lots of memory you will find it a laggy experience. That being said, I managed to stay online long enough to take these pics. See below...

The sign above Kaikou-in's gate

Truly the Temple of the sparkling sea

Kaikou-in at sunset

海光院。。。

Today at last, after a marathon brainstorming session, we have a name for our temple!!!
Kaikou-in 海光院. Many thanks to our friends for their input which allowed us to make our final decision. Pictures are shown below. Watch this space and also look out for a group notice about Kaikou-in soon!
Leave the Palace courtyard by the east gate, cross 月見橋 (moon-viewing bridge) to the temple.

Front view of Kaikou-in 海光院

the karesansui 枯山水 garden and meditation places.

At the rear of the temple, a small temple garden to sit quietly.

We hope you will visit 海光院 soon and enjoy this extension to tatsumi no machi.
Till the next time...

お土産屋。。。

Hello again from Tatsumi no machi...

Today's update is about our omiyageya. Our little omiyageya was originally created to be a small workshop for Modhuine and myself, so that we could be on-site while creating our well-known Japanesque-brand goods. Recently, with the introduction of more and more free gifts and information packs, it had become a little crowded in there *^_^*
Consequently, we decided to upgrade the store to create more space. Naturally we hope you will agree that it is an improvement! Pics below...

Same location ~ different look. Our new omiyageya

Some products are on display so that you can judge size etc., but most are in the wall vendors, so please browse through them.

On the verandah outside, we have placed two little 'ringo', so that you always have a way to contact us if we're not on-site or are offline when you visit. Try them out ~ we love to hear from you! Work on the temple proceeds apace. News about that soon!
Till the next time...

夫婦岩島の茶室

A little quick side-project came to fruition today. For those of you who have ventured beyond the palace courtyard to the Meotoiwa islands there is a new construction awaiting your inspection. On the opposite island from Ryou-en Jinja, there is now a teahouse where you can sit and watch the sunrise or moonrise (from the east side) and sunset/moonset from the west side. Zabuton are laid out for your use, tea and a special treat from Tatsumi no machi ~ Meotomanju *^_^* Enjoy!!

お神輿。。。

An update on the ryou-en jinja omikoshi which made its debut at the Autumn Festival. After some careful preparation, it has now been placed in its home at ryou-en jinja on the Meotoiwa islands, and can be glimpsed through the door when you visit (pics below).

The approach to Ryou-en Jinja

The omikoshi at home.

For those who haven't managed to visit Tatsumi no machi for a while, autumn has arrived and the trees are changing colour to beautiful reds and golds, so with this in mind we are preparing more seating for guests who like to sit and enjoy the peace of the gardens.
I will be posting again soon about the latest construction at Tatsumi no machi ~ the Temple. It is nearing completion and will be open soon, so watch this space *^_^*.

Till the next time...

秋祭り と 月見

Just finished washing the dishes and tidying up after the Autumn Festival and Moon-viewing party! Again a well-attended event for which we thank our group members and guests. Below is a selection of pictures from the evening's entertainment.

The A-team bringing in the omikoshi for the festival!

Left a bit, right a bit...

The champagne went down well!

Chas, hypnotised by the moon...

The surprise of the evening for Modhuine ~ a birthday cake!!!

As always the dancers added their own splash of colour to the event!

お盆踊り

Yesterday saw the first Obon festival held at Tatsumi no machi!
Well-attended by the group members and also visited by some new guests.
The main attraction was the yagura built by Modhuine for the event, decorated with lanterns and a spotlight at the top illuminating the taiko and player. Guests took turns to beat out the rythm. *^_^*


The fireworks went without a hitch. This time there was no diving for cover, although it did form a kind of athletic event of its own at Tanabata *^_^*

From 9pm we were filmed as part of the SL24 programme being run by Aqua san. Twenty-four hours of Japanese events in Second Life. Much posing went on for the cameras ~ Modhuine beating the taiko in his fundoshi! (see pic)


Guests took turns to cook and distribute takoyaki which went down well ~ despite the lack of sauce lol.


The closing event of the festival was the release of the obon lanterns into the water. This made a spectacular sight as they bobbed and rotated on the dark rippling water.


Guests were invited to accept an individual obon lantern as they left, as a souvenir of the festival.
Thanks to everyone who attended and took part!!

Until the next time...

七夕祭り

Hot off the press!!
Yesterday we held our first Tanabata Matsuri at Tatsumi no machi! Everyone seemed to have a good time, throwing themselves into the 5 a-side football (refereed loosely by Dithean), running for cover from the fireworks, and partying on down later to classic rock music! Sample pictures are posted below, with more to come as they are sorted.


Controlling the ball with the grace of Pele, Yu san runs down the wing... did he score? The final result was EAST 2 - 2 WEST. A score draw! Rematch called for next event!! *^_^*


The Shinden shakers and movers strut their stuff amidst the particle light effects.


Ama no gawa (天の川) comes to Shinagawa! Dancing among the stars in front of the Shinden.


View from the lakeside.

夫婦岩と良縁神社。。。

Summer is here at last ~ even in SL! We have been busy during the last month preparing a new area of our land for something special. Just south of our private home, we have two little islands which seemed ideal for a particular purpose, and it is now complete ~ so here we introduce our meotoiwa (夫婦岩) and ryou-en jinja （良縁神社）.

meotoiwa (夫婦岩) viewed at sunrise

ryou-en jinja （良縁神社）viewed from the sea.

We canvassed our friends for suggestions for a suitable name for our little island jinja, and Aquanoise Beery came up with the name we finally chose. It seemed wholly suitable given that the jinja was sited close to the meotoiwa. Thank you Aqua san!!

Now, some news for the future. We are planning to hold another event in tatsumi no machi in around one month's time. Those of you who are members of the tatsumi no machi group will receive news about it via group notice once we have fixed the date. We are currently making preparations, so look out for the notice soon!

Till the next time...

Modhuine から補足

「良縁神社」は本当にいい名前ですねぇ。aquaさんに感謝です。

夫婦岩をつなぐ大きな注連縄を歩いて渡ろうと試みましたがとても無理です。だれか綱渡りに成功したら、コツを教えて下さい。アバター操作のよい練習になるかも知れません。

つまらないものですが。。。

After the success of Ohanami, we felt we should make available a souvenir of our guests' visit to Tatsumi no machi. Since our little workshop is located next to our onsen/rotenburo, and it would be the location from where the souvenirs could be obtained, we thought a yukata would be most appropriate. We had been working on various options for kimonos, so when we found a traditional igasuri fabric pattern, we decided to use it for our yukatas. Apologies for the models *^_^*

The boxes containing the yukata are on the steps of our little workshop in the south area of the gardens. They are free to anyone who visits Tatsumi no machi. Please enjoy them!
つまらないものですが、お土産としてどうぞ。。。

On March 31st we held a party for ohanami. We ran the party all day, since our friends and regular visitors are scattered all around the world. Our party centered around a very large cherry tree at the lakeside, with blankets on the ground underneath the tree and food and drink freely available.
A constant stream of friends combined with new visitors rewarded our hard efforts. Many people preferred to sit under the tree and chat, while others took to the gardens for a stroll. Later in the day, we held an impromptu dance party with a prize going to Dinzeo san as the best 'rocker' of the party! We judged the day as great fun and very rewarding, in the sense that everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! Below are some pics of the dance event.

Today the pic of the final piece of the Palace ~ the higashi no tai walkway. As you can see, it has a chuumon (inner gate) and the open door just south of it shows the inside of the samuraidokoro, the samurai guardhouse. As we look around the whole Palace, we can feel as sense of achievment, not so much for ourselves, but for being able to bring a feeling of the Heian era shindenzukuri to Second Life for others to share and experience.
Of course, although the major building work is done, I have no doubt we will find plenty of details to refine and items of interest to add, so we won't be sitting down drinking too many cups of coffee.
In the next post ~ a report on our first event held at tatsumi no machi. Ohanami!



Till the next time ~

The continuing story of the creation of Tatsumi no machi.
The surprise? New land to the south-west of us, and the hard work? You guessed it ~ the building of the western annexe and it's walkway!
Having surveyed the landscape and brought it to a similar level as our original parcel, we set about planning the layout. The western annexe was fairly easy to plan, being similar to the eastern one, but the walkway from the western annexe had to end in a 'tsuridono' ~ fishing platform / picnic area. The garden layout for shinden zukuri architecture is fairly consistent, an artificial lake with islands reached by small bridges ~ and so the work began...

First job the western courtyard, followed by the western annexe itself.
Here are the finished products...



This was followed by the western walkway which includes a 'chuumon' or inner gate to allow people already inside the palace grounds to enter the inner courtyard and access the shinden.



Finally, the tsuridono ~ a feature which is proving to be very popular with our new and regular visitors alike!


As you can see from the photograph, we have completed the artificial lake and populated it with some flora and fauna. It was quite a marathon, but the major constructions are complete. Just a little adding of detail and final tweaking to do. All that is left to add to tatsumi no machi to complete it, is the addition of the eastern walkway, but not today *^_^*

Till the next time...