The day you have to go to Narita airport is always the worst .You still want to try and get as many breeders as you can , to try and find that last minute koi , or another customers order before catching the bullet train back to Narita . By now the realisiation that it is your last day hits you , and the addrenalin that you have been running on ( as three-four hours sleep doesnt cut it ) starts to fade away . its somtimes even a struggle to lift a net ! , but the show must go on so off we went to our first aapointment at Kaneko , I was desperately looking for shiro utsuri so was hoping to find some here , but the koi stocks were still low so we spent a while chatting to the breeder and then went on our way to Yagenji . A few days ago the brothers had sold all thier fish to one dealer , so have since then been busy harvesting nisai . Once again we had a good look round but couldnt find anything we liked , so it was decieded to pop down to see our old friend Hinori San of Maruhiro Koi farm .We hve alwashd agood relationship with this farm, this has now increased with the level of koi we leave for Azukar with him . The results were fantastic , and h has gone up even more in my opinion as most off the koi left last yar where ones he recomended . This timei as looking fr a few higher quality nisa 30-50cm , and some koi to mess around growng on , One variety he is messing around with himself ,is a mukashi ogon crosse bred with a ki matsuba , the results look quite intereasng with metalic ogons produced with an intereasing reticulation . As usual i start netting , and he joins in , asking what i am looking for. I hear people sa the breeders cant possibly remember all thier koi , this bloke can . I reeled off a list of requests , and off he went round the farm with net in hand , its like magic , honest , i kid you not .Every time i took a koi back to the bowl , there was another one already waiting there, gr tancho , high quality kohkau , showa and others . At one point i stopped netting an sorrted th bowls out into shipping pictures , the koi still kept coming . After buying all the high grade we could ,( i wont list them here as there were so many . ) i made up a nice little collection of sinhle coloured koi , ogons , chags , doistu chags , gr chags , and of course, i sneaked in a few of his new varitey . We joined him and the staff for a coffee and then said our good byes , always sad leaving here as he is such a character and a pleasure to work with , his fish jus get better and better, defently a breeder to watch for in the future!

As we were leaving Mark joined us , and said that our two koi were out at Shintro ,a quick ohone call and we were drivng up to Mushigame to the results of two nisai that i had left there . They were both 60cm , although not put alot of bulk on , i wasnt worried as this is a trait of using matsunoske parents , they get thier body shapes a few years later down the line .They were both stunning , andi was very happy , i am shipping one, and leaving one for another year . Great end to a great trip .