We left the hotel in high spritis today knowing that we were looking for some rather large koi ! Only place to go when you have a budget is Marusei koi farm , know for the amounts of koi sansai and over . We arrived and went straight to another facility where ther breeder started bowling koi 75cm and over , all yonsai .First up was a koi for myself , big chagoi and went in the bowl at 83cm , i wanted another in case this one sold , but at 80cm and over they arnt cheap, so when he offered me one quite cheaper at 76 cm i nearly bit his hand off ! ( About this time it started to rain and we were in an open air pond , i have to take a time out to say thanks to the customers we are taking round , they stood in the rain getting bitten by anything with wings as a reward for thier patience ) Next in the bowl i needed 3 koi for a possible shipment abroad , so a yamabuki , kogani ochiba and benigoi all around the 75cm went in the bowl . At the time i thought this was a big gamble , but know if the order doesnt materialise , i have some nice big koi at resonable money , a deal was struck and five large koi purchased . Back to the normal facility and some more none go sanke were purchased , including a nice asagi , hi utsuri female , a doitsu matsuba female , a female doitsu benigoi and a kogoi i couldnt sex , all around 50cm . Lunch was followed by quick appointment at Yagenji before Tanaka . I had to visit this farm again as i had a nisai shiro left there earlier in the week which had to be shipped or left in the mudpond . While there we could see many many more new koi , but nothing that really jumed out at me . As we looked in the main pond an absolutley stunning shiro with an unusua lpattern swam past , it was bowled along with a couple more , we soon had two selected around 50cm and both female , the other smaller one around 40 -45 was fetched from the sold pond and we decieded due to the quality of them we would stop at three in the box . It was at this point one of the party said i thought you diddnt need any more shiros , it was true , but my argeument is why look for other vareties in qualitys you cant find / afford , buy the quality in front of you now regardless , better to have a shop of great fish one variety than loads of lower quality , ok a bit of an exaggeration but im sure you know what i mean . In the search for a tancho we went to Tanaka .All week we had been looking and found a really nice one at Torazo , but the customer really wanted a gin rin one , and we finally found one here , in fact we found loads , it really was Tancho city , and within minutes the customer found two and purchased a very good female nisai , not cheap but very high quality .While the pics were being done i wondered around and found a very nice male sanke , bowled it and the price was right , in discussion with the breeder i said its a shame you cant keep males for another year , he said i can , i have a male mud pond , so that was that , nice maruten sanke staying with Tanaka for another year When you are taking customers round its very hard to keep every one happy all the time as every one is looking for differant things , and then throw me in the mix getting all koi for three facilities and it become a bit of Juggling act ! Mark and Sue were really looking for a nice Showa , they had seen two they liked elsewhere , but wanted to see more , and Rod and Diane fancied going some where that they hadnt been before , the answer Kanno koi farm . Ive heard this guy can be very expensive , but we bought from him last year and was pleasntly surprised . This time we were even more suprised , the koi were much more expensive , but that wasnt a problem as the koi were ten times the quality . A few people had said to me in the hotel they had visited and not bought so again when the koi started coming up i was again very surprised , not ony were they good for the money , they were very good full stop !!!!! Mark had a few showas in the bowl ,as i was netting i was gettig a few nods from the boys and girls so knew we were in the right direction , Mark seemed happy with the koi he had selected o it was up to me to make the box up to keep the price of shipping down . Quite an easy job and soon the bowl was briming with koi and everyone was happy . Between us we narrowed it down to five , Sue loved a female sanke that i had selected for the shop , when you are in Japan with us , you ALWAYS get first choice before us , so i saw a very nice koi slipping out of my grips , damm ! Then Mark said happy birthday its yours , double damm ! The breeder then asked what we were all cheering about and we explained it was a birthday present , not to be out down by Mark the breeder said if we buy anther box Sue could have another one free , triple damm ! Ive now got to buy more koi to make another box up , so off i went back to the pond resisting the urge to kick the breeder in the shins as i pssed by ! As it happend it was a good result as i found a great three step goshiki and a another couple of sankes that were very nice and all female except one . Mark then announced he had another goshiki in the bowl , i looked and what a great pattern it had , bigger result ! Untill it was found to be female and Mark said ill have that as well , we all chuckled and i said if he diddnt want it i would , so some very very nice quality koi bought and a new breeder for our reguler customers ( we aim to please !) I like this breeder and hope to do alot more buisness with him in the future , great fish , resonable prices and a nice guy too , so the end of another great day in the mountains . First five pics are the larger koi at Marusie , sorry about the pics but it was raining and we were being bitten badly my the mozzie squad ! Three pics are shiro utsuri from Yagenji . eight nisai from Kanno , six non go sanke from Marusei , male sanke azukari with Tanaka .