Last night i just seemed not to be able to sleep and the raging stomache bug ive had since i left the UK hadnt let up , by the time id dragged myself to the car i was pretty wiped out ,which wasnt the best start when  youve got a car full of enthusiastic customers who have travelled half way round the world to join you . But what  better way to start the day , than an appointment at Yagenji ! When we arrived it was made even better by the fact that the older brother was suffering badly due to an after koi show party and looked worse than i felt !!! We were soon bowling up koi , and i have to say there were many nice  koi at  all ranges of prices . Customers had a look at some nice varietys , while i settled on a very nice nisai shiro .The skin was enough to sell the koi straight away ! We then moved on to another koi house where the higher quality koi are kept . We  bowled up the shiro utsuri that we had agreed to swap for the azukari koi , and with the extra money i had to pay i really was worried about her when she was in the bowl , so i make no apologies for a bad pic this time , i just diddnt want her in there for long . The koi was stunning , and as a few people remarked it had everything you want on a shiro , great body , amazing skin, deep strong sumi and a very balanced pattern along with a pip nose as well . As she went back in the pond another group from the uk turned up and made some very positive noises about her , someone commeneted ," that should please you Gary " , i nodded and walked off thinking , it better ,its the most expensive koi ever ive ever bought for the shop . Tthoughts of leaving her as an azukari were discussed , but the value obviously would increse greatly as a yonsai so  i decieded it was a flight to the uk for her ! From here a few hundred yards drive down to Iwashitta , this guy has some amazing varietys , including  stunning gin rin asagi , hahiro and many others .A couple of the party were intereasted in some of the nisai , but decieded to wait and get a feel for what was around . From here down to Kaneko , great guy who breeds some great shiro and kujaku , this visit we were really struggling for the quaity we were looking for in the nisai , he had some stunning older shiros , but by then i was getting past the point of needing any bigger shiros , So i can already see that this week we will keep seeing more and more . The breeder may be sencing how we were feeling said please come back in a day or two as the koi had been picked well through and he would harvest more nisai , great news as i really have loads of orders for kujaku ! Quick egg sandwich and coffee , and onwards to Marudo . This farm has amazing chagois , and now has the name for probably the fastest growing in Japan , but the strange thing is , they never seem big for thier age when bought , but i now have a few customers who have 90cm and over  at only five   5 years old ! I find the best age to buy them at is sansai , not too expensive and they grow as quick as you make the effort to ! One of the party wanted a nice green gin rin chagoi , i wanted all sorts and settled on a very nice gin rin ochiba , gin rin chag 50-55cm and all female , and then two larger chagoi at around 55-60cm and again all female . This was done very quickly and out the door as i know he is a very busy man at this time of year ! Then up to Hiroi koi farm as i needed lots of goshiki after the one from kawakami sparked off  new surge in the customer order book . After spending a while looking we just couldnt find the quality of the other one , but was told that they are havesting every day and there would be some more soon this week . As we were early for our next appointment , we diecided to pop in and see our old friend Maruhiro , He was just shooting off to collect his fish from a local show , and said he would return shortly .One of our party was looking for a kin showa after seeing one they liked at Iwashitta , i know there were two good ones here , and they both like the one i was going to buy on our return . Along with  a gin shiro utsuri , i knew we coudnt wait for the breeder to return , so the wife gave us a floating net to leave them in till we could speak to the breeder and so they wouldnt be sold . Nice and helpfull ! Back up to the top off the mountain to Tanaka , where we looked at some tanchos , once again there wasnt many left and he promised to harvest some more nisai ones ,we deiceded to wait untill then . The breeder then asked if i wanted to see the tosai i had left in the summer , of course i replied ! Taken to another fish house he started to bowl up the four koi , First up was the budo goromo that one best entry from the uk at the young koi show in spring , it had come along niceley and grown from 24 to 47cm  , but was male , a great  shame but thats the gamble of azukari , and the quality certianly made up for it , along with a pretty good growth i was happy ! Next up was the gin rin showa , i was totally blown away with the change in this , i hadnt  really been that struck on it from the pic i had recieved , but bought it on his recomendation , good call , grown from 24-46cm and wasnt even bothered when the breeder annouced it was male , two out of two out of the mudpond and improved , cant be bad !!! The aigoromo was out next ,  24cm -46cm and female , and well improved ! With a hat trick in the bag i was now getting greedy and looking for a full house and four good azukari koi . I wasnt to be disapointed , the sanke was female , crazy pattern and looked every bit the koi to leave again in Japan , so i said we would think about it again during the week . I really enjoyed the afternoon with Tanaka , we had a lot of laughs and jokes and got the right result from the azukari koi . Some of you may read this and think , i wouldnt call two out of four males a result , this is tosai buisness , and its very hard for even the breeders to sex the koi at this age , the imortant thing for me was they were alive , and greatly improved , result as good males are easier to sell than lower quality females !!! Great end to the day , with Tanaka agreeing to do it again next year , i was feeling tired , but pretty pleased with myself .  pics in  minute . Our sansai shiro utsuri , around 55cm and stunning ! Our new nisai shiro , 40cm and female , thinking of leaving this may be ? , the older brother in action ! Marudo sansai gin rin  chags and gin rin ochiba all female around 50-55cm , two larger sansai chags at 55-60cm , four azukari koi that were left with tanaka as tosai , now being shipped back to the uk as nisai .