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I couldn't sleep last night, so I posted a bit more stuff on my Pearl Trip post. It's just a few things stuffed in here or there. It's not something at the end, but in the earlier posts. I'm off to an international Kumihimo (Japanese braiding) conference (in Cleveland of all places) this...

Tuesday, 10-June-2025. Unfortunately, I missed the last day of the 6th JPF (Japan Pearl Fair). There was a panel discussion with Yuko, Jeremy, Helena, and Tevai, on the sustainability of pearls at 10 a.m., and I missed it. My flight home started at noon, and it was an hour taxi ride to...

IMPORTANT INFORMATION. The JPF started at 10 a.m. today. At 10:15 a.m. we went to Tatsu Kuramoto's booth for a lecture on pearl quality. Tatsu is VP of JPEA as well as a pearl vendor. Tatsu told us that the Hanadama certificates have become meaningless. Ten years ago (2015) when I bought...

Monday, 9-June-2025. I went up to the 30th floor for breakfast at 7 a.m. As I was waiting in line, a random lady sat next to me and handed me a large 4 leaf clover type plant in a sparkly plastic sleeve. She was wearing pearls, so she must have recognized me from the fair. She said...

At 6 p.m., the Japan Pearl Fair held a Welcome Party in one of the banquet rooms of the Portopia Hotel. Lots of good food. Lots of speeches in Japanese, translated into Chinese and English. Jeremy was called up, and he introduced each of us to the crowd. Then we took a group photo. In...

Tevai found the Ritikea Tahitian pearls first. WOWZA! We're talking $70K USD retail for a single strand. My knees went weak when I walked up to the booth. When viewing the next photo, my husband said, "I like the bottom strand." And I said, "Congratulations. You just picked the most...

2 mm keshi. I would have loved to have bought this whole hank of strands, but there were priced by the single strand. And I really don't want to string multiple strands of those tiny pearls. These really glowed. At Takashi's booth, he showed us his top quality pearls. They were already...

Sunday, 8-June-2025 I had breakfast on the 30th floor with Andy. We were both the early risers of the group. The 6th JPF. Japan Pearl Fair. https://japan-pearlfair.com/en/ This is a wholesale show. Retail vendors go to this show to buy their inventory. Jewelers go to this show to buy the...

Huge natural pearl. Amazing 19th century watch. The natural pearls are incredibly well matched. The watch is solid gold, and HEAVY. Too much? After we looked and touched and tried on everything (except the tiara), we went to the Mikimoto store. Jeremy said it was probably for...

After wandering around the Mikimoto museum by ourselves, we found out that the director of the museum had been waiting for us for an hour in the library. Hisano said she'd never seen so many books about pearls, but they were all in Japanese. Most of us bought "Pearl Book" by Shigeru Akamatsu...

Pearl pagodas. A replica of the pearl Liberty Bell, complete with crack made with blue pearls. A pearl and diamond globe. It's taller than I am. I was hoping that the gift shop would have a coffee table style book showing all the exhibits with good photos. They did not. I...

We were right on time for the pearl diving exhibition, so we watched 3 ladies fake pearl dive. Today, the oysters are put in baskets and can be hauled to the surface. Nobody has to dive for them. Then we walked into the museum. I said, "If they say a pearl forms around a grain of sand, I...

It was a 3 1/2 hour drive to the Mikimoto Museum, with practically no scenery the entire way. Just tunnels and highways with high walls on both sides. We arrived at 12:30 p.m. and went to an udon noodle shop. I finally got my bowl of noodles, although I never ended up having any ramen...

Friday, 7-June-2025. MIKIMOTO PEARL MUSEUM on Mikimoto Pearl Island! I ate breakfast on the 30th floor. They had an amazing buffet. I tried everything. I love the Mochi. It reminded me of Turkish Delight, except Mochi is made from rice and I think it was coated with matcha. Turkish...

Supper tonight at a restaurant. Yuko (the professor) joined us. Another multi-course gourmet meal that couldn't be beat. I have a confession. I thought with all the walking, and stair climbing, and probably just eating ramen, that I would lose weight on this trip. I gained 6 pounds in...

And lastly, matching the pearls into 16 inch length strands. Once again, you have to see this in motion. I could maybe handle this job. Let's look at why matching is so important. Can you tell the difference between these two strands? I know you can. The strand on the left is dull...

After the pearls are drilled, they go to the sorting room. Here they are trying to sort out the lustrous pearls from the chalky pearls. The round pearls from the square or triangular or baroque shapes. From a distance they all looked round to me. Again, it's all done by natural light...

A long drive back to Matsuyama Airport. We boarded a small propeller plane which took off at 12:30 p.m. We landed in Osaka 50 minutes later. This is my smoothest flight of the entire trip. Then I walked down the stairs and across the tarmac to get to the airport. I haven't done that...

Friday, 6-June-2025 Moving day. I woke up at 5 a.m. again and packed. I went downstairs and spun silk until 8 a.m. Today's breakfast was a traditional Japanese breakfast, so there was no problem with there being any dairy in it. Miso soup Raw egg on rice. No, it's not gross. The rice is...

Then we had to kill time for 40 minutes because the road back to the Riverside Lodge was under construction, and it's barely wide enough for 2 cars, so they just close it completely. We found a pearl store to kill time in, as you do. Then back to the Riverside Lodge and another multi-course...