I'm Shima from gemish, a natural stone accessory brand.

The reason I decided to start gemish was because of a stay in Australia when I was in my twenties.

At the time, I was living in Perth, Western Australia, but I wanted to travel around Australia, so I decided to go on a trip.
I left Perth alone with a big backpack.
I took a five-day train ride to Sydney. I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so I took the slow train instead of a plane. I was young, so I was able to do this trip... and now I'm glad I took the train.

During that trip, I stopped by a souvenir shop in a tourist spot and saw some large pearls for sale, and I thought, "I wish I could buy pearls like that in Japan," which is what led me to start Gemish.

At the time, online shops were not yet popular, so the only image I had of pearls sold in Japan was the "Akoya pearls" sold in department stores. Since I only knew of small, expensive Japanese pearls, I thought, "It would be cute if younger people wore larger pearls."

Although I am not yet able to procure Australian South Sea pearls, I would like to start purchasing them little by little in the future.

I'll write more about my trip on another occasion.
Thank you for reading to the end.