As most of you know , im quite a restless sleeper when im in Japan . This trip has been pretty good , i seem to be getting 4-6 hours a night , so feeling ok . Last night wasnt the case , i worked late catching up on the web and messages etc etc , turned in at 2.30 , and had a restless sleep till around 6ish , when i got up and did a little more work . As ive been fine all week , i can only put it down to the apprehension of the next coming day . Sakai fish farm , is one of the biggest and most famous koi farm in the world , and i havnt visited here in 15 years or more . As we arrived , i could see the fish house had more or less doubled , since my last visit , and was even more impressive !On entering the farm , it was like a mad house , by half nine , there must have been 6 or more groups already bowling koi up .
SFF fish house
Ive taken some pics of how busy it was there today . Never seen so many people in one breeder ! So back to the koi , we were taken around various ponds , and given prices , and i was a little taken a back , and to be honest totally deflated ! This really was a farm that i wanted to purchase a few koi for customers to see . I looked round several times , and couldnt find a way i could purchase these koi to sell back in the UK . If youve read my blog before , im always saying get the koi in the bowl , and then get a price , as the prices we were given , were a rough guide for the ponds . i got five nisai in various bowls up to 61cm . I liked them all , but the one that was measured t 61cm , was really nice . and i think will easy get big very quick ! We had to wait for a few minutes for Kentaro to come and price the koi . He looked at all the bowls , from various ponds , asked where they came from , and took a moment , pointed at each bowl and gave them all prices , i was very surprised , not cheap , but very fair for what they where , so i took them all without hesitation . I then went onto a different ponds and got some more ready , Kentaro shook his head and said lunch , i wasnt going to argue , the staff came and took the koi into holding nets till after lunch . The sakai hospitality is as famous as their fish , 30 or more of us joined at his house for lunch , BBQ beef and chicken , just what was needed . After lunch we started again , and i had a few very nice sanke and kohaku ready for pricing , i took a chance on a stunning sanke , it was bowled , and i couldnt belive it , she was stunning , Kentaro pointed and said takai ( expensive ) , feeling confident , i said ok , he gave me the price and i nearly fell over and asked for the koi to be returned very quickly please ! Few more koi in the bowls , and Kentaro came back and gave as a price for all the koi , and again i felt all was fair so took them all , one three steo was 58cm , and i felt she had a great future . As you can see from the pics above , it was really manic in there , another truck came in with loads of nisai , and our bowls were in the way , so i rushed to do my pics , but somehow with all the jostling going on , i knocked the settings on my camera without realising , so the last few pics are trully awful , not that i need an excuse lol ! Ill add the pics i ook with an i phone . Sanke and kohaku from around 50-61cm . All female .
First three nisai 46, 56 and 61cm
Nisai sanke 55cm and kohaku 51cm .
Four more nisai 53-58cm
Three nisai 53-58cm , higher quality . Love the three step .
I have to say , that the whole time we spent here , was very good , many staff all running around like madmen trying to keep
the hordes of koi fans happy . The staff were superb , especially the guy who looked after us nothing was too much trouble , and he really
did go that extra mile to show us more koi . The day went so fast , by the time we left , it was gone 2pm !
We returned to Takigawa , and had a look round the farm , i looked at some small nisai , 30-35cm , they looked very nice , and it was great price to select through them . I was thinking , im in the south , do i want to really buy small nisai , that was until Takigawa pulled a few up and some were very nice indeed , and bearing in mind , these were all size 2 , i though silly to pass on them . The pond was duly netted , and i soon had around 20 selected that i was very happy with . So my first day over , and what was really just a trip to look around and see whats what , i had really bought some incredible koi for the money . Looking forward to tomorrow , Matsue koi farm .
Takigawa chisai nisai 30-35cm