Japanese bondage rope - suspension kit by Doc Johnson - review by Kayla

When I received this rope in the mail, I was really excited. The package is a little big just to be holding the rope, but it does look really nice. There's no naked people on the packaging, and it almost looks like something you could find at Wal-Mart. There's a link to the Doc Johnson website advising you to register your rope. (You have to register it within ten days for it to count. It's a thirty day warranty.) Out of the box, the rope didn't appear to have any weak spots. Neither does the other copy of this rope I own. In fact, with the other rope, it's still holding amazingly strong in the past six months I've had it.

You can buy this rope in red, black, and purple. The black comes pretty true to color, but I'm not too sure about the red or the purple. This rope is 32 feet (10 meters) long. That's more than enough rope to be able to tie the wrists and hands together for a hogtie. Honestly, that's a lot more rope than most rope-newbies will need. It's a pretty decent sized rope for doing any sort of elaborate rope bondage, though. My sub is a very skinny guy, so we can easily get a rope harness done with just this piece of rope. Most advanced rope users recommend a piece of 25 feet for most rope work, so with this rope, you're more than safe. Also, this rope appears to hold up to lots of weight. My subbie loves to struggle in his bindings, but he's never even so much as strained the rope. However, it does love those pretty little rope marks on him that all rope-lovers love.

The rope is a nice, pretty black cotton. It's very soft, and like the package claims, it won't cause any rope burns unless you are deliberately trying. It's very soft to touch and definitely a good rope to start learning rope bondage. Personally, I prefer this over the "expensive" ropes. When you tie knots in this rope, it can tend to be a little hard to get them out, so be careful about how tight you pull your knots or be prepared to spend a little extra time untying your partner. If you're interested in learning some advanced rope bondage, I suggest you go Twisted Monk's Videos. They provide good, online beginner videos for free. It's much easier than attempting to learn from a book.

The ends are not taped off which is my only complaint with this rope. It makes sense because most serious rope bondage users will color code their ropes by their ends, but I believe this rope was most likely targeted towards new rope users. Since this is cotton, do not try to burn the edges to keep them from fraying. Instead, you'll need to go and get some electrical tape, tape around the ends of the rope in a circular motion until you've covered the entire end plus some, then cut off in the middle of where you have taped. This will prevent the rope from fraying.

To clean your rope, put it in a delicates bag and into the washer. In fact, I recommend it. Using fabric softener on these ropes will make it even more soft to touch as well as cleaning the rope. Direct sunlight isn't amazing for the rope, but unless it's left there for long periods of time, it won't hurt it.

All-in-all, a great rope for beginners and a great rope for Advanced users. Personally, I never plan on purchasing the more expensive ropes, and I wish they made this rope in longer lengths as well.