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Today was supposed to be pack away and get to Tokyo and have a day doing the tourist thing , but the weather was so nice we decided to have a drive around the mountains instead , aand leave a little later .As much as id love to look around Tokyo its not much fun on your own , and I never tire of the views over the mountains . So we set off around ten thirty and visited the cake shop intent on returning some of the hospitality shown to us by Hinori and his wife , but he had already left for the coast to start putting koi back into the mudponds ( the ones there are much warmer earlier in the year ) So we sat and ate the cakes with Maruhiros wife while he had the lads were off working ! Today was never about working , just taking some time out , so we drove all over Mushigame and popped into a breeder we use quite a lot , he had lots of tosai left , but one pond really caught my attention , there were some very nice go sanke and other varietys , and a price was discussed for the whole lot , so I may take up that offer later tomorrow , hence while im not naming the breeder . After what seemed the umpteenth coffee we set off again sight seeing until I couldn’t put off the inevitable , and decieded to head towards the station .Half way down the mountain we met Tanaka going the other way , he said he would be back in five minutes and meet at his new facility for coffee , no sleep tonight then ! As we were round the corner from this tosai facility it wasn’t out of our way to stop and say goodbye . Once here I realised that we needed to ship the koi from the koi show , so Shigy said ill net the pond and we can take ten and add them to the other pond , sounded like a plan until it was noticed there was no seine net . Shigy said no problem , only ten we can catch them with normal nets , 45 minutes and two litres of sweat and some random swearing in Engish and Japanese the job was done . These koi houses are like saunas come the end of April , glad I wont be here in May ! Tanaka farm specialises in selling high class tosai , you select if you can pay , no problem at all , and I love his koi , they have great skin quality and are getting serious body shapes , major player very soon I suspect ! Looking through two smaller ponds , there were some amazing examples of high class tosai , all go sanke and gin rin go sanke , a bowled a sanke around 25cm and stunning , with sumi through already like a balck gloss , brilliant pattern and great for a koi show , the Nagaoka show was discussed , no good Gary san , this will go through 50 cm may be , 45cm cut off for the size you are looking for . So with heavy heart I placed it back and asked about a showa I saw in the pond , a price was given and bowled straight away , I couldn’t believe it , this koi was amazing , Shigy asked what I would do with it , I replied I don’t care ill buy it ,Once I calmed down Shigy explained how good the koi was , he really did rate the koi as we all did , and im sorry , for once in my life , im not going to sell this koi , not just yet anyway , its going back into the mudond this summer , and ill decide its future then , also when it may be possible to sex it ! Shigy added that fatal phrase , its all about the sumi on this one , I laughed and said isn’t it always , he then showed me what he thought and hoped what would happen , if it does this koi has endless possibilities , and I couldn’t think of a better way to end the trip . Ill add my thoughts as usual when im back in the uk . Thanks as ever for having a read of my trip , hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

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