Apologise to those waiting for news or to read the blog, half way through the work I fell asleep at the pc and wiped the blog out, thought id better lay down for a while and stayed there for five hours! For those who have been out here you know after a few days you have a day where you just cant stay awake or fight off the yawns, today was that day! The day started with a clear sky and by 9am we were off on the hunt for non go sanke for orders, just as we got to the mountains I remembered we hadnt played the lucky cd, with sweet home alanbama blareing out of the car the signs were looking good. First stop to Otsuka, where I saw a couple of non go sanke orders and then disaster struck, saw a stunningly white gin rin tancho sanke in the sansai pond I knew I had to have, before you could say non go sanke it was in the bowl and purchased, but we needed to make the box up so to make myself feel better I found a nice ochiba and red eye kigoi, people had asked for them so that pleased me as well. A visit to Otsuka is a must he turns up the most unuasual koi and sometimes can be very good with the prices. The agent then suggested that we try Sakai for a quality nisai that a customer had ordered, I said we wont get much for the budget there, I thought if we get one koi there ill be happy, how wrong we were, sakai was explained to about how the pound was weak and he said no problem and found a few, I was quiet happy with what he offerd in a bowl, untill I saw a nidan pattern with great body and skin and pointed at that, he made that sound that only the japanese can make, somewhere between a growl and a grumble and I knew I was in trouble, not to be detered Ii pushed for the price and he said it was more expensive, and I think he must have seen the look on my face and he asked the agent would we buy more koi today, seeing the closure of the deal I nodded and he said, same price, done! While in the farm I saw a very nice pond of koi, he laughed and said very high quality, gave me the price and i nearly passed out, they were only about 35cm -40cm, again my face said it all, and he said high quality again and grabbed a net and showed me one. These were very good and before I knew it I had 3 in the bowl with the idea of may be purchasing one, he said they were so good we could buy one and leave it in Japan, then before I knew it the agent had done a deal for all 3!!!!!! I said hold on a minute and was duly told to shut up!!!! (somtimes you have to leave the agent to do thier job) when the agent came back and gave me the deal and said buy all three take one for the mud ponds and two to england, the price was so good I said ok but can we leave all three, and sakai said no problem (this is usually a good sign as the breeders will not give up mud pond space for fish they believe doesnt have a future) so all 3 were purchased to be grown on. Earlier on I had seen a pond of nice koi but not of the quality we had just bought, he gave me a price and I thought these cant be that good and again how wrong I was, as he netted a few I couldnt believe that quality that was there for what I thought was a standard price. 11 koi later including showa, gin rin showa, shiro utsuri, sanke gin rin sanke I was one happy camper. Dinner at Sakai in the form of curry noodles and we were off on the trail of non go sanke, first stop at yagenji but they were still out harvesting but had some stunning 3 year shiros in so we will be going back, then off to iwashita were there were some seriously high quality of many many varietys, having a reputattion for quality and high prices I asked the price of some sansai and was very pleasently surprised, but the varietys I was looking for were not there. Popped in to kawakami, the king off the non go sanke but there was a large american party and they seemed to be buying the whole place up so we moved on. Hirasawa called and said come over for coffee, so we did on the hope for some higher quality hi utsuri, but when we got there he had sold them all! the son came over and said why not come over and look at my koi, he had some very nice gin rin kohaku, and a price was agreed, also saw a stunning gin matsuba which I know a few people are looking for, and then he said we needed one more for the box, before I knew it he had a sanke in the bowl which I had nearly bought a few days ago, I remembered it was three times the price and I shook my head, he said no problem same price and shook my hand and put a can of beer in my pocket, what a gentleman, you cant argue with a closure like that!!!!!! As we got in the car the agent asked if I was happy, and I had to say I was, then the agent replied not many go sanke though and laughed, as I joined in laughing my thoughts returned to last year when the hunt for kujaku became an obsession, was this going to be the same way for non go sanke for me .............the hunt for a day of non go sanke contiunues ...................

To be left in Japan

This is also to be left in Japan

Happy days - Yamatsu Koi Farm generations of matsuaoske