Today, December 6th, marks the first rez-day of our governor, Atashi Toshihiko. The following is how she remembers her first day in Second life.

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A year ago today, I visited the SL website, read the stuff about a virtual world and virtual land and all that hype, and with some trepidation, I created an account, and logged on for the first time. If I remember correctly, the download version was 1.12, but it was upgraded within a week.

I found myself someplace surrounded by a bunch of male and female ‘clones’ all standing around with ‘editing appearance’ under their names. I didn’t like the default look (for some reason it let me pick an avatar on the website but I didn’t look that way when I logged on– my first exposure to SL borks) so I quickly figured out the appearance thing enough to make me look different from everyone else — change the hair, shape, skin. I moved away and sort of stumbled around not knowing really what to do with myself. Then I saw a sign, that said you could fly by holding down the page-up button. I don’t know how far I flew, or where I went, but I flew and flew and flew. I saw all kinds of buildings and roads and now and then I saw other people — but I am shy and kept my distance.

I found a spot that was empty and I landed and spent about 15 minutes playing with the appearance editor, I had made my avatar look like a unique individual. I was still very much a noob but I was no longer a cookie cutter default noob, and I was satisfied. Then I flew again. Thinking back, I have no recollection of an Orientation Island, or Help Island. I didn’t know that new arrivals arrived on some restricted place until I read about that in these forums. I do not remember consiously doing anything to leave the arrival point other than flying and flying and flying. It’s possible I may have clicked something or teleported but I do not remember that. I just remember the flying. (If you can’t tell, it made a big impression on me )

At one point I found a thing that looked like a big glass ball, and you could sit in it and it would bounce you up in the air. I figured out how to sit in it and figured out how to stand up and get out, but I never figured out how to make it bounce me into the air. I was dissapointed about that.

I found a marina with sailboats and yaghts, and I found out that you can’t just sit in them and ride off with someone elses stuff, when the boat told me it wasn’t mine to play with. Feeling chastised and worried about annoying the boat owner, I wandered some more.

The landscape was littered with x-mas ornaments that night, and I remember a blue window with a message not to touch, take, or rez them because they were “Malicious Christmas Ornaments”. I remember thinking that ‘malicious christmas ornaments’ sounded very funny, but having already been reprimanded by the sailboat, I knew not to touch other people’s things.

Eventually I found a very pretty little park by some water, called Polihahu Park. It was quiet and peaceful and I decided that I wanted to stay there till I understood more about this fantastic, colourful and amazing world. I figured out how to ‘landmark’ the park so I would always be able to get back there. After exploring a few hours more, I eventually went back to the park, and logged off for the night.