Aug 11, 2025
Today is Monday, but in Japan it is “Mountain Day,” a national holiday. However, I think many people are on their Obon holidays, so they have a long weekend anyway. The length of the holidays depends on the company—some end on the 13th, others on the 17th.
Since yesterday, it has been raining heavily in our area, and there are many announcements warning people to watch out for disasters.
The heavy rain is falling all across Japan, and in some places there is flooding.
I’m happy to have rain after such a long time, but it feels like there’s just too much of it.
Today, I worked on making the Aruki panels (moving panels) for new 4-sun 14-steps puzzle boxes.
Originally, I had planned to do the gluing and finishing work for a 2-sun box, but because of the rain and high humidity, I decided to pause work on the 2-sun box. So, for the 4-sun box, I only made the Aruki panels today, without attaching them. It’s better to avoid attaching parts on very humid days.
This 4-sun box will be made only for orders and a small amount of extra stock—about 20 pieces in total—so I think it will be finished fairly soon. The design uses rosewood panels for the top and bottom surfaces.
I also started preparing for a limited-edition box that I plan to make this month. This time it will be a 2-sun cube. Today I prepared the materials for the solid wood lid panels. Last month, I also made limited-edition box (4-sun box). Last month’s model had the number “202507” after the product name, and this month’s model will have the number “202508.”
Actually, I had planned to slice the Ichimatsu (checkered pattern) yosegi today because high humidity is good for that process. The sliced sheets are very thin—only about 0.2 mm—so if the air is too dry, they can fall apart easily. That’s why humidity is important. However, I couldn’t do the slicing today because of my schedule.
It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow, so I hope I can do it then. Thinking about it now, I realize that high-humidity days can also be important for my work 😄
