Re-Kokekokko!

CHATNOIR Catnap has put in her shop a special black version of her Gunkei-zu kimono for men. It includes two colors of collar, three shirts of different patterns, regular and tattered "bat" sleeves, complete with sarashi (bandages), tabi and geta.
TP here to get it!

Shiny

Toya Watanabe has updated her shop in Kodama no Ki with new Japanese seasonal goods!

Two items that you could use for visitting your relatives' graves at O-bon...

And a magnificient green firefly tree! (Currently for display in the north-east corner!)

Shuriken

Koenees Karas took a step aside from his usual DragonBall line and reproduced Yuffie's shuriken! The sculpties are sharp, and the weapon is touroughly scripted. You will specially like the wall walker option! You can get it right here.

Kokekokko!

Good morning! CHATNOIR Catnap's new release this week is a yukata based on Gunkei-zu (群鶏図). She says she has updated the sleeves from previous designs. Worth a try! It's right here.

The Active People's Footwear

Yukinoroh Kamachi has... (^^;) I mean, *I have* released Second Life's first sculpted jikatabi (rubber-soled split-toe cotton boots). Available at my spot in Kodama no Ki.

I felt I really have to bring my usual real life footwear into SL, and that is now done. So yes, I modelled and textured these jikatabi from my own feet - from pictures I took. I usually wear black ones, but I specially bought a white pair so that the SL product be tintable!

When new or wet, the soft rubber soles of jikatabi will squeak, and I reproduced that in SL too. The sounds are tuneable, for people who like them (or don't like them). It was quite a challenge to record them (^^;) But I was told it's a good selling point... ?

About the title to this post and the vendor text... In Japan, jikatabi are typically worn by people who move a lot and need a good grip: construction workers, gardeners, festival participants, pilgrims and b­ōs­ōzoku/yankees. Most Japanese people have never worn them. Too bad! They are light, they breathe and dry well, and their sole give you tactile contact with the ground and prevent you to slip.

Moreover, they look ninja, but that is because the ninja footwear and the jikatabi have a common ancestor: the tabi, the japanse socks. The ninja wore waraji (straw sandals) under tabi. The jikatabi is a 20th century invention, when the Bridgestone (formerly Nippon-tabi) company tried to sew a rubber sole under tabi for the coal miners in Kyūshū, hence the name chika/jika, "underground". But they are becoming a ninja thing anyway, as I saw ninja actors in Iga wearing them...

All-in-One Maiko Kimono

Aryanna DeCuir released a multi-feature kimono for the geisha dancing girl in her nicely furnished store in Kodama no Ki. Tons of options and features, to adopt your style to your customers and the importance of the events.

Grow An Eye

Kiba Tachikawa's introduces his newest line of accessories, "Efflorescence". These wonderfully crafted eye patches are inspired by the visual kei band GPKISM and are only 99L$ each. They come in 7 colors: red, black, white, pink, purple, yellow and blue.

Nico's

Nico Nicoletti has opened a cosplay shop in Kodama no Ki. You will find some rare outfits there, like D.Gray-man inspired military suits, almost all Vocaloid cosplay (real-like), and more. Drop by to see more!

A Butterfly

CHATNOIR has a new classical painting kimono available in her store!

This time the painting is Shakuyaku-gun-ch­ō-zu 芍薬群蝶図, an assembly of peonies and a butterfly.

Three colors available, for men.

The Blacksmith

Kodama no Ki welcomes Jin Inaka! Jin is a blacksmith, and what is special about his swords is that they are authentic, the design is focused on what they actually were : simply weapons with no fancy stuff. And they do work. They are all DCS-compatible and feature animations. Worth giving a try! Click here for TP!

Slurrrp!

Hot for the light snowy days, cold for when the cicadas sing... Soba noodles is a must year-round! Cark Milos released a small booth that'll allow you (and your visitors) to enjoy them. Click here for TP.

Summer Goods

Toya Watanabe has updated the contents of her shop and presents us japanese typical goods of the high season : reed bushes, watermelon and fireflies! One of these is for display in the north-west corner of the mall.

One reason you will certainly want to drop by is the 5L$ six-pack watermelon jelly, that you can pass over to your friends :o)

Click here for TP!

Butterfly Dragonfly

Aryanna DeCuir presents the "Dragonfly dance" yukata, available in 8 summer colors. Click here for TP.

The obi features a double layer fabric inside of shimmery silk and outer layer of woven cotton, and is tied the ch­ōch­ō (butterfly) way so that it looks like a moth that would come to dance around a lantern by a hot matsuri evening :o)

Good Morning

CHATNOIR Catnap has released a male version of her rooster kimono. Available in two colors, to fit your morning tea.

God-like

Koenees Karas has released a huge pack of DragonBall style breakable mountains. Click here for TP.

What is special about them is that you don't need a special weapon to break them, they response to normal collisions - you can use them in a non-DB environment as well.

Crystal Tears

Kiba Tachikawa is up with another line of original items! These are face gem decorations that are often seen in visual and oshare kei to decorate the eye area. They are available in 6 variations and 8 colors. Shown below are the drain and verge gems. (Click here for TP!)

All gems are sculpties and so have the actual cut gems are supposed to have instead of being plain circles with gem textures.

New Shop

Kodama no Ki welcomes Link Appletor! Click here for TP!

Link makes anime-inspired t-shirts and tattoos :) Shown here is part of his line of t-shirts.

Furisode

CHATNOIR Catnap has released a long-sleeved (furisode) woman's kimono.

It uses elements of "Dōshoku Saie" and "Taikei Shiyū-zu" from her favorite painter :o)

Click here for TP!

Repolished steel

Beware Hax has updated his forehead protector (hachigane). There are some scripting fixes, a new white fabric texture (tintable), the steel part has a new logo available (Yugakure), its cloud logo has been redone and, if you are not really a Naruto fan, you can now set it with no logo. Beware says that those of you who bought the item previously will soon receive an update.

Mandarin Duck Kimono, Male Version

CHATNOIR Catnap has released a male version of her kimono featuring Jakuchū Itō's "Secchū En'ō-zu" painting (a mandarin duck in the snow).

You can get it here.

Surgical Masks

Out of the usual protection for H1N1 or to keep your cold for you, the surgical mask in Japan has been part of the bōsōzoku gangster fashion for a while and as a result the visual kei fashion picked it up as well, in a wide range of styles. Kiba Tachikawa presents us that range - 12 masks in total. Shown below is the Massacre one.

Reafflicted

Angelic Yumako has reopened her store in Kodama no Ki, with lots of new products!
You will find there apparel and weapons inspired from different Japanese video games like Phantasy Star, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XI. Drop by to check it out!

Napalm Strike

Kidnaplism Freschi's third weapon is here! It is inspired from Nero's sword in Devil May Cry, but it has more details and sound effects than it. As usual, Kidnaplism has prepared a Youtube video to show you the weapon in action.

Die for It

In the spirit of doing the entire Dir en Grey band as Kiba Tachikawa has promised many people, here is Kyo, its singer. This is his outfit in the Ain't Afraid to Die video. Like the previous Diru outfit, it is for Hentai Katayama. Kiba says: He expressed how this song literally saved his life and his story touched me so much I wanted to make something fom it.

If you are unfamiliar with Dir en Grey's work, you can watch the promotional video.

Break A Ship, Break An Areana, Break People

When Koenees Karas sent me pictures of his new releases, I pointed out that there are not many products in real life whose selling point is that they are breakable. (Well at least one thing I bought in RL was not labelled like that, and it broke after 13 months, is to say one month after the warranty is over...)

So yes, they are well scripted, and realistic. As usual, with bleeding visual effects. One more step towards a better reproduction of the Dragon Ball atmosphere in Second Life! Give them a try!

Old but Good

You've worn your favorite kimono every spring for so many years that its sleeves have started to tatter. You know it makes you look somehow like a rōnin but you just can't stop wearing it. CHATNOIR Catnap has released two such kimonos. TP here to get them!

Beautiful And Delicious

When you think about spring in Japan, it's also time to go to the mountain and pick up mountain vegetables (sansai). Bamboo shoots is one of these. The bamboo, beautiful and delicious. Abamama Hax has prepared a pack for you to enjoy seeing both of them in your garden. You can find it in her store.

Sakura

Spring is here and the flowering of cherry blossoms has already begun in southern Japan! For the occasion, Toya Watanabe has released sakura trees at her store in Kodama no Ki. They come in four sizes (mostly sold separately), and you can choose between having a tree with falling a petals effect that you can turn on or off with a click, or one that turns the effect on and animates you when you sit on it. I could have a look at them and I can tell you that the big tree that animates you is really sweet to see! Oh, by the way. If you want to see what the medium-sized tree looks like, walk a few steps north of Toya's shop. It'll be blooming there until the end of April!

Folding screens

CHATNOIR Catnap has two new mod/copy folding screens for sale in her shop. The paintings are those that were previously featured on two kimonos, except now you can contemplate them better :o)

Macabre

Macabre. A quality of certain artistic or literary works, characterized by a grim or ghastly atmosphere. In these works, there is an emphasis on the details and symbols of death.

Macabre was an album and era of Japanese visual kei band Dir en Grey. There were many different outfits worn and many variatios of them but Kiba Tachikawa chose to make Die's most famous leather body suit. He says that the reason for this choice was for Hentai Katayama, the co-owner of Kanzen ni Jrock. His first experience with visual kei was Die in this very outfit.

If you are unfamiliar with Dir en Grey or that particular outfit, here are Kiba's references :

image one | image two | image three

Monsters Garage

If you ever meet Kennt Kidd, he'll probably have the appearance of one of his seven products that make up a nice line of Ultraman avatars. Ultraman, the number one Japanese super-hero.

But Kennt has also thought about those of you who get to like the villains better. You can now cosplay as one of these funky retro monsters that rampage, with laser beams, unrealistic scale models of Japanese cities. And yes, most of these products have special effects included :o)

The shop is right here.

The Maid's Feathers

Fuyuko Nishi has released a cosplay reproduction of Iroha, originally from Samurai Shodown VI (Samurai Spirits: Tale of the World's Greatest Swordsman), and appearing in a couple of later games too.

Frozen Halberd

Kidnaplism Freschi has released his second weapon, the Frozen Halberd. To start with the looks, a part of it is a sculpted blade, the other feels like your RPG hero's staff (ex: Tsubasa from .hack//Sign).

Just like the Kazekiri, it is 100% functional. It has the same features, but of course, the attacks, sounds, animations, combos, etc, are all new. It's really worth getting it! Kidnaplism has prepared a Youtube video as a teaser :o)

TP here to get it!

Ukiyo-e House

cark Milos has released a small Japanese-looking house featuring the ukiyo-e paintings of Hokusai (1760 - 1849). It's right here.

Hakama

Selos Dae has put up a nice hakama for sale at her spot in Kodama no Ki.
What is so special about them is that they have a kind of low-rise fall, which is very handy if you want to have a modern Japanese look. Available here!

A Mandarin Duck in The Snow

CHATNOIR Catnap has released his second kimono that features paintings from Jakuchū Itō (first one is here). The painting is "A mandarin duck in the snow".

Even with its flashy look, this kimono gets to feel like the Japanese Edo period. The chic colours and the Nishijin silk obi combine very well. The black line produces a modern effect.
The obi and its ornament are sculpted prims.

TP to CHATNOIR's store to get it!

Shop Moving

Hi! Just a quick notice. Dwain Aeon has moved his shop around in the mall. New location is here. Usually I don't tell about that, but it seems like he is going to put on more products, so watch out :o)

Mai Shiranui

Fuyuko Nishi says that she is happy to show you the new full avatar she's made. For the video games fans of you who still remember the old and so popular KOF or all the girls who want cosplay as one of the sexiest anime game girls, here is Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury and King of Fighters. Avatar includes all you see in the picture: outfit, shape, skin, eyes, hair and attachments. Available here.