There has been alot of talk about pearl gin rins , so we where very happy when we arrived at Sekiguchi to see some small nisai we could pick through . The price was a little on the high side but i was happy as the quality was good , also managed to get a few showa in the same box . I has already heard that my showa wasnt going to be harvested untill next week , so you can imagaine my surprise when they said it has been harvested , when the fish was bowled it was fantastic , it had grown from around 40cm to 55cm , the fish was just so much better , then the breeder broke my heart by saying the fish was so improved it would sell in his premises for 600 000 yen . GREAT !!! considering it was already sold in the uk for a fraction of that price . ( Malcolm you owe me a beer , better make it a large one !!!! or a malt whiskey ) So to drown my sorrows i spent about an hour trying to find another showa to leave in Japan , the showa chosen was exactley as i like , just as i reached out to shake his hand a little cough behind me and Diane said "err , we quite like that one Gary " , My thoughts ran to a certain gentleman in the South East koi club nicknamed the poacher , i couldnt believe it was happening again ! Customer always has first choice so like a grown up mature person i passed the koi to them , and then sulked for 20 minutes untill we found another one for my self .Equally happy with the second showa we left with no money and a video and photo each ! After realising that we had spent nearly 5 hours at two breeders , we decieded there was no time for lunch so a quick sandwich and coffee and back on the motorway to Ojiya , stopping off at Maruhiro to see what koi were available . This is the younger son of Hirasawa and his fish just get better every year . As it was getting late we decieded that id buy a couple of boxes of koi for the trade page and come back again another time .Also may have some good news later as well , the shiro utsuri we left there last year may be harvested later this week while im still here , rather than next week as they had origanally planned . Pictures ; first two , pearl gin rins and showa , showa that was ours from last year which was harvested yesterday , Rod and Dianes showa to go back to the mudpond , my showa also destined for the mudpond next year and some assorted nisai from Maruhiro