I wasn’t in-world yesterday, but on Wednesday night Leanna and I spent some time just hanging out and talking. She reminded me that we hadn’t done any exploring in a very long time and this prompted us to take a mini-expedition over to Hosoi Ichiba. Below is a map of the six sims that comprise Amiryu Hosoi’s masterpiece sim group (notice that there are two new sims as part of the group).



The entire sims have been covered in snow for the Winter and it was a wonderful experience, wandering around at night in the snow. We checked out the new okiya and theater, then found a tea house were there were pots of food. I played the shamisen while we ate our food…hehe… then made our way up to the top of the great mountain in the northeastern sim. Below is a photo I took from that lofty heigth.



That’s the theater (lower left) where Masumi-san directed her Winter geisha show on Saturday. In the distance you can see the great city where many activities occur and where all the stores are. If you haven’t been to Hosoi Ichiba in the past couple months, I recommend that you make a return trip. For one thing, Ami has created an entire sim for the Great Wall of China.


Anyway, the point that LeLe was making is that I’ve spent most of my time recently involved in my quest to become geisha, and that I was forgetting about some of the things that make me happy. And she is right. Burnout and Boredom are constant dangers here in SL, and you need to have balance in your second life just as much as you need balance in your real life.


I’ve been taking LeLe’s subtle hint and spending more time with old friends. I try to keep my friendships alive, but I need to spend more time at my old hangouts like Junkyard and NTH and Dreamcatchers. And I haven’t seen any of Crighton’s posse in the longest time and need to reconnect there too. Worst of all, I haven’t spent much time with my close girlfriends.


Yesterday, I went back in time and skimmed my journal entries, starting with the first entries in the original blog. I saw how the stock market stress was really killing me. Things are pretty good in my life right now. I’ve managed to get a handle of the stress, and I feel much better emotionally and physically. My quest to become an SL geisha has become a fascinating learning experience, full of serendipity. I’ve been dating and there’s a little romance in my life here and there, just the right amount, in fact. /me smiles