With so much work to do , and as we finished very late last night , we started a an hour later . So by the time we got to Hasegawa I was around 10am . This breeder is very famous for his kohaku , and there was plenty there to choose from , but what was left now was seriously expenisve , his nisai tategoi , so quickly withdrew the net from the water , the only other pond of nisai he had were sold out , shame but that’s the way it goes ! While we were there , I checked on some kohkau that diddnt get shipped back in October , they were looking fine , so at least I do have half a dozen of his koi ! From here it was a quick drive through the back roads to Marudo koi farm . Today Marudo was away to Tokyo to prepare the show , we were left in the capable hands of his daughter . She did a lot of the pricing and things seemed very fair , so we started bowling up . Ive been asked for some smaller nisai , its seems to get harder with go sanke , as most breeders want their nisai bigger , so it was a nice surprise when we were shown some smaller go sanke . Soon had 10 nice sanke and one showa in a bowl , 30-40cm .Although not high grade , they were certainly nice enough and great value for money , nice place to start for someone who wants a Marudo koi farm koi . Next pond was higher quality nisai , and once again the price wasn’t too bad , especially for one of Niigatas bigger and more famous farms . Within minutes I had a bowl of sanke , three females and one male all around 50-55cm and of very nice quality . After this we had a look at some even more expensive nisai , soon had a bowl with a female sanke , female kohaku and what we all thought ( bar one ) a male kohaku , a little “ debate “ started , and to settle the argument the older son arrived and declared it was defintley female , from being interested , I went to super interested in about a millisecond ! But obviously these were not cheap fish , so ive reserved them until tomorrow night , sorry but I wont post these , as it would be fair to their next owners if I pass them by , but if I find no other kohaku tomorrow , they will be mine ! All pictures taken , we started to pack up and I noticed a very nice doitsu karashigoi . Since the videos of the breeder down south who breeds them keep getting posted , im often asked for them . Believe me Marudo ones will grow , and ive seen them up to 80cm and beyond here . I asked the price and she said expensive in Japanese ( one word you learn very quickly here ) , but we have some smaller ones in the other fish house , so over we went ! As soon as we in there , I bowled up a 78cm chagoi , only yonsai ( four year old ) , purchased this and an absolutey stunning doisu karashigoi , four year and 71cm .Very pleased with this , we were then offered some smaller chagoi , karashigoi and gin rin versions , and yamabuki 35-45cm , we were going to pick some , when someone declared their interest in lunch , it was already gone 1.30 , no one including myself could be bothered to start again , sounds lazy but sometimes you just get to the point where you just have to put the net down for a while . The daughter promised to pick us some nice ones , so we will leave it to her , and im gratefull as chasing chagois round a 8000 gallon pond isn’t my idea of fun especially at lunchtime . If any one in the trade want some of these please let me know asap and we can go back and pick some , or add some to our orders . After lunch , we went up to Mushigame and was struggling to find breeders around that hadn’t already gone to the show . The younger brother was at Yagenji farm , so we popped in for coffee , and checked on 8 sansai we had bought after the shipment was closed , They were fantastic , and one male doitsu sanke is already sold , and I know the owner will be very happy when he sees it ! The other 7 are on my website , but are way better than the pics and videos show ! While we were there , a few fish were still available , so we had a nose around to see if there was anything worth bowling . A very quirky kindai showa caught my attention , yeah it was ok I thought , them I looked again its nice I thought , two more looks and it was right we need to get this in a bowl .Once in a bowl she was superb , 62cm and still had that youthful look you want in a yonsai koi . I didnt want to ask the price , but mustered up the courage , it wasn’t cheap , not by any standards , but for what was swimming in front of me in a bowl , I couldn’t say no . Discussions took place about the best option , and it has been decieded to leave her in Japan for a year , if purchased you have the choice to leave her , or ship in the next week or two . This is a seriously nice showa , I think my favourite of the trip , between that and 5 kohaku lol . Time was moving on so we popped into Hirasawa , to see what he had , and although he wasn’t there , we had a little nose around and have made an appointment to come back tomorrow . By now it was 4pm and starting to rain and get dark , so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel .

Pics in order , first ten are marudo nisai 35-40cm , next
four are better quality 50-55cm , first three are female , one male .78CM chagoi , 71cm doitsu karashigoi both from Marudo .Last pic 62cm kindai showa from Yagenji