It has been a very long time.
Updates to the Flower Jem News had completely come to a stop.
Summer is already here, but Flower Jem was born in summer, so it is alive and well and keeping busy.
In Japan, we have now entered the Obon season.
Obon is a time when our ancestors are believed to temporarily return to this world.
And during this season, seven pairs of earrings were created from 114 pearls.
The name of this series is simply:
“Obon.”
I wrote articles about Flower Jem’s memories of Obon from years past, as well as more technical stories about pearls—for example, “Let’s Look at the Rarity of 9mm Pearls Through Numbers.”
At the moment, the articles up to Obon 06 have been completed.
Their character counts are as follows:
Obon 01 — 8,626 characters
Obon 02 — 9,867 characters
Obon 03 — 9,464 characters
Obon 04 — 14,606 characters
Obon 05 — 13,518 characters
Obon 06 — 18,513 characters
You can start with any of them and hopefully enjoy the stories or learn something about pearls, but I would be very happy if you started with Obon 01.
Rather than ordinary pearl sales pages, they have somehow turned into something like an “Obon collection of short stories.”
However, each article also includes photographs of the pearl earrings themselves, as well as videos showing parts of the production process—sorting the pearls, drilling them, and attaching the earring fittings with adhesive.
I hope you enjoy them.
Since it is Obon, I am now going back to my family home.
Originally, I had planned to finish Obon 07 before leaving, but it seems that 07 will instead become an article about Obon this year.
And so, I am heading back to my family home to welcome our ancestors.
See you again soon.