After yesterdays almost heat exhaustion , I was horrified to find temperature was 24 degrees at 8am when we set off in the car . Its was going to be another hot one , with temps over 29 expected , so god only knows how warm in the fish houses . As we drove to our first appointment , there was a lovely breeze
, which seemed to cool things down . When we arrived at Kaneko , the koi house was all locked up , so once we got in , it was baking again ! We had to pop in to see Kaneko , as we had sold a koi I had mentioned in the blog , a snow white goromo , while I was there I added a three year old gin rin matsukawabake in the bowl , and bother were purchased . While there we were offered some hand selections of tosai , which we are thinking about , if any dealers want us to hand select , please message or email me .
55cm goromo , 50cm female matsukawabake .
We popped into a well know doitsu breeder , and saw this stunning sansai doitsu sanke , best one I have seen for a long time , and certainly hard to beat at a koi show . Female and sansai , around 48cm , serious stuff and I am thinking about buying her . Here she is in all her glory ! If you are interested , please contact me asap .
Then it was on to our next breeder Yamazaki , or Yamazan koi farm . When we arrived I could see the breeder was a little at ease , I said hello and shook hands , but as walked off to the koi house , he stopped me and said , "Gary san , very sorry about what happened , its a bad thing " , after that he perked up , just think he needed to say something , it was nice , and he was being genuine . We went into the nisai house , and it was rammed with koi . I was shocked how much he had left , I know he is a major breeder , but I thought he would have sold out by now . It was then explained , that he leaves a lot of koi in mudponds over the winter, and a lot were just freshly harvested , apparently he has a lot of Japanese business in the summer , so still need stock ! I thought ok , works for me as well lol . There was various ponds , and I saw some very nice koi in two ponds , we agreed a price , and number of boxes and we soon went to work . I had caught quite a few koi in one pond , and then another in a different pond , when I was asked which pond I pointed and was told , they were just harvested , and hadn't been sorted it yet . I felt a little sad , as I know what comes next , back or major price hike . I put my poor uk dealer face on ,and looked pitiful, the agent and breeder just laughed , and it wasn't going to work, when i was netting the koi up , I couldn't believe the price was the same , so a round of price negotiation took place , and it wasn't as bad as I thought , so I bought everything I had in the bowls , in good faith to the breeder ! They were all mixed in a bowl , so I had to remember what came from where , which is a challenge at 1am in the morning when you are trying to price things up lol !
Yamazki nisai , ochiba and gr ochiba , sorry about the quality of the video .
Kikisui , doistu showa , hariwake and doitsu sanke .
Asagi , doitsu bekko , doistu hariwake , orenji ogon , goromo and gr ochiba .
Very nice quality , many varieties !
After the nisai ,I went looking through the sansai , found a nice yamabuki female sansai , and a huge doitsu Yamatonishiki , female and yonsai . Cant resist the big fish , when they are at the right price !
A quick stop at the 7-11 , and then we were off to Takahashi . He had some really nice varieties , and I was soon catching up doitsu go sanke , beni kikokoryu, kumonryu , kujaku , gin rin scaled hariwake , some nice showa , a crazy little tsubo sumi sanke ,and even a few gin rin sanke .An after noon well spent , and a couple of dozen nice nisai , and some unusual ones as well . Takahashi san , then offered us some interesting koi , I wont say much at the moment , but im seriously thing an offer over . Although it wasn't late , we were in Koide , which is about an hour away from Nagaoka , so we headed back to the hotel , another successful day in Niigata .
Takahashi nisai , 23-40cm .