One of my many hobbies is collecting stones, and I have been a rockhound since I was about six years old. I especially enjoy collecting turquoise, jade, lapis lazuli, and agate, basically any stone or mineral. Two or three times a year, my family and I pick jadeite and nephrite-jade and other stones such as radium stones that are popular throughout Japan for their healing properties and soothing effects. Radium onsens are prescribed by many medical doctors in Japan for their therapeutic healing powers and have been used for thousands of years by the people of Japan in onsens and collected for home baths and other healing therapies; these stones can cost hundreds of dollars per kilogram. During this most recent haul, I collected about 5 kg of Nephrite-jade, 1 kg of jadeite, and 25 kg of radium stones for our home bath, gifts for friends, and market sales. And I will send some to long-time friends for their onsen that I visit during my annual winter Hokkaido photo tour, spring Hokkaido birding tour, and my autumn migration birding Hokkaido tour. There is a lot of misconception when it comes to jadeite VS nephrite jade; they are both jade; the difference is jadeite is denser, made up of an arrangement of grainy crystals, has richer colors such as mint green, and is harder, rarer, and more expensive, but nephrite jade is actually tougher, made up of fibrous interlocking crystals. Because nephrite jade is tougher and does not chip easily, most ancient tools were made of nephrite jade. Jadeite and nephrite jade are both challenging to crack, but nephrite jade is superior in this department. On a daily basis, I will wear nephrite accessories, but I only wear jadeite on certain occasions. My home rock garden took me five years to complete with my own hands as I transported every stone by a rental truck, and there are hundreds of kilograms of stones from Jade Beach, Japan, in my garden. And some days, I find the perfect jade in my rock garden, but I try and sort out the high grade from the low grade and swap out the high-quality stones. A lot of times, I’ll be out having a barbecue or a night fire next to my rock garden, and on some occasions, I’ll see a glistening piece of high-quality jade. Of course, I’ll quickly pick it up and take it inside to my private stash, maybe even to take to the market to sell. The angle of light created by campfires at home and during blue to golden hour at the beach just before sunrise is the best time to spot glistening jade. Around sunset isn’t terrible, but under direct sunlight, without years of experience to help you, it’s incredibly challenging to find jade, even for pros. I recommend starting at 4:30 am and continuing until 9 am, then enjoying the rest of the day at the beach either swimming, snorkeling, or diving for jade.

One misconception that visitors and even locals have is that Jade Beach means Itoigawa UNESCO Global Geopark in Niigata. There are actually a dozen beaches that visitors are allowed to take jade and other stones from. Each beach has its own particular harvest, some more and some less, but each beach is a new jade adventure. From Fukui, reaching all the way north to Aomori, there are several locations where you can pick ocean jade, jasper, agate, and radium, among an orgy of other stones. But I’m always careful to obey the rules of each region. In the Itoigawa region, if anyone is caught even 20-30 meters inland off the beach collecting stones, they can be fined and arrested for not obeying the law. Truthfully, Itoigawa was so synonymous with jade here in Japan and even abroad that each year when the high alpine snow melts and the rivers become a torrent of white water, it carries the jade, nephrite, and other precious stones down to the coastline, and they are then picked clean by locals and visitors, especially in the Itoigawa region, one of the main reasons I go to other beaches that only locals like me know. There are about 70 kilometers from which anyone can harvest jade for their own use, but the trick is knowing where the jade is. Knowing the right beaches to visit has certainly paid dividends for me, as I have hundreds of kilograms of jade, jasper, and agate stones from the beaches, which some people pay out the nose for when decorating their home aquariums. When I get the high-grade jade, I don’t want to cut it, but I do bring it to market for sale or have a professional cut it for me. Once it’s cut, then it can be made into accessories or small statues that can be sold for top dollar. On an average day, when picking stones, I find a few hundred dollars up to tens of thousands of dollars in a day.

A running joke of turquoise collectors, jewelers, and turquoise miners is that they paved their driveway in turquoise, and I thought that maybe I could do it with jade at my home, but since my drive is already laid in concrete, I’ve used the jade I’ve procured from the various Jade beaches to enhance my home garden. It allows me to manifest a different type of visual artistry, but my home garden is my gallery, so please don’t visit and ask to take a piece home with you! It has happened, mainly by children, but I flatly refuse when they ask to take a piece home. On some rare occasions, I let a piece of jade go. I encourage people to take their own adventure and find their own jade. My wife and family sometimes get tired of my stones in the house and make impromptu additions of stones into my garden. I like to think of them as special exhibitions in my home garden gallery. And you can see in the photo attached to this newsletter that I have a bowl full of jade stones that I have taken a particular shining to. Since covid began years ago, the traditional pilgrim routes have been closed to me, but I use my bowl of jade stones on my in-home pilgrimages. Various pilgrimages require different energies, such as jade, jasper, turquoise, or agate stones, among others. I usually have about a dozen bowls of stones around my house, sometimes more, sometimes less, to accompany me on any of my spiritual journeys. Jade is said to be a healing stone and is also used frequently with meditation. It has endless mythological meanings and significance, but personally, I have so many stones in my collection that I can’t even count them.

Furthermore, I find it odd that so many people refer to stones as ‘power stones.’ In order to call a stone a power stone, does the power of the stone not need to be unlocked? So when I’m discussing, trading, or selling stones, I always feel curious when others refer to stones as power stones. If the people are level-headed and relaxed, I sometimes find myself getting into deep discussions about stones and their potential energies. I bead my own Buddhist malas using various stones. I have countless turquoise cuffs, rings, pendants, and a bolo hand-made by First Nations Canadian and American artisans. They are protective pieces; most are made specifically for me with my story. A few of them also have different gemstones such as jade, jadeite, rubies, and garnets. I’m not a big fan of diamonds, but I do have a few in my collection. Turquoise is a much rarer and healing stone. I understand that diamonds are the hardest stone on our planet and valuable, but I prefer wearing turquoise and jade; diamonds are not to my fancy and feel rather cold to the touch. 

Stone misconceptions are endless; one is that the power of a stone will always be unlocked and will always carry positive or beneficial energy. Take amethyst, for example. A light shade of amethyst can be healing and calming for most people wearing this stone. Still, a darker amethyst can be potentially overpowering, so in my opinion, I wouldn’t choose to wear a dark amethyst daily. However, most believe amethyst is the stone of peace, calming, and cleansing energy. The Romans made wine cups out of amethyst, thinking the cleansing power would prevent them from becoming intoxicated.