jshepherd
Pearl Paradise
This is a beautiful write up by Esther Ligthart, who joined @jeg and I on the trip to Japan in November!
It was a warm July evening when a message appeared on my phone, the kind of message that feels casual when you first read it, yet lingers longer than expected once the screen goes dark.
“I would like to connect you with the president of the Pearl Association of America,” it read.
At the time, it felt like a kind introduction, nothing more than a thoughtful gesture between people who move within the same industry. I could not yet know that this small message would quietly unfold into a ten-day journey to Japan, nor that it would bring me closer to the origin of Akoya pearls and to questions I had been carrying with me for far longer than I realized.
Read the full story -
www.bizzita.com
It was a warm July evening when a message appeared on my phone, the kind of message that feels casual when you first read it, yet lingers longer than expected once the screen goes dark.
“I would like to connect you with the president of the Pearl Association of America,” it read.
At the time, it felt like a kind introduction, nothing more than a thoughtful gesture between people who move within the same industry. I could not yet know that this small message would quietly unfold into a ten-day journey to Japan, nor that it would bring me closer to the origin of Akoya pearls and to questions I had been carrying with me for far longer than I realized.
Read the full story -
The Secret Life of Akoya: 10 Days Inside Japan’s Protected Pearl World
What does it actually take to create a single Akoya pearl? I spent ten days behind the scenes with the Japan Pearl Exporters Association (JPEA), traveling from remote island bays to the high-stakes sorting rooms of Kobe. It wasn't just a business trip; it was a lesson in harmony, history, and...
www.bizzita.com
