Today was to be our last day , we then pack up and move to Isawa tomorrow , to visit Sakama koi farm .
I have only had five days , and that's all I really needed this time , ive nearly already filled two shipments , so plenty of koi purchased , and a lot more to come today .
Once again we set off at 8am , and it was already 24 degrees ! Being on the large side , its a battle to keep enough fluids inside me , especially when your netting , bowling and moving koi around in a fish house anywhere between 30 and 40 degrees , a small godsend was that there was a breeze , well , when I say breeze , it was bloody windy , so that kept it cool all day , but rattled the fish houses some of the time . First stop of the day was Yamazaki koi farm. He told us he was releasing a pond for sale , and good to his word he had . I soon had many koi in a bowl in from of me , I selected a doitsu hi utsuri , gin rin hi utsuri , beni kikokoryu , doitsu kujaku , very good gin shiro utsuri and a super clean matsuba ogon . Next some excellent beni kikokoryu , kin ki utsuri . I then selected two sansai , hq gin shiro , and a kikokoyu . We stopped and had a cold drink with the breeder , said our good byes and left for Ozumi koi farm .
On arrival at Ozumi koi farm , there were still lots of koi around , and I got some prices , and stated catching up koi . I got a lot of koi in the bowl , but a lot were rejected for various faults , and although we had some very nice koi , not enough to make it worth shipping . So I found a sansai metallic ochiba , possibly male , but very clean , and great pattern ! So I took the pictures and did my video . Some of you may have noticed , that we are doing more group pictures of koi . There is a few reasons for this , A : its too bloody hot to mess around for ages taking pics . B : We are buying so many koi , that we now don't have the time to do individual pictures on smaller nisai . Plus it drives the breeders nuts , and it gets us out of there , so they can keep running their business . Good byes were said and we rang Kase , and was shocked to find that he had also sold out . I wasn't unduly worried , as we had bought a lot of great koi this week . We popped in to Izumiya , to a bowl a sansai that we enquired about a few days ago , the koi had be taken back to the mud pond , oh well , you snooze you lose !
7-11 time again , we racked our brains wondering where we could finish up catching some koi , it was obvious , back to Maruhiro koi farm . When we arrived his wife was busy getting a shipment ready with another worker from the farm . Hinori was there , so we rang him and and he arrived a short time later . Once again , it was time for a sit down drink , catch up and take the piss out of each other ! He then asked if we wanted to catch up some koi , I shook my head and said nah , the whole room looked at me as if I had gone mad , not really , of course I do ! While at the ponds , the water was so green , I just couldn't catch koi in it . So we ventured up to the top ponds , he asked what I was looking for , tancho anything I asked , smalls size and good quaiity . He then went off catching up koi for us , this is the only breeder I ask to choose koi for us . He knows my tastes , and again had half a few little tancho types , and some very good marutens as well . As I was admiring what he had caught up , he then got another bowl and started adding bigger koi into this , including a char utsuri , kogani ochiba , gin rin showa and matsuba ogons , all nisai except the gin matsuba that was sansai . 50cm nisai kawari mono he certainly is getting there ! A deal was struck , and it was more than fair , as I tried to do my videos and pictures , Hinori was back in the main pond , pulling out huge koi in another bowl , I thought they must be for his shipment , lets get done and get out of the way ! As I walked out the fish house to put the camera away , he called me back and said Gary san , and pointed in the bowl , there was go sanke , ogons , midori goi and loads of others between 65 and 75cm . I looked at him , and he pointed at the koi and said Gary san , buy all !!!! He is a true salesman , even my Japanese agent started laughing , he said your right Gary san , he is crazy , just like you ! That's why you to get along lol ! I would have loved to buy them all , but it was too much , I got my choice down to three , a near 70cm kindai showa , maruten showa around 78cm and a 72 cm yamabuki ogon . Once again the price was fair , so I bought all three . Shook hands and said our good byes , and for the last time this trip , drove down the mountains , to return to the hotel . Tomorrow , we leave for Isawa , there we hope to buy go sanke , and doitsu go sanke jumbo tosai , may be some other bits as well .
Very nice quality nisai
All female and nisai , except gin matsuba which is female and sansai !