Just uploaded some photos of a beautiful sim I’ve been visiting over the past few days in Second Life, a place known as the Gion Project. The brainchild of SL rezident Sammy Biddle, it’s modeled after a well-known geisha district in Kyoto, Japan, which originally developed in the Middle Ages in front of Yasaka Shrine.

The original district was built over time to accommodate the needs of travelers and visitors to the shrine, eventually becoming one of the most exclusive geisha districts in all of Japan. It was also the setting for the recent novel, Memoirs of a Geisha.

I had just begun experimenting with the light settings in SL, following the inspiration (and downloaded presets!) of my flickr friend, the irrepressible Torley Linden, and if these pix are any indication of where my newfound photo superpowers are going to take me, I will be forever indebted to him. Can’t wait to head back there.

The SLURL is Gion (90,146,24). Head over there and take a rickshaw ride. You may even run into a geisha or two.

You can find my photos of the Gion pagoda in the architecture section of my flick gallery.