A  quick spot of lunch and we thought of popping back to a breeder to look at a 60-65cm hi utsuri we had looked at earlier in the week.Diddnt think the day could get any better when the phone rang and Sakai was asking if we would like to hand select tosai on Friday , well as you can imgine i needed a whole nano second to think about that one , great news and along with a few other options the tosai hunt was all but done except the work selecting ! As soon as the call had eneded Maruhiro was on the phone , does Gary still want tanchos ? He had bought more koi down from his facility and wanted us to pop in , the hi usturi would have to wait ! When we got there Hinori san had restocked after a visit by some Belgium dealers , so there where a few more koi to be looked over . Straight away he netted a gin rin tancho that was super quality in every way except the spot wasnt really good enough for the customer in mind .The breeder said it was a shame , and then smiled and said i dont suppose you are looking for a good tancho showa ??? Again i delayed my respnce for a whole 3 nano seconds , bowled up and purcahsed , not a cheap koi , but saying that how do you judge the price of a nisai tancho showa when you havnt seen one in so many visits to so many breeders ? With that we started to add some more koi into the bowl , some kohaku , kin showa and showa .More great koi from a greay guy who never stops smiling ! I cant even begain to explain the relationship we have with this guy , he is always happy and we have a joke at some ones expense , from his long suffering  wife when she fell in  pond carrying my koi , and he left her there and rescued my koi , to yesterday while driving to a meal in our car i said i needed a drink , he then from nowhere produced one and said gary san , i then drunk it down and said that was nice of you , the agent looked at me and said no it bloody wasnt , its mine i left it on the back seat .Maruhiro thought this was brilliant , but sooner or later we always get him back . I tell you about the laughs we have because that is what our trips are about .Koi should be fun , and you should have  great time in Japan , but dont get me wrong , when the nets go in its time for work  , but otherwise get a smile on your face and enjoy it ! I said i think thats it for me here now Hinori san , he just laughed and in Japanese said yeah  ok , see you tomorrow ............., i guess we probably will . Photos are all Maruhiro nisai , higher quality 35-45cm .