After a good nights sleep ,( when i say a good night i mean four hours straight through is good by my standards on my first night  in Japan ) we set off to visit Hoshikin koi farm , famous for his kohkau , and more recently showa as well . We purchased some over the winter , and were very pleased with them , so wanted more for our customers who like his fish . On arrival at the farm , the quality was absolutely stunning , plenty of great kohaku and showa to choose from , the higher grade pond had some serious koi in , and was pleasently surprised when some of them were in our price range . A 50cm female nisai was selected , amazing skin quality , and very suitable for showing . This was purchased along with two showa that i just couldnt leave behind .After purchasing at Hoshikin i was feeling a little brave so decieded to visit Isa , a little disapointed as when we arrived he had more or less sold out of nisai , a conversation was held about purchasing some tosai instead , and once again i was suprisd that there were koi here that were affordable .We were shown a pond of tosai , that had very nice quality , but couldnt select , and to be honest , i diddnt care as saw very few in there that i wouldnt want in a box of koi shipped to me in the UK . So we will buy some of these koi , but again asked about some even higher quality , and was taken to another pond , these were even better , sencing an oppertunity i asked if the whole pond could be purchased , no chance , as usual at this time of year , the pond still contained tategoi had to be selected through .But he did offer to hand select some out of this pond , and a price was agreed , so this year we will have plenty of Isa tosai , at an affordable price . ( Affordable by Isa standards any way lol ! ) Two grades that should be able to supply most showa fans , and even at this time of year , they are already 20-25cm . Next to visit was Kawakami , this breeder has very impressive koi nowadys even to all Japan standaards , especially his goshiki and shiro utsuri . This time he diddnt have that many goshiki for sale that were of the standard we are looking for , but still managed to find some shiros . As we were driving Rob planted the seed of a hot meal in my head , normally we just get a sandwhich form the 7-11 , but it was so cold the idea of a hot meal sat quite well with me , especially when he spent the next five minutes driving to the resteraunt  describing his favourite dish the serve the, fried liver , now i was really looking forward to it , as he finished his description we pulled into the resteaunt to find it closed , oh its Monday i forgot the are closed , talk about anti climex , oh well onto the next place for curry and rice  which was handy as we bumped into the owner of Marusei koi farm , so agreed to vist there after lunch. I am never failed to be impressed here , there are so many varietys at all kinds of level of quality , and prices are very fair , so its never hard to buy koi here . We spent the next two or three hours bowling mainly sansai , sanke, kujaku and aka matsuba  . I think the lack of sleep finally caught up with me and i have totally lost count of what we purcahsed there , all i can say is the pictures are once again the pics are not as good as the koi . After buying from these ponds , we were taken to another where they were  littlle bigger , around 55-61cm , once again the pics diddnt do the fish much justice , and to be honest yoshiuke was in a good mood , and giving great prices so i diddnt want to spend too much time taking pics , so got videos as well . So many koi were bowled and purchased , it was late in the afternoon , so we decieded to drop into Miyatora , there were koi available , but everything i liked was sanke , and after going mad at Marusei , last thing i needed was more sanke  , so we moved onto the tosai house , and was given some intereasting options to think about .It was then time to return to the hotel after a very productive day . Sorry about the pictures , please take time  to look at the videos .First three pics are the Hoshikin showa and kohaku , nisai and 50-55cm . The second and third are female, but be sure abouthe first one . The next ten koi are all sansai 45-50cm plus , very good value for money . Next six are also sansai from Marusei . Last six are larger sansai from Marusei .