Since yesterday afternoon when we made the appointment with Sekiguchi , ive not been able to get the three very expensive tategoi tosai  showas that i left at the farm this summer out of mind ! I was told they are all out ok , that was enough for me .So this morning i was in the car full of excietment for the events to come . I was soon brought down by the news from the agent that he had heard from the breeder a bit more about the koi , and the news wasnt good ! Alot more of the azukari koi had turned out to be males , now normally that wouldt worry me as good males can be sold no problem , but at this level i was suddeny facing a financial melt down ! With four customers in the car i put on my biggest Gary happy face and said my favourite Japanese word which im not going to try and spell here , but it basically means , thats life , oh well what can you do ,or what can i do  and a few others which cant be put on here ! Then came the news that one of the males is so good the farm may want to buy him  back , result , only got two outragiously expensive male showa too sell ! On arrival we met the brother who came out smiling and babbling on about how good the male showa are , all i wanted to do is tell him to change the subject but my better manners ( and the fact that he is a black belt at Judo and built like an ox !  ) prevented me from saying anything lol . I was thinking while he was filling up a one metre bowl up with water, this is a bloody big bowl for a couple of male showas , and he seems very happy considering the situation unfolding before him . He then asked me if i have pictures of my three koi , i showed him and he smiled and said male very very good , i thought someone is not getting the plot here , and then he pointed to one and said good growth 55cm and female , great quality ! Strange , must have got somthing wrong , he then looked at the second pic and said 54cm , good body and female , im getting more and more confused , then finally came the bad news , he pointed that the one that everyone likes , and said very sorry male , but very very high quality and fastest growing koi on the farm ! I was walking on air , two high quality females and one extremley fast grwing male of even higher quality , il take them results any day when dealing with tosai !! How big i asked , 57 cm was the reply with more and more mentions of the males extreme quality . So finally we got them bowled up and they were everything he said they were , they had grown and they were so improved , i once again had been very very lucky , The two femaleswere bowled and and pics taken , then came the male , words failed me , he looked and smiled , i said not for sale !!! He laughed and nodded , and then proceded to talk through the high points of the koi . He really was a beauty , and then came the real jam in the doughnut .Someone said show quality , the breeder smiled and said of course , good enough to show in Japan ! Now the jam had just tasted even better !!! So i said Nogyosia ??He shook his head and i thought oh yeah here we go , and then he could knocked me out cold with the following ...........Sorry Gary too soon the skin hasnt settled down , better wait for a few months and then we take him to the all Japan show and try for best male in size !!!!! Once again my mind drifted back to Gary Pritchard and a coversation about can a dealer still enjoy the hobby , well lets just say it took an hour to get the smile off my face Gary !!  Walking back to the other fish house we couldnt understand why we were given it all as bad news on the way , as i honestly think it couldnt have worked out any better ! So now we were looking at some chisai nisai ( small 2  year olds ) When we were shown a pond with some goshiki , showa and pearl gin rins , a deal was done and vitually all were bought .I wont be posting all the pics on here , as there are just so many it will take long , ill stick a few on and then get on with putting them on the website . We drove back to kawaguchi a little village out side of Ojiya where we stopped and grabbed some food , we were struggling to get an appointment as all the breeders near by were busy getting ready for the show and up coming auction . So we headed round to Marusei as we were around the corner , he had  been very busy harvesting and there where now many many more koi in the tanks .After a good look round it was decided that we needed to come back when we had more time . By then it was time to pop over to our old friend Oofuchi , i love this farm with there many many verietys and qualitys. But today was going to be very differant , the air went off the sansai tank ,and straight away i saw the stocks of koi were lower than normal , and after trying for 15 min i really coundnt pick out a koi that really jumped out at me . I was shocked , ive never been to the farm at the harvest and not bought anything ! We made our apologies and vetured up to the better quality fish house , and there our customers found a very high grade shiro utsuri  , this was bowled and duly purchased .After here it was back to Ojiya and then through to Mano koi farm , well know for kohaku , shusui, kin showa and matsuba ogon . After a good look round we decieded to have a coffee with Maurhiro and a few more fish were bowled up . All in a real mood swing day , but another one that worked out well again , more great fish , azukari koi were fantastic . Tomorrow we are hoping to harvest a pond with Maruhiro , and hopefully see alot more of thekoi we have left there as well  ,just depends on how the water goes down over night ! Three showas out of the mud ponds , first one being the male . Sekiguchi goshiki and showa etc etc Shiro from Oofuchi .