Monday Morning Star Count

I cut more squares of fabric, clipped them to templates to be ready to stitch up, and actually stitched some of them. So far it is just a nooks and crannies kind of thing on the back burner.  When I think of what I want to make, I will be ready.

Tossing Butts

 

Nara Deer Population at Record High

I have visited Nara a couple of times. There are many things to see and do, including seeing the sacred deer. I posted in March 2024 about the deer I saw on my trip, when there were approximately 1400 deer. The deer are protected as national treasures.

The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation reported that the deer population has now hit a record high of 1,687, with the birth rate rising because deer are being fed food other than the sugar free deer crackers. The group has surveyed the deer numbers every year since 1953. 

The latest survey was conducted by about 40 people over two days. The breakdown was 411 males, 990 females, and 286 fawns. In the year ending in late June, 198 deer died, including 72 fawns, mainly in traffic accidents. The Preservation Foundation asks that visitors drive more slowly in the vast park, saying fawns often dash out as they follow their mothers.

Little Friday Finishes

I added hexagons to these small towels.

Fronts and backs of ornaments and fobs. I previously stitched the designs, and finish finished them this week.

World Embroidery Day

Today is World Embroidery Day. 

I’m fortunate to be able to stitch every day, without other obligations. I do like the idea of a special day, with people all over the world stitching. I haven’t worked on this one in quite a while. I think today is a good day to pick it up again.

How will you observe this day?

Manifesto for World Embroidery Day 30th of July

Textile reflects our world; embroideries can show the expressions of our time. Embroidery and textiles can focus on the social injustices between countries.

By the means of embroidery we can draw attention to the necessity of engaging in the force of textile in global trade and with it in world peace. Textiles is a power and let us use embroidery as an inspiration for people to engage in creativity that leads to a better understanding between countries and between people.

To embroider is a peaceful occupation. It can be traditional made from a common remembrance, drawn designs, from a pattern, or from your own imagination. You embroider for joy, beauty, decoration and for the creation of identity.

Stitches can be decorative, beautiful, comforting, repeating, healing, telling, plea- surable, rebellious, caressing and perfect.

People embroider out of joy, as a hobby, professionally, for the bare necessities of life and as an act of freedom. You embroider together with others or in meditative soli- tude.

We want to acknowledge embroidery as an act of free creativity, which can lead to free, creative thoughts and ideas. We want to tie our embroidery threads from the privi- leged northern hemisphere together with stiches that are sewn by embroidering sisters and brothers all over the world.

We want to be part of a joyfully creative peace movement.

The initiative came from Skåne Sy-d, a local group of Broderiakademin, the Swedish Embroiderer’s Guild. The rst World Embroidery Day took place in Vismarlöv, 30th July 2011. The importance of embroidery must be made known and World Embroidery Day will spread around the world. Make 30th July a day lled with creativity for the sake of Peace, Freedom and Equality.

www.broderiakademin.nu

Work In Progress Wednesday

Sashiko, three panels finished

Great Wave progress

Hardanger progress

Breaking Update News - The Lip Sew-er Case

 If you haven’t already, read this post first.

A few days ago, I wrote about the woman who escaped her shared home with sewn lips to tell the police her roommate had done it the day before, but she couldn’t escape when it first happened.  Ibaraki Police have now rearrested 50 year old Masae Sakurai on suspicion of coercion after she allegedly intimidated her female roommate into sewing her own lips together previously.

Yes, you read that right. Masae Sakurai, a self described part-time worker, is accused of threatening the 42 year old victim at their shared residence in Koga City, Ibaraki Prefecture on the night of June 18. According to Koga Police, Sakurai is suspected of sewing a woman’s lips together on June 29 (causing injuries of undetermined severity) after having forced her to sew them herself ten days prior. Sakurai allegedly presented her roommate with a threaded needle and demanded she hurry up and do it. The terrified victim was forced to stitch her own lips together multiple times. When she was rearrested on July 24, Sakurai flatly denied the allegations. Police are continuing to investigate the living situation.

Record Cash Turned in to Police in 2025

If you lose something in Japan, chances are you will get it back. Studies have shown that Japan ranks among the highest in the world for civic honesty. 

A record 4.5 billion yen cash was turned in to Tokyo Police as lost property in 2025. This was up 0.5% from 2024, according to police statistics. More than 70% of the money came from public facilities, such as supermarkets with self check out registers. According to the Metropolitan Police Department’s lost and found, the largest single amount turned into police was 27 million yen. About 3.23 million yen was returned to the owners, while approximately 590 million yen was given to the honest finders who turned in the money. Roughly 680 million yen became metropolitan government revenue. 

The number of other items given to police was up 3 percent from 2024, for a record high of about 4.5 million items. The most common items were drivers licenses and other identification, while the number of small electronics handed in continues to increase.

Monday Morning Star Count

I don’t have a new project in the works yet, but I want to be ready when I do think of something. I have been pressing the small pieces of fabric I have, cutting them into two and a half inch squares and clipping them to the hexagon paper templates. My plan is to stitch them into hexagons in the nooks and crannies of time I find. Then, when I do think of a project, I will already have hexagons made to choose from. It’s win-win, I will use up the small pieces of fabric and I will have hexagons already made up.

Nara Prison Hotel

I first posted about this prison to hotel project here in 2022. At that time, it was anticipated that the hotel would open in 2024, but due to an earthquake-resistance assessment, it was delayed. The end of June 2026, it opened for business.

The prison was one of five built by the government during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), showcasing modern prison facilities in Japan. It later became a juvenile prison, closing in 2017 because the aging facilities.

Hoshino Resorts, Inc. now runs the property as a luxury hotel, with 48 suites, which were created by combining former cells. The property is turning the prison into a tourist attraction. The site is near Nara Park, known for landmarks such as the Todai-ji temple complex and its free-roaming deer. 

A one night stay starts at 147,000 yen per suite room, which includes visiting the Nara Prison Museum. The hotel aims for an 80 per cent occupancy rate within three years. 

I would like to stay at this hotel, but it is a little out of my price range. Maybe I could just visit the museum.

Hello Kitty Travel Manners

Thank you to Queeniepatch for forwarding this to me. If you forget your manners, Hello Kitty will remind you.

K