Book an oyster pearl farm experience in Japan and pluck Uwajima pearls yourself! Observe and learn about traditional Japanese pearl farming and culturing in beautiful Ehime Prefecture. Head to a raft to pick your own oyster from the Uwakai Sea. Retrieve a pearl from the shellfish and create a personalized accessory to take home.
Find out how to farm pearls on this guided tour. You'll learn all about pearl farming, and culturing: the process of implanting a small item in an oyster's shell to be transformed into a pearl. The oyster secretes thousands of layers of nacre over a period of several months, creating a glistening white pearl. Witness this process, from the point where a shell fragment is inserted into an oyster, through to the point it is harvested. Learn the secrets of selecting high-quality Japanese cultured pearls from a knowledgeable instructor at Ehime’s oldest pearl farm. After learning about the process, head out to sea on a raft and retrieve your own oyster. Remove the pearl from the oyster shell yourself, and then create a personalized accessory using the pearl. This cultured farming technique was invented in Japan in 1893 and is a highly precise and delicate operation that has been perfected for more than a hundred years. Japanese cultured pearls are coveted all over the world and the pearl farms of Uwajima produce the highest number of pearls in Japan. The tour is a great opportunity to see how pearls displayed in the windows of many top jewelers are made. You also get to take home a beautiful and quintessentially Japanese souvenir!