Getting up today i realised that it was getting to be a nightmare getting round , it had snowed constantly for 48 hours and its still snowing as i write the blog now . To prove the point we first went to the Sakai high quality fish house in Nagaoka to see the three tategoi that i purchased last year and left in Japan for the summer , a ten minute journey normally , today an hour !! On arrival i was taken to the pond where the koi where , and have to say at first i was a little unsure about my decision to buy these very expensive tosai and leave them in the mudponds . But as they were bowled one by one my doubts turned to joy as they were as good as the breeder predicted . I was even happier when he described them still as tategoi , and asked if id like to leave them again for one more year , i was so tempted but i decieded against it and will be shipping them home, as we left Sakai came out and asked if we were coming out again for tateshita in aprill , i said i hoped so and he asked us to join him for dinner when next out there , a nice touch from one of the best breeders in Niigata  .From here we left to go back through Ojiya to Hosakai , bad move , the traffic was horrendous and the mountain roads lethal , and to add to that after an hour travelling this breeder had nothing we really wanted to buy , and our wheels locked and we slid down the hill nearly trashing one of our competitors cars ! . So back to Ojiy to buy rail tickets , visit the dry goods shop and get something to eat .It was around this time i realised that today was going to be my bad day , reguler readers will know that i always have a bad day , and today was going to be it ! Visits to Miyatora , Marasakaand  Miyashi also proved fruitless .With the snow really coming in fast alot of breeders said that they couldnt even get to the fish houses so not to come , in fact one said dont be silly ,  go back to the hotel !!!! So we decieded to call into Dianichi to have a quick look and then return to base. Im always impressed at the showa here , they are undoubtably some of the best in the world , but untill im looking at that level , we will continue to buy elsewhere as i think we get better value with other breeders . Although one day may be we will need to buy koi at the level here that no one else seems to be able to breed to ! Travelling back to the hotel i couldnt help feeling a bit disapointed that i hadnt bought a single koi all day , then i looked through the photos of koi we had bought and was really pleased with what we had bought  .So back for an early night and get ready planes , trains and automobiles ................