I just realized that my blog hasn’t been updated since October 13.
As I mentioned in previous posts, I left my job at a pearl company last year and now work for a food-related company on weekdays—completely unrelated to pearls. I only work with pearls on weekends, but since last year, I’ve been dedicating more time to YouTube.
When purchasing pearls, it is extremely difficult to assess their quality based on images alone. That’s why I started making videos to showcase pearl products, making it easier to judge their quality.
This is a picture from my first visit to the shrine this year.
Additionally, when customers place custom orders, I believe showing them the process through video helps them better understand the pearls and the final product.
That said, until last autumn, I was able to allocate a reasonable amount of time to my pearl work. However, since then, my available time has significantly decreased due to various errands and tasks.
On top of that, I am currently preparing for my first-ever tax return. This process is truly overwhelming.
Today is February 1, 2025. The deadline for tax filing is March 17. I took my bookkeeping, which I had about 80% completed, to a tax accountant I found online for consultation.
Every year at the beginning of the year, I take a donation to the temple my family belongs to. This year, I walked about 4 kilometers with my brother. He is busy with work and raising children, so I didn’t have time to talk to him at length. However, walking with him for these 4 kilometers was a good time to talk about various things with him for the first time in a while. He doesn’t like me being a chatterbox, but I love him.
I had been working hard on it even during the New Year holidays. But to cut to the chase—it was a failure.
In the end, I had to entrust everything to the tax accountant.
The truth is, many people in the pearl industry are wealthy and run highly profitable businesses. But I am not making much money at all. And yet, I now have to spend a considerable amount to hire a tax accountant.
Even the tax accountant said, “You can’t sustain yourself with this level of income.”
It may sound like a sore loser’s complaint, but for me, making money is important, but above all, I have fallen in love with pearls.
This is a New Year’s dish made by my mother. My mother is good at sewing, but I think she’s also good at cooking. Perhaps my mother, who makes everything herself, has influenced me to want to make everything myself. However, my mother doesn’t think she is good at cooking or sewing. That’s why I respect my mother. I think that sometimes it’s because she doesn’t think she’s good at something that she continues to work hard at it.
It takes time, but I am determined to make it work.
Now that I am leaving the accounting to the tax accountant, I believe that once tax season is over, I will have more time to focus on pearls.
This year, I want to cherish each pearl even more and craft metal fittings through my own metalworking, presenting pearl products that are entirely my own creation.
I want people to say, “Flower Jem pearls are amazing.”
This is the town where I was born. It’s a rural area with a population of 40,000. On New Year’s Day, my mother, my brother’s family and I climbed a small mountain overlooking the town. It’s a mountain that probably 90% of the townspeople don’t climb. My family may be a little unusual. It was a windy day, but I’ll remember the time I spent holding my mother’s hand and climbing the mountain, panting.
The world is in chaos.
People’s expectations are becoming increasingly demanding, and goods and services are already more than abundant.
However, the more convenient the world becomes, the emptier my heart feels.
Efficiency and convenience are wonderful, and I support them. But somehow, my heart remains unsatisfied.
I can’t quite explain it, but perhaps as a reaction to this kind of environment, I have an even stronger desire to spend time clumsily and painstakingly working with the pearls I love.
Every year at the beginning of the year, my family and I go somewhere together. We decide the destination really randomly. This year we went to Osaka. It’s about an hour and a half by car from my parents’ house. We just wandered around randomly as a family. The words on the beer say, “It’s not about whether you can do it or not, it’s up to you.” To me, it looked like it said, “Drink!”
Some might say, “What are you even talking about?”
In the end, I think I chose pearls as a means of self-expression.
And deep down, I unconsciously crave connection with society.
Through pearls, I hope to connect with people who resonate with my feelings.
Spending time with friends and family is wonderful. However, no matter who I am with, I always feel a hint of loneliness.
This is also a local tourist spot that I visited with my family at the beginning of the year. Although it is a tourist spot, there are hardly any tourists. It is said to be 500 arhats. It is said that they are unknown when they were made or who made them. When I was in elementary school, I visited here as part of a school field trip. At the time, I felt that the fact that the details of these stone statues are completely unknown means that no one is trying to unravel them. The teacher said, “There is surely a face among these that is the same as everyone else. Let’s all find a face that looks like us.” I thought that was a typical teacher-like statement. Anyway, the day we visited was a calm day. It was very quiet and the atmosphere was clearly calm, so I was able to relax and enjoy the silence. Maybe something resides in things made by humans.
Haruki Murakami once wrote, “Understanding is just a collection of misunderstandings.”
Truly understanding someone is difficult.
Some people may realize this, while others may not.
Even if I think I understand it, I still always carry the desire—or maybe the weakness—of wanting to be understood.
However, when I am handling pearls, that feeling disappears.
Because I can accept that only those who understand will understand.
Even so, there are moments when people appreciate the pearls I find beautiful.
That brings me the greatest happiness right now.
I don’t know if what I’m saying makes sense, but interacting with people through pearls brings me immense joy.
I’ve been playing the guitar and reading for much longer than I’ve been involved with pearls, yet I’ve never felt this way about those activities.
Today’s conversation with the tax accountant made me realize all this.
A stone statue representing the Year of the Sheep. 未(Kanji)→Sheep, ひつじ(Hiragana)→Sheep, ヒツジ(Katakana)→Sheep, And I was born in the year of the sheep.
Even though I’m not making much money, I forget to eat and sleep because I am so engrossed in my work.
Everyone’s life is like a candle’s flame—it will eventually go out.
Since my flame has been lit, I want to burn properly until the very end.
And when the flame finally dies, I want to be able to say, “I burned brightly and fully.”
Hmm… I must have been more shaken by today’s meeting with the tax accountant than I realized.
Unusually, I have so many things I want to get off my chest.
Anyway, thank you for always visiting my store.
Even though my updates are slow, I hope you’ll continue to follow along at your own pace.
I’m always open to hearing your requests for pearl products you’d like to see.
Please check out my Instagram and YouTube as well!
That’s all for now!
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