Himeji Castle

While cruising around in Second Life tonight I happened upon one of the zillions of Japanese sims in Second Life that, for me at least, have remained undiscovered. To be fair, this one is actually newly arrived and still under construction. However, I managed to get a sneaky picture:



This is destined to become a faithful reproduction of Himeji Castle, part of Japan's great cultural heritage located around 650 kilometers west of Tokyo. The castle is nicknamed "White Heron" because of its white plaster walls, plaster being a useful safeguard against fire in a building that is otherwise built entirely of wood. The current castle was constructed in 1601, though there have been fortifications on this site since 1333.

On the adjacent Kansai sim, which is open to the public, I found a model of one the flying machines from Studio Ghibli's Laputa Castle in the Sky. I would point out that this appears to be unrelated to any official work by Ghibli in Second Life (not that I know of any).



Funnily enough, I bought the "making of..." book, while at the Studio Ghibli Museum, and it struck me at the time that it'd be great to build one these airships. A combination of ignorance and apathy means I never got a around to it - but I am glad that someone has!

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UPDATE 15-10-07: In the comments, Nick asks for the SLURL for Hameji. Sadly I don't have a SLURL to hand, but then as the sim is effectively closed it would not be much help. However, if you want to take a look, go to the Kansai sim (SLURL linked above), where you can peer over the wall - or do as I did, fly up to an altitude that doesn't block you from crossing over into the sim.

UPDATE 16-10-07: I read that Nick has found his way to Hameji. I would rather like the SLURLs for the sites he has found!