Today was always going to be about tosai , either hand selecting or getting the breeder to select better koi than are being offered by importers . First stop was Shintaro , and although the prices were very high , it took me a while to realise that we were being offered the chance to select through some of his best tategoi . We moved onto another tosai house where things were more affordable and here we were offered some very good deals on tosai which we will take up by the end of the week . In the nisai house we started looking at some very high class sanke , here Kevin purchased a sanke with very little sumi but of skin quality way over anything we had bowled all week .While in Mushigame we visited Yagenji koi farm , we have a fantatsic relationship with these guys and always buy as much as we can there , this time we had to sort out a large showa that was not shipped due to a misunderstanding , this was bowled and had improved since it was purchased in the autumn .Then we had to see a koi that was bought for me by our agents in november .The sansai shiro was bowled and i couldnt believe the quality of the koi , it was to be left in Japan but the sumi was through and so strong i changed my mind and arranged to ship this as well . Very pleased as this is not the way to buy koi , but as ive said before "he who dares wins !" At this time of year Yagenji will not let people select as the koi are being fed and built up in preperation for shipment across the world , as usual i voiced my opinion and dissapointment untill the brothers offered me over 150 tosai of go sanke , gin rin go sanke and non go sanke hand picked by them selves , well as i always say trust the breeder ( and i do with these guys ) we shook hands and moved on to Kaneco knowing that at last i had some higher grade tosai on the way to Gtawick koi .Kaneco as usual had some koi of all ages and some stunning shiro utsuri which we are going back to look at again tomorrow with a view of buying some very nice tosai and one female nisai shiro of very good grade . Next we popped into Tanaka Maraju , although the breeder wasnt here , we were allowed in and looked at some unbelievable 3 and 4 yr old tancho and tancho showa , we will be trying to go back asap !After lunch it was off to see Yamazaki to look at some tosai ponds when disater struck , the breeder had left an unguarded pond of extremely well priced sansai in the way of the tosai , well im sorry i just couldnnt help myself and ended up with 4 sansai all female gin and kin matsuba , and an extremely high grade male kujaku . If im honest i completely lost intereast in the tosai and found myself buying more larger koi that i really dont need , one very nice female sanke around 54cm , and a yonsai platinum ogon around 66cm and also female . Oh well , looks like tomorrow may be tosai day ...........lol . From here we went round the corner to Miya where there was very little nisai , but plenty of sansai and older koi including the large doitsu kujaku that we saw in the autumn looking even better than it did them ! A quick look in Izumiya never fails to dissapoint with seeing so many koi at over 90 cm , and then to look at sakazume goromo , glad we did as there were some very good offers that we will be taken up on . Eight breeders today , and some nice koi bought , all in all a very relaxing and enjoyable day .As myself Tom and Kevim were chatting , my mind drifted off to the events in Shintaros first fish house , not the near accident that involved a 4x4 driving like it was on skates due to a one meter size lump of snow that our agent thought he could drive over and got stuck underneath while our breeder who had graciously accepted our offer cowered in the back thinking how much safer it would have been in his truck , but the tategoi , i started mulling over a plan that involves Shintaro , tategoi and large sums of money , and god does my bank account hate it when a plan like this come together !!!! First pic is Kevins sanke , second pic is Shintaro crying after he thinks the sanke was way too cheap now its been bowled and also that Kevin now requires a written contract guaranteeing that more sumi will come through . Two more koi at Shintaro that in thinking of buying .A couple of pics of Kevin and breeder , Sansai Yagenji shiro ,Gin matsuba , kin matsubas , kujaku , platinum and sanke alfrom yamazaki .Sorry about the photography , it makes some of the ogons look skinny , trust me they arnt !