First appointment today , was at Shinoda koi farm . Famous for his doitsu , gin rin and hi utsuri . I had  a few orders including a high quality hi utsuri , but when we arrived there was really only one pond left with nisai in . But on the good side they were all female so we managed to select some gin rin showa , and a couple of hi utsuri . Like most breeders , Shinoda is almost out of nisai , and that is what we have found driving around Niigata , a lot of the breeders we don't need to go back to now unless they have some tateshita , this are koi that have been released for sale after the tategoi selections have been made . From Shinoda , we also have a lot of chisai nisai ( small two year olds ) , these will be going on the website today , doitsu and gin rin go sanke .

Shinoda nisai females , 40-45cm .

From Shinoda we went down the mountins looking for aigoromo , so we stopped at Takano , and once again he didn't have much in the way of nisai . From there to Sakazume , who had nisai , but  not much in the way of aigoromo . But one thing that did impress was a few sansei Shiro Utsuri , the sumi and patterns were very good , and the prices fair , so next Autumn ill have to give this farm another look over .

With a lot of orders for the trade and customers , we headed to Marusie . People were there already , and busy netting koi . Lucky for us the agent in there was an old friend , and he said no problem , help yourself , so we did . I son had a bowl of kujaku 30cm -40cm , and another of hi utsuri around 30cm , not high grade , but very pretty koi for the money . I also needed some bigger sanke , so we looked through all the ponds and bowled a few , but nothing that really urged me to purchase . More than happy with the 25 odd nisai I had selected we visited one of the food bars , its one of my favourite lunch stops , and had my ususal fried liver and rice . We don't normally stop for lunch , a raid to the 7/11 does us . But this place is so close to Marusie , and they are very quick to cook the food , so we deserved a nice little break !

30-35cm Kujaku

30cm hi utsuri

We drove back in the direction of Mushigame , and got to the turning and decided to visit Maruhiro again . We explained that we needed single coloured koi , and a 30 nisai deal was struck . mukashi ogons , chagoi , gin rin chagoi , beni goi and gin rin benigoi . All done within an hour or so . Earlier on in the week , we had some fish we were leaving in Japan measured , we think the results got muddles up , so we needed them re measured , but the farm had just started to get busy , so we decided to move on and let Himori earn his leaving , and come back when he is quiet .

Chagoi and gin rin chagoi 35-40cm .

Mukashi ogons 35-40cm

A few months back ,  we did very well in the Dainchi auction , winning 6 nisai . I have not seem them yet , so decided today as we were close , it would be nice to pop in and get some videos if  possible . We arrived and the staff were very helpful , took us straight to the koi and offered to bowl them . All looked fine , and I have to say I was very surprised how good they were . One had a rub over the eye , but it was explained as the colour was still there , colour food and sunlight will return her to her former glory . This koi will now be shipped to the UK in March , and are all for sale except one , which sold almost straight away ! I have to say , this is only my second dealing with the farm , and once again they were 100 percent professional , smart and the facility is out of this worls , and as for the fish ??? Well ,  I looked in one pond , and just couldn't believe the quality that was in there , every one a stunner , there reputation is well deserved . The three young guys that served us , walked us to the car , then  bowed and waved us off , so polite , wish I could afford to go there more often !

Dainichi females

During the week , I purchased some yamabuki ogons from Marudo , after looking at the pics , I decided one of them had a problem , so wanted to go back to check , I also wanted to look at the nisai once again . The nisai were about the same price , and I couldn't see anything I wanted to buy in the pond , so passed . The subject of the ogon was mentioned and the daughter look horrified , took us over to the pond where they where swimming around , and said she checked them and not to worry , take no notice of the pictures lol ! Sue enough they were swimming around good as gold , and looked better than I remembered .

It was getting dark , so we set off towards the hotel , but couldn't resist having a peak at Hirasawa where the father is based , earlier in the week I bought an amazing sanke there , and thought id like some more , but sadly again , none in the pond that took my fancy . So with that , it was time to call it a day.