It Pays to Move From Tokyo to Aichi

 I read about an interesting offer. Aichi Prefecture will pay people to move from Tokyo to Aichi.

Tokyo is the capital of Japan and while there is much to do and see in Tokyo, it is also the most crowded and expensive place in Japan to live. Aichi Prefecture is launching the Aichi Migration Support Project.  This project pays people to relocate from Tokyo to Aichi. Singles will be given 600,000 yen and families with two or more members will receive 1,000,000 yen. 

In order to qualify for the one time moving grant, people must have lived/worked in one of Tokyo's 23 wards for at least five years and intend to live in one of 49 cities in Aichi for at least five years. Those living elsewhere in Tokyo or Kanagawa, Saitama or Chiba prefectures who commute to work in one of Tokyo's 23 wards are also eligible. 

To give an example of the difference in the cost of living, the average cost of a 50-square meter apartment in Tokyo is 129,727 yen a month, while the same size apartment in Aichi averages just 74,530 yen. 

What do you think?  Would you make the move if you lived in Tokyo?

Friday Finish - Kimono Fabric Butterfly Bag

I used three fabrics for the bag - front, back, and inside. I like these three together.

The 3D Underwear Scanner

I have only read about this, I haven't seen it or tried it. Wacoal Holdings Corp. opened an underwear store on the fourth floor of the Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku in Shibuya, Tokyo that will measure a woman's body size without being touched by a clerk. 

The service is called "3D smart & try". Shoppers can enter a fitting room "measurement space" and their body will be scanned in five seconds, then reproduced with about 1.5 million dots.  The size is calculated based on the distance between the dots. A tablet computer will then propose underwear. You can find out more about this service here. 

What do you think? Would you try this service?

Work In Progress Wednesday

Fobs - all beading complete.

Watermelon Chicken Scratch - maybe I'll make this into a kitchen towel.

Heavy Metal Knitting Championships

The Japanese team Giga Body Metal were the winners of the first ever Heavy Metal Knitting World Championships held last week in Joensuu, Finland. The five person Japanese team featured crazy sumo wrestlers and team leader Manabu Kaneko dressed in traditional Japanese kimono. The purpose of the contest was to show knitting skills while dancing to heavy metal music.

Monday Morning Star Count - Week 10

Year Three of the temperature quilt  

Week 10

June 30 - July 6 

75, 77, 79, 81, 73, 75, 73

I am reporting the high temperature each day.  My Year Three temperature/color (Fahrenheit) scheme remains the same: 

100 + Brown 

90-99 Red  

80-89 Orange 

70-79 Yellow  

60-69 Green  

50-59 Blue 

40-49 Purple 

30-39 Pink 

20-29 White 

10-19 Black  

You can see my finished Year One Quilt here.

Travel Chocolate

Someone I know took a trip and brought me back this special chocolate.  Every area of Japan has special foods and special treats. This chocolate came from the Tohoku area of Japan. It was sweet and creamy and didn't taste like beans.

I finished eating the chocolate before I read the kcalorie count!

Stitch Group on Tanabata

We met last Sunday on Tanabata (July 7th in Shizuoka).  Tanabata is the one day of the year that the two lovers Vega and Altair meet in the Milky Way. This is the day to write down your wishes and hang them on bamboo branches. 

My stitching friends are so creative! They had a decorated bamboo branch and paper for us to write our wishes.  I wrote mine in Japanese.  It wasn't gramatically correct, but my friends could (almost) understand what I meant to say.

Some of us worked on our NHK Partnership Quilt Blocks.  Those who completed their blocks worked on Assisi, and I made some hexagons for my temperature quilt.  

A hexagon shell turtle, with a frog on his back.

A lion made with Japanese fabric yo-yos

Last time's hedge hog had some back problems so this is a seal or maybe a sea lion, I forget.

This is a kakigori eating polar bear.

Tea time was a big treat with melon, chocolate cake, and macha cookies from a cruise trip. 

Next time we are starting a new project and going out for our tea/treat time. You won't want to miss it!

Friday Finish - Assisi Needlebook

I used some Japanese kimono fabric to finish this little rabbit into a needlebook.  The twisted cording is made from the same DMC perle cotton used for the stitching.

World Embroidery Day is Coming! July 30, 2019

All over the world, embroidery will be celebrated on July 30, 2019. The Swedish Embroidery Guild has provided the information below. I will be stitching that day, how about you? I hope you will join in. 

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 em- broider 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 solitude.
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 SwedishEmbroiderer’s Guild. The first 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 filled with creativity for the sake of Peace, Freedom and Equality.

www.broderiakademin.nu

Work In Progress Wednesday - So Little Progress

I worked a little on the first block of the dogwood afghan.

I stitched this Japanese fabric butterfly to some other Japanese kimono fabric, in preparation for another bag.

I put a few more stitches into the miniature carpet.

Finally, I started making the beaded trim on some of the fobs.  

Just a little bit of progress.

NHK Partnership Quilt Block

This year's theme for the NHK Partnership Quilt Blocks is favorite animal.  I made a very simple block, using six hexagons - four pandas, a paw print and the top one is supposed to be bamboo. The background is panda print.

The deadline is July 31st, so you still have time!  You can see the rest of the details here.

Monday Morning Star Count - Week 9

Year Three of the temperature quilt  

Week 9 

June 23 - 29 

72, 70, 79, 82, 81, 86, 70

I am reporting the high temperature each day.  My Year Three temperature/color (Fahrenheit) scheme remains the same: 

100 + Brown 

90-99 Red  

80-89 Orange 

70-79 Yellow  

60-69 Green  

50-59 Blue 

40-49 Purple 

30-39 Pink 

20-29 White 

10-19 Black  

You can see my finished Year One Quilt here.

Lunch and a Museum

I met a friend in Shizuoka City for lunch and a visit to the Shizuoka City Museum. 

We had lunch at Kappadokiya and both ordered the same thing. The restaurant is small and very charming.

Next, we visited the Shizuoka City Museum, which was hosting an exhibit of Ukiyo-e Prints from the Mary Ainsworth Collection, Allen Memorial Museum of Art, Oberlin College, Ohio USA.  Photos were not allowed inside the exhibit, but I bought some post cards afterwards.

It was wonderful!  If you are in Shizuoka before the end of the month, please go.  After seeing the exhibit, we had a cup of coffee in the museum shop.

After the museum, we visited a little shop to buy some stitching supplies, then said good-bye.  We have another museum visit planned in the near future.