After leaving the hospital painless ( due to lack of pain from sundays experiance , and the much lower than expected bill ) i felt alot happier and started realising what a great trip i was having even taking the misadventures into consideration . Gary and Heather are fantatsic company , and we find ourselves laughing our sides off as we drive round the mountains doing what we like doing .This trip has certainly put me where i wanted to be at this time this year . IE not worrying about quantity as we have plenty of koi in the uk already for customer and dealers alike , this time picking more individual koi , and mainly female .So be may be thats why i feel more relaxed and enjoying the trip more than ever as im not under so much pressure , anyway im rambling , so back to the koi ! Our first stop this afternoon was at Maraboshi koi farm famous for kohaku .Thye had some very good examples and we have been tasked to find a certain kohaku for a customer back in the UK Amoung the fish already harvested there were some very high grade koi , but may be only two that could fit this customer requirements , unfortunately one of the brothers was stuck in the mountain so we couldnt get prices so we will have to return . As most of you know i am a massive fan of Marudo chagois , if you want one to grow and get big quick , then these are the ones for you ! We now have three customers who have grown them from 40-45cm to over 80-87cm in just two years .The only down side is the price , because of this fact they are usually more expensive so we only buy a few . Knowing that i have totally sold out so we made an appointment to look at buying some more . On arrival i couldnt belive my eyes , hundreds and i mean hundreds of sansai chagoi and karashigoi sansai up to 70 cm , there were so many i think that you could have run across the pond with out getting your feet wet ! Within a few minutes i had six or seven in a bowl checking for damadge , as these things are so big bodied it cant be helped during harvesting , rejecting a few i settled on two karashi goi around 65-70 , a chagoi the same size and a slighley smaller yamabuki ogon . price was very fair and then we went to look for a sanke for Heather , when we got to the other fish house there was a pond full of high grade go sanke sansai with quite a resonable starting price , sadly thier was a party selecting 40-50 so we diddnt want to wait , before leaving we were showed a sansai pond that was priced very keenly , and then we spoke about the price and Marudos daughter gave us a funny look and said "sansai ??? no no no , nisai !" These koi were nearly 60cm . We then presumed it to be a male pond due to the price and was corrected by being told it was mixed , so we started looking and there was alot of males , but i saw a very pretty maruten showa that looked nice so bowled it , decieded that it was such a crazy price id stick another in there for the sake of it , Heather on quality patrol found a stunning one and i managed one as well only to be told two in a box ,. The second two were of such good quality that we rejected the first , settling on the fact that they were males i was pleasantly surpised to find that on inspection both were female .........result !!! After leaving Marudo we hadnt been to Maruhiro and we all felt we were missing him so stopped in for a quick coffee . Still not much here that did it for me , but i know he is harvesting every day and will come up with some good fish by the end of the week for us . Fully refreshed we only had time for quick appointment , and knowing that i had sold out of doistu showa , and still having orders id thought id try my luck and struggle another box from Shinoda , as luck would have it no struggle at all as he had just harvested and we picked a box in no time at all , in fact i was a bit peeved at having to put the other 7 back !!! We did miss one thing , we hadnt asked the price , usually the price starts high and gets lower as stocks run low , and then new harvest new price and so on and so forth , we just got there got his permission and stated netting , on checking the price he come over and grumbled about being new stocks , we promised to return and buy more so we just about got the same price , he offered as a drink and as soon as i had opened the can he stuck out his hand and said 10,000 yen please , this made me smile , and they say the breeders dont undertsand our sence of humour ?So just as quick i returned with discount for two ? He laughed as well and i felt that yet again we had set the foundations for future buisness over the last two days . By the way , sorry i havnt sexed the doitsu showa , i thought it might be considered taking the micky after the price was the same to try and sort out female koi , and if im honest , i was just too damm tired .....................Just a quick note , there was a superb showa that had the peck clipped a little but was very high quality , sansai , around 55cm and female , price was very resnable if any one is intereasted it is at the bottom of the following pics .Photos in order , four large sansai from Marudo , Two nisai showas from Marudo , approx 60cm and female and nisai ! , seven doitsu showas from shinoda unsexed and around 35-40cm , and lastly a very nice showa , sansai and around 55cm .