I am Fujimori, the manager.
Today is the fourth day since my arrival in Bangkok. Now that things have settled down a bit, I finally have time to update my blog.
This will be my third visit to the Gem Fair in Bangkok this year.
As usual, the huge venue is a big surprise.
There are several hundred booths for loose gemstones alone. The total number of booths for products is about four times as many, so four days is not enough time to see all the booths.
I tried my best to visit all the booths of Colorstone this year as well.
Bangkok is a global center of colored gemstones, and most of the gemstones from Southeast and South Asia in particular pass through Bangkok for distribution around the world.
The three main players are rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, but you can also see a wide variety of semi-precious stones such as tourmalines and garnets at one time. Since beautiful stones can quickly become hundreds of thousands of baht (about 3 yen per baht), the best place to purchase them is from unique semi-precious stones. Specifically, these are cabochon-cut stones, carved stones, or druzy stones that are similar to gemstones.
This year, I became obsessed with tourmaline, a particularly interesting stone, and spent most of my time selecting tourmaline.
I will take pictures of the stones I selected over the next few hours after I return to Japan.
But since I'm here, I'll just introduce one.
This is a large square form Tanzanite. It is a double-sided cabochon cut like a cushion, with wonderful carving on the surface.
Tanzanite's unique blue color makes it an attractive stone with a firm and strong brilliance, even when translucent.
I would love to make it into a ring. And it should be a men's ring!
Bangkok is transforming and modernizing at a tremendous rate with each visit, but it is a relief to see the tek-tuks still weaving their way between cars.
The town is changing, but the smiling faces of the laid-back Thai people still make me feel at ease.
I always think it is a cozy town.
Now, Hong Kong is next!
