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The day isn't over yet. We went to the Warei Shrine. It has the largest, solid rock Torii (the big gate) in Japan. Here you can see our two videographers under the Torii, photographing us. Instead of saying "Cheese" we always said "LUSTER!" The building in the back is where you wash...

Ooo, I have a lot to catch up on. If you're reading my Pearl Trip post, YouTube is finally letting me post more videos. So reread the earlier posts, because I may have added more stuff!

We're not even done with today yet. I'll be back with more later.

After lunch we drove to Uwajima Castle. But first we made a stop at Inoue Pearl. It is a small shop in one of those covered streets. At first I wondered if it was a holiday, because all the stores were closed except for Inoue Pearl. But no, all the stores are out of business. It was very...

Thursday, 5-June-2025 I woke up at 5 a.m. again. I never did get my body clock onto Japan time. But, I did have my best sleep ever at The Riverside Lodge. I heard the river babbling past my window all night. I love it here. I went down to the living room and opened all the curtains...

Our group took up the main lodge building. The Japanese contingent stayed in rooms right across the one lane street. At 7 p.m. we met in the Lodge's restaurant. Since we were the only occupants, we had the whole small place to ourselves, and we filled it. The restaurant is attached to the...

The Riverside Lodge is GORGEOUS! It looks like a cross between a Swiss chalet and a very Zen Japanese mountain retreat. The slope down to the front door was very steep. Andy, Hisano, Tevai, Jeremy, and Ruby. I don't remember who the man coming towards us is. The foyer had a cupboard to...

We followed Yukio's little white truck for the next 1 1/2 hours through winding mountain roads that's barely seemed wide enough for 2 cars. We stopped in a tiny farming village of about 120 people, and went to a small organic farm. We were given a basket and told to go pick the vegetables for...

The weather was beautiful, as you can tell from the photos. 70F with a light breeze and clear. I'd checked online and people said that June started the rainy season in Japan, and that it would be hot and humid. I live in central Florida. I know hot and humid. Japan was not hot and humid...

And I'm only halfway through DAY 1 !!!! I'll post more tomorrow.

The 4th pearl farm. Only 2 grafters here. The grafter inserted a bead, then 2 pieces of mantle tissue, and then a second bead. Back in the day, all pearl farms did two nuclei beads per oyster, but I suspect this was back when the oysters were larger. Akoya oysters today are very small...

Now, I know you all know and hate those pearl parties that were popular a few years ago. The ones where unscrupulous people would take dead baby akoyas and stuff them with cheap freshwater pearls from China, pack the oysters in formaldehyde, and sell them to people to open and find a pearl...

Neither had we!

Now we're off to our 3rd pearl farm. DOI Pearl. Once again, look how clean everything is. There was no fishy smell anywhere. Everything smelled fresh. Even leaning over the oysters, everything smelled fresh. Akoya shells cannot be used to make the bead that goes inside the pearl...

The Japanese had us scheduled to the minute. We had to go right next door to the next pearl farm. 4 pearl grafters at this farm, and one person on the left cutting up the mantle tissue. This lovely married couple have been grafting a long time. He's been grafting 50 years, and she's been...

Each pearl grafter had their own technique for culturing pearls. This gentleman makes a cut in the oyster's gonad, then he inserts a piece of mantle tissue, and then he inserts a round shell bead (the nucleus of the pearl) up against the mantle tissue. Remember, the mantle tissue is tiny...

Wednesday, 4-June-2025. The Japanese take us on! We checked out of the hotel and drove to Matsuyama Airport to pick up Tevai. Our group is now complete. We drove to Uwajma City for lunch, and met the Japanese team. We ate Taimeshi again, so those of us "in the know" instructed the...

At 7:15 p.m. we met Nathalie and Helena in the lobby of the hotel. And Jeremy's friend, Takashi, took us out for a multi course, traditional Japanese meal. Private room. Tatami mats. We sat on the floor. AMAZING food. I have no idea what I ate although it was explained to me at time...

At 1 p.m. we walked to a quiet street at the base of the castle and Hisano picked the restaurant. It served local TAIMESHI. It's a rice bowl dish in which sea bream sashimi (locally caught) is dipped in a sauce of raw egg, soy sauce, and dashi stock, plus various toppings, and then poured...

We met Ruby and Andy at the hotel at 11 a.m. It was lightly raining. In Florida I would have called this type of rain "humidity." Jeremy kept trying to keep an umbrella over me, and I kept wandering out from under it. We walked across the street to Matsuyama Castle. It's the largest of the...