This is the question and answer when Kikunosuke was interviewed by Spanish SL Magazine, “ORBE”. The history and episodes of an establishment of TEMPURA are explained together with the burning sincerity and enthusiasm of Kikunosuke for TEMPURA.
Ladies and gentlemen, please feel the soul of TEMPURA here.
■Tell us about Tempura.
Q: What is the main idea of Tempura?
A: The most beautiful place where people talk and feel love in the world.
The ultimate healing place.
The last unexplored region where nobody had stepped into for more than several hundreds years.
The harmony of Renaissance (Western) and Mandala ( Eastern ).
Q: Tell us something about the history of Tempura.
A: Opened on the 25th of May, 2008.
It took about more than half a year to develop it from our plan.
We did not do any promotion for this sim at first; however, the Safari tour by Koinup was a major turning point for us as we have had more and more visitors after the event.
I will talk about the history of this sim in the next question.
Q: How did this idea about Tempura came to you, and how did you developed it?
A: It was all started from my broken heart.
In those days, I was suffering from losing my ex-SL girlfriend.
I was going to sell my sim which I got for my ex-SL girlfriend; however my best friends told me not to do, but to develop our Utopia, instead.
I thought I really needed a place to heal my broken heart and to relieve my fatigue caused by my RL.
And, I instinctively feel that we also need a healing place in a virtual world as we live in a digital society with a surfeit of information.
Then, once we would do, we decided to make the most beautiful and the highly stylish sim.
I designed a sim with my comrades, and found good creators who could help us to make realized our imaginary world.
As our construction had been started, we had had very hard time. There was a gap between our imaginal world and the one creators developed, and we needed to ask them to re-do their works many times, which caused the delay. TEMPURA was not completed by the contracted due date.
I could say that if I opened the incompleted sim at that time, TEMPURA would never been existed as now.
I reexamined our plan and our blueprint with my best friends after the contracted due date. It took me more than several months to make changes to many places. I changed almost all the textures.
We discussed “What we miss? What we need? ".
Then, we learned a lot from ladies' ideas and those helped to establish the main idea of TEMPRA.
Some of their ideas were those: there were many sims where men and women could make love; however they were troublesome or untidy and not romantic. In those days, there was no place where ladies could spend their precious time or sleep together with their lovers with safe and romantic mood. etc.
We made some private rooms in TEMPURA from their ideas, and the color and furnitures were picked based on psychology.
We concerned a lot to make them elegant, decent, and cozy. These concepts are common to all places in TEMPURA. We seeked the spaces where anyone could relax based on psychology.
As you could see the sim on a map, the shape is symmetry. This comes from the idea of mandala, Buddhist visual schema of the enlightened mind.
I am a religious person.
The light ray to the sky from the dome of main building is an image of smoke from incense sticks, which helps ancestors to climb up the paradise.
I put some images of Renaissance which are my favorite.
I think that you may feel that TEMPURA is a multinational sim with many elements from many countries or cultures. And, that is why I believe that anybody could accept this sim without any hesitation.
Q: What does Tempura means?
A: TEMPURA is a name of Japanese traditional food.
I do not know if I could explain this well to foreigners, but I try.
The name was associated from a buzzword in Japan " AGE-AGE ", which describe the feeling of cheerfulness, excitement or energetic. And, "AGE" of "AGE-AGE" also means to deep-fry foods. And, a famous deep-fried food in Japan is tempura, which is also well known Japanese food in the world.
Then, I came up with the name, TEMPURA, which people from all over the world could easily remember.
Well, I still don't know if you could understand above. lol.
■Tell us about your photograph work.
(Note: Kikunosuke is halting his photographing activity since he is now prioritizing his family in the real life. Please take it into consideration when reading the article.)
Q: Is SL Photography an art?
A: Of course yes. It is an art which could impress people.
Avatars which show the air, atmosphere, and the values of RL persons fascinate me.
An avatar has a character and personality.
Sometimes, I could see one's personality from an avatar very much.
I think the reason why all models look differently even they wear the same shapes and skins are that aviators show their inside of person.
Also, SL photography reflects the spirit of a photographer, and this may be the same as the painting art in RL.
Q: What are the main goals when you do a photograph in sl?
A: This is one of my self-expression.
This is not my work, but my hobby.
I am very happy if anyone could feel something from or be moved by my photos.
I was not familiar with digital world till I started SL; however, I was fascinated by the digital art by taking photos in SL
And, this helps my works in RL.
Q: Tell us about your work in Deja Vu Magazine.
A: I take photos for the cover and fashion themed pages.
When I have much time, I could take many photos for them.
The skills which I get from this job help me customizing my sim.
Q: How does the SL Media as a magazine influence in Second Life?
A: This is such a hard question.
I think that it could influence people or SL more and deeper than blogs.
Q: How do you live your second life?
A: I log in SL rather longer than other people, but I am AFK most of the time due to my RL works.
I really enjoy meeting people in SL.
I have not expected how hard it is to maintain a sim, however, I enjoy learning a lot from our visitors in TEMPURA.
I am sensitive to current fashions, so I am always finding something new.
I take photos only when my physical condition is good.
When I find beautiful persons, places, and things, I keep shooting photos all day long.
Q: What are the main goals of your second life?
A: To improve or cultivate myself.
To open my mind.
To try my hand.
Q: How do you feel your second life?
A: It changed my view of life.
I found my solutions many times in SL, when I had difficulties in RL.
I meet many precious people, and I am touched very deeply in SL, which I could never experience in RL.
Sometimes, the emotion is more real in SL than in RL, and it sometimes makes me feel heavy and painful.
I could feel that the soul which comes out from the body is living in the virtual world.
SL without love is no more than a world, and I could never live longer in SL without love.
This is the same as in RL.
I could live in this world as I have my good friends who help me.
I have met my best and precious friends, and I log in to see them.
photograph by kikunosuke Eel
