These uniquely shaped earrings seem to have caught your eye.

 

 

If you are drawn to baroque pearls like these, you must be quite an advanced Akoya pearl enthusiast.

Now, these earrings were made on May, 2022. At some point, I took down the listing, and they remained unlisted until I finally decided to bring them back in August 2026.

These photos were taken on August 22, 2026, under the bright summer sunshine on a beautiful sunny day.

It seems that Flower Jem back then was no different from Flower Jem today—the original description has almost nothing to do with pearls.

 

 

It was a story about driving with my mother to visit my brother and his family because she wanted to see her grandchildren, whom she had been unable to visit during the COVID years.

I had completely forgotten about it myself.

Even though it was the weekend, after finishing work I traveled for an hour to my parents’ house, picked up my mother, and then drove another three or four hours to my brother’s home. Looking back at it now, even I am impressed by how much energy I had.

There is also something I should mention about the pearls themselves.

The color of one pearl seems to have become slightly lighter over the years.

 

 

With some natural blue pearls, moisture inside the pearl may gradually evaporate after drilling over a period of several years. This may alter the way light behaves inside the pearl, causing the color to appear lighter. That appears to be what has happened with this pair.

The luster, however, remains unchanged.

There are even a few older pearl dealers who choose not to sell blue pearls because their color can sometimes become lighter with age. One pearl dealer I know has an interesting situation: his father holds this view, while the son would like to sell blue pearls. The son once told me that as long as his father is still running the business, he simply has to be patient.

 

 

In most cases, however, any color change happens immediately when the pearl is drilled, as the heat generated by friction causes moisture to evaporate.

With this particular pearl, the color seems to have become lighter gradually over several years. Cases like this may be relatively uncommon.

Well, my introduction has become quite long already.

What were you doing back in 2022?

 

 

🌸 The following is the original description from 2022.

These are Akoya pearl earrings measuring over 9mm.

The thick nacre gives the pearls a deep color and fascinating luster. Their shape is heavily baroque, and I think the more you look at them, the more attached you may become to their distinctive shapes. Each pearl has a character of its own.

Today is May 29th.

On the evening of the 27th, I traveled with my mother to visit my brother and his family. Because of COVID, my mother had not been able to see my brother’s family for quite some time. Recently, restrictions had begun to ease, so she decided it was finally time to visit them.

 

 

My mother is not very comfortable driving long distances, so I decided to drive.

After finishing work on Friday, I rode my motorcycle for about an hour to my parents’ house.

I arrived there at 6:40 p.m. Then my mother and I got into her car and headed toward the town where my brother and his family lived.

It was about 250 km away, and most of the journey was on the highway. There were very few cars at night, and because the highway ran through the mountains, it was almost completely dark.

We were making good progress at an average speed of about 140 km/h.

After driving for about an hour, we stopped at a service area.

 

 

That was when we discovered that the car was running very low on gasoline.

It was already 9:20 p.m. We were in a rural mountain area, and there were no nearby gas stations. I searched on Google and found a gas station about 26 km away after leaving the highway.

By then, the car’s display had stopped showing how much gasoline was left. Instead, it kept displaying an ominous red warning:

“Please refuel.”

 

 

My mother became very anxious, but I thought somehow we would manage.

In the end, we arrived at the gas station at 9:46 p.m., just before it closed.

The car’s fuel tank holds 40 liters, and we put in 37.5 liters.

So there had been only about 2 liters left.

My mother’s car is a hybrid—half gasoline, half electric—and normally the fuel level seems to go down very slowly. Because of that, I had completely let my guard down about the gasoline.

We refueled safely and arrived at our destination about 40 minutes later.

 

 

We didn’t go to my brother’s house that night. Instead, we stayed at a hotel in a nearby hot spring resort.

There was only one izakaya open near the hotel, so we went there.

The restaurant wasn’t particularly good at getting the food and drinks out quickly. The man running the place was working alone, but he was a very kind and pleasant person.

Even though our food was already taking quite a while, he received a delivery order and simply left the restaurant to make the delivery.

 

 

Before leaving, he smiled at us and said, “Take your time.”

My mother, however, said, “The sake and food are taking too long. I wish he would hurry.”

Still, my mother was smiling the whole time.

 

 

And so was I.

I rarely have the chance to go to an izakaya with my mother. I was happy simply to have the time to drink and talk with her.

The man who ran the restaurant also seemed very pleased because I drank quite a lot and ate quite a lot of food.

Considering the level of service, I wouldn’t be surprised if some customers became angry at that restaurant.

But I think being able to enjoy yourself is very important.

 

 

The man was working hard.

And we had a good time.

That’s all that mattered.

And so Friday ended happily.

The next day, we went to my brother’s house.

I’ll write the rest of the story in another item’s description.

Thank you.

 

 

 

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