Today we were joined by Stephano from Koi Italia , thinking this would increase our buying power i considered it to be a good move and even if it wasnt , a nicer guy you could meet and before long we were all talking and laughing like old friends . 45 minutes later we arrived at Sekiguchi , the brothers koi never fail to impress, the showa must be amoung some of the best in the world . Rod and myself had to look at two koi we left last year as the mudpond they were in got damadged in the cyclone and they had to be rescued a bit sharpish . When we saw them he apologised and send they should be bigger and looked very embaressed , they both measured 60cm ,now you have to remember that rods was 43cm , and mine was 45cm i looked at Rod and smiled and was fairly happy , that then got even better when they offered to keep them again for half price another year when they would come out at near on 70cm ....................happy days ! With the two kept fish sorted out , it was in the nisai pond for some new buisness . Stephano soon bowled three showas all female that were very nice , i had a female showa that was very tategoi looking . It was then that the brothers remionded me about the male showa they wanted to enter into the Nogyosai show . We bowled it once more , and everyone agreed that it would be silly to buy a male koi of this quality and price tag knowing that it would be way to expensive to sell in the uk !!! Being in complete agreement with everyone i then shocked every one including myself when i found myself saying " ill take it " , looking around at quite a few stunned faces some one said , why on earth have you bought that after what we all said , i replied without thinking , i like it , have done since last week and it will be good to see it at the show ! So without realising it , i had answered Garys question in a flash ,no, being a dealer hasnt killed off my hobby or the enjoyment of it , in fact it has taken it to a new level and i considere my self very fortunate to to be trying to earn a living doing what i love the most .( any body want to buy an outragiously expensive male showa??) Strange that i have never thought about it that way untill i was asked , but i guess thats why sometimes dealers have fish that people wonder why they have bought them , simple , they might just like it ! Anyway , back to the fish , we now had three high quality nisai female showa in a bowl , and the male show quality showa in another , the only stumbling point was as usual the price .The discussion went on and reached stale mate , so i said to the agent ill fight him for it , which made everyone laugh ( which wasnt to be funny a few minuets later ) the breeder done a deal but said he wanted an arm wrestle , so we all nodded . As we set down for coffee and arm wrestles Sekiguchi sat in the arnchair i decieded to do the old switchero and made Stephano take my place ( seeing that my new Italian friend from his biceps worked out a tad more than me ) glad i did as the breeder smashed my new friends arm on the table , i said that was very impressive , he replied i am very strong , i am the local black belt Judo teacher as well as koi breeder ( glad i didnt fight him for the differance on the fish )We all shook hands laughing our heads off and realising we had been there all morning , who cares what a great time ! Getting back on the motorway it was off up to the mountain for an appointment with our old favourites Oofuchi . Every year thier koi get better and better and even though the prices go up a little , they still represent very good value for money . Today wasnt going to dissapoint , into the big pond Stephano and myself soon had over 20 sansai and yonsai in bowls . I soon went through mine and and whittled down what i wanted , we got the prices and i found that one koi needed to go back and i was very gratefull when Stephano passed on a cracking maruten kujaku so i could put another one back i wasnt happy with . When we got the prices again things wernt working out , after some discussions we realised that the breeder hadnt seen us put the second koi back , when he had the price was as good as ever and the koi may be better than last week s. So many varietys ill list them all when the photos goon in a while . Off to his best pond up the road where Rod had expressed an intereast in a very nice doitsu platinum .Here we found one and an aigoromo which Diane was looking for , it was really hard to find fish to bowl as there where just so many in there ! Rod the asked to bowl 70 cm Sanke , very classy and the price was so good , he bought them all , well it would have been rude not to !!! 4pm and it was starting to get dark and we were miles away from any other breeder so it was back to the hotel , i didnt really mind as we had bought so many koi , i was ready for a coffee ! Photos to follow .................first two showa left by rod and myself , next female nisai showa , nisai female kindai showa , the price discussion , sansai kujaku and yonsai gin matsuba , sansai doitsu hariwake and ki kikikoryu , two stunning snasi kujaku , maruten and doistu kujaku , two aigoromo sansai , sansai aigoromo , sanke yonsai , doitsu platinum ogon , male showa from sekiguchi going to the Nogyosai !