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Tuesday, 3-June-2025 Jeremy, Hisano, and I walked around the covered streets that were like a shopping mall, next to our hotel. We found a store selling pearls, so of course we had to check it out. One strand was very, very pink. We asked them to take it out for us to look at closer...

I started on Sunday, 1-June-2025, from Orlando, Florida. I flew to Minneapolis to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, and then on to Matsuyama. I travelled for 26 hours, and managed to somehow get a taxi to the hotel and collapse onto the bed. I was exhausted. I'm glad a googled the hotel rooms...

First up, what to wear? I knew I had to wear akoya pearls for this trip. Plus, I wanted to make sure that everyone important to me was represented. From the top! Mikimoto earrings. Little h emerald and pearl tin-cup and little h emerald and soufflé pearl enhancer, all made by Hisano...

In February, 2025, Jeremy Shepherd sent me a message here on Pearl Guide. "Would you be interested in joining a small select group for an all-expense paid trip to Japan to visit a pearl farm in Uwajima and a behind-the-scenes experience with the JPEA and the JPPS (Japan Pearl Exporters...

WOWZA! I LOVE that brooch. I love blue pearls, and I love the design of that brooch. I've never seen baroque pearls in old Mikimoto pieces, and it's rare to see them use yellow gold. Most of the brooches I've seen have been silver. This is a real treasure. Oh, and "in your face"...

WOWZA, those akoyas are amazing, JEG.

I decided to actually wear a pair of Mom's mabe' earrings. These are swapsies from my sister. Ones she decided she didn't want. They're growing on me. The pearls themselves are beautiful. Worn with The Swan pendant. I can never capture all the colors in this pearl. I bought it from...

Don't give him pearls unless you know for sure he'll wear them. Why don't you ask him what he'd like? He may just like an experience, like a place you two go together.

Oh yes, I try to photograph in my bathroom on a sunny day, but in the shade, not in direct sunlight. My bathroom is all white, and I drape white towels on me, so I don't reflect in the pearls.

I take the photo and then upload it to my laptop, and use the photo app to crop the photo and adjust the colors so they look like they do to my eye. I could also use the iPhone camera app itself to make those adjustments, but I find it easier to do on my Mac. Don't get too close to the pearls...

OH, thank you for the photos! I'm so sorry to have missed it, again. I'm really going to try to make it next year. There was just too much going on this year for me. It looks like a wonderful time was had by all!

OOO JEG, thanks for posting all those PBTB Kojima pics. It's nice to see what many of those pieces look like modeled.

It always takes me three tries to restring each necklace.

My sister's back for a visit, and we're swapping some of Mom's jewelry back and forth again. This time my sister gave me the pearl earrings my mother wore every day back in the 1960s. Double pearl earrings were very popular back then. Very Mad Men. These are small akoyas and they're still...

BAS!!!!!! Welcome back! I'm so glad you're the one who got that glorious double strand of conch pearls. It's a treasure.

I'm hope I can zoom in on Pearls on the Bay tomorrow. Wearing white pearls today to my weaving guild meeting. Long Hanadama rope and golden South Sea tin-cup from PP. My first akoya rope from 1982. Snowman and Summer Rainbow pendants from Kojima on my own hoop earrings. Mom's vintage...

OH, I totally forgot about Miki grade A1. Yes, A1 is lower than A-. Grades A will have minor blemishes you can barely see. Grades AA will have minor, minor blemishes you can barely see with amazing luster. Grades AAA will be perfect and the luster is off the charts. Miki grades pearls...

The clasp looks legit, but I'm not sure about the pearls. The knotting does look a bit wonky, and the strand is missing the "M" dangle, although older strands did not have the "M" dangle. Mikimoto pearls have the "A" quality being the LOWEST quality. They go from A-, A, A+, AA-, AA, AA+...

OOOOO, lovely!

I agree. We're only going by what they look like in the photos. You need to take these to a certified gem lab. When cultured freshwater pearls from China started hitting, they were sometimes unscrupulously sold as naturals, because they looked so much like them. So when we say your pearls...