Today we started off at Hirasawa looking for some sanke , the ones we bought on our February trip were very good indeed and unbeatable value . So we spent some time looking and bowling , prices were very good ,but not quite what we were looking for and the higher quality koi had been placed in potassium so we left and will return again over the weekend . A short drive up to mushigame found us at Kazutos , this time a different fish house to look for some nisai kohaku . Since we have started buying his tosai there is a lot of interest in his koi , and I think to understand his tosai prices you need to visit his main fish . The koi were breath taking , kohaku of serious quality , and bearing in mind a lot of dealers are coming to the end of their stocks , it makes you wonder what the quality that he has sold already is like ! The nisai were around 50cm , and some of the best I had ever seen , I mean really , the skin was unbelievable , and some of the patterns ( yes Kevin I said patterns ) were excellent , the full range , marutens , nidans , sandans , yon dans and two I stopped even trying to count how many steps they were . But as you can could imagine , the prices were to match , im not saying these koi were dear , as that would imply that they are expensive , they were a hell of a lot of money , but well worth every penny . I decieded that at the moment id stick with his tosai and may return again to select through them before I leave . On the way down to get some lunch Kaneco called and said he was free for us to visit . I couldn’t believe the amount of stock he had in the farm , we was offered another hand pick of his shiro utsuri , bigger but not quite the quality I purchased last time , but the price reflected this ! After a short while I had selected through around 30 nice shiros .From here we moved into the man pond , he had some very nice large shiros up to 70cm , very large bodies , but as usual my photography made them look worse than they are lol , the skin was amazing and I was expecting to hear telephone numbers , but I was pleasantly surprised and soon had six very nice shiros in the bowl from 52cm nisai , to 70cm yonsai .Very pleased , and I will apologise now to the people who wanted to come with me to Japan , and I said I wouldn’t at this time of year as larger koi are in short demand if you still want quality , because this time they were here and at many other farms . After lunch I realised the day was almost at an end , so we had a look at some tosai at Kawakami , and then a quick look at Isa koi farm . Here there where some unbelievable koi but mostly sold , but we were offered some jumbo tosai that im thinking about . The day wouldn’t be full without a visit and coffee with Maruhiro , a lot of the breeders were setting up the show so wernt available , so we set of up there to finsh off the day . I bought a sansai showa , a nisai one , a couple of gin rin chagoi and a gin rin matsukawabake . Today was just one of those days where the day flys by , so if the blog is a little short , ill apologise . pics to follow