Arrived nice and early into Narita airport , racing  through customs and baggage hall in what seemed like minutes . All signs were good for an early ride on the Narita express and then on to Niigata . As we waited in line for our train tickets ,there was may be six in the line before us , so i thought no problem 5 minutes and we are away , but alas no , along comes Mr friendly airport staff , "please follow me and i will help" he said , i had a bad feeling  , im not going to into details as this guy was being so polite and trying so desperatley to help us get on the train , any way 20 minutes later he got our tickets for the train out of the machine  , which was 30 mins after the one i wanted to get !!! So slipping into positive mode again i got on board the express which got us just in time for our bullet train . As we boarded my case got stuck in the gap between platform and train , but me and the handle carried on leaving my case and two extended steel rods poking out behind me . Then to top that i found that after five years using my phone in Japan  that it wasnt going to work this time , so i couldnt let the agent know which train i was coming in on . Lucky for me he guessed and was waiting when we pulled into Nagaoka . Feeling a little stressed i was perked up by the offer of seeing a few breeders before we went to the hotel . First stop was Maruhiro , he as always has a fantatsic range of koi for all prices , including some stunning gin rin ochibas . But as he has just started to harvest we will return when stocks are higher . We then drove up to Mushigame to visit Yagenji , and although he has only just started harvesting , we managed to find this female shiro utsuri , nisai and 45cm the white skin and head was so striking i had to purchase there and then .( The sumi isnt too bad either !!! ) On the way back to the hotel we pulled in to see Takano , a guy who breeds budo goromo , aigoromo and goshiki , also some gin rin ones of which he had a stunning gin rin budo goromo , which i have to confess i dont think i have ever seen one before . I may pop back and have another look at this farm as he had some very intereasting koi , but we were just too tired to take it in .