After a restless nights sleep , about three hours in all , I awoke with a massive headache , and it just got worse throughout the day , then I started to become quite ill , and really struggled through out the day to even net koi . Dunno what the hell was wrong , but by the time I got back to the hotel I was in quite a state , took some tablets . laid down and crashed out all evening until gone ten .Now writing this a few hours later than would normally be done , but feeling much better  so many apologies ! On the good side , at least ive got a genuine excuse for any poor photography today lol ! Todays trip started out to an old favourite of ours , Kase koi farm , I really do like this fella , he is always genuine and cant do enough to help . Also he has a helper , who is equally as helpful , and speaks a little  English , which is a little frustrating when your trying to learn Japanese ! So im asking questions in Japanese , and he replys in English . Any way , back to the fish , its no secret that we are now suppling to the trade , and was asked by many to get some metalics here for them , so was a little disappointed when the ponds were full of sold koi , so being a half glass full kind of guy , I asked if he had any more nisai , (trying to stay positive ) , we were taken to the sansai house , thinking my Japanese wasn’t as good as it was ( and Rob was talking to the breeder ) the helper took  us across and there was a couple of ponds full of nisai , and guess what , goshiki ! Thank you I thought and wihin minutes had a nice bowl of goshiki 30-35cm  photographed and videoed ………….nice ! Next was a pond of showa , Kase breeds from a line of Sekiguchi and Dianichi , a fairly good pedigree im sure you would agree ! I bought some of these in the winter , and thought they were fairly expensive , but very nice , today they were a better price so picked another 7 , nice again ! Had a look in the main pond , and found an unusual doitsu showa , sansai , female and around 50cm , pricey I thought , the beni pattern was very nice , but not much sumi , so I hoped the price might reflect this , it was bowled and it did , needed a few more koi to make the box up , and noticed  last nisai pond was full of what looked like kumonryu , until I turned off the air , then realised that it was doitsu shiro utsuri , found four I liked and again was very happy . Nisai and around 30-35cm ! Now im feeling better , looking back I wish I had bought more ! After here a quick trip over the mountain found as at Aoki , he had some very nice priced nisai , but after falling over on my way into the breeders fish house on his steps , I relalised I was seriously going down with a bug of some kind , I let Rob pick a couple of boxes while I had some time out with my old mate bottled water and looked at the sansai goshiki , there was some amazing exmples , but although the prices were fair , just a little too much for the UK Market , so I decieded to pass , but may return later during the week , for another try . After a brief stop at Mc donalds , it was off to see Hosakai , another one of my favourite breeders , we selected two boxes of his better quality nisai , first one aigoromos , goshiki and a few showa , next box was even better , more or less the same varietys except a very nice tancho showa . Saw for the first time one of my customers shiro utsuri,  purchased at 51cm last April , now at 65cm , it looked huge , someone is going to be a very happy customer when it gets shipped in February ! Looking at it swimming around , I decieded I had to leave another , very nice female , 46cm , but a little thin , breeder explained that it hadn’t been fed since the harvest , so I decided to take her and leave her for one summer . On the way back to the other side of Ojiya , we decieded to visit Torazo , bowled up a huge nisai kohaku , 55cm and a body to die for , not a bad price , till he checked the fish and it was declared male , was still very tempted , as we have clients for such good quality males , but it had an issue with the sashi in one place , so deceided to leave it and moved on to the tosai house . Here he had some stunning tosai , unfortunately , these were not for sale yet . We then ventured up to Mushigame , roads were treacherous , but at least it wasn’t snowing , popped into Sakai , he was busy with a client so we had a drink and chat with the father , and hope to pop back during the week . Last stop of the day at Kaneco , he has some very nice tancho showa , nisai and sansai , but by now I was so ill , it was as much as I could do to stay on my feet , I like the fish but really wasn’t feeling well enough to start buying from his main pond , but again some nice fish , and I might venture back later now im feeling better . A great day all in all ,but when your feeling ill , its very hard to concentrate , and Im sure if I was feeling better , id have bought more ! Still ,i feel  a little recovered now , so hopefully tomorrow will be  even better ! Pics are as follows ..............10 nisai goshiki from Kase 30-35cm , 7 nisai showa 35-45cm , four doitsu shiros around 30cm and nisai , 50cm female doitsu sansai showa . 11 nisai from Hosakai 35-45cm . stoill waiting for a picture of th Azukari shiro utsuri , will post that tomorrow