First thing this morning we headed out to go to Hosakai to buy some massive 65-70cm orenji ogons , we saw these saturday as we popped into deliever some paperwork , but it was too late to start bowling koi . Knowing the price already i was really looking forward to buying one or two of these as they are very hard to find clean examples as these were, but to my disapointment they were all sold except one that i wasnt so happy with the body shape . There were alot of very nice koi here and the prices were very good and soon i had three doitsu karashigois , sansai and all female , a very unexpected but welcome bonus .From here we left to visit Kase to see Rod and Dianes showa that was left last year to grow in the mud pond. The showa hadnt grown as much as we had hoped , but the quality had certainly improved and looked fantastic .We had a quick look round at the koi for sale and finding nothing we wanted it was time to go to Yamazaki .We only had a short time here as we had another appointment booked at Marudo . There were many many koi here of all varietys and every one was soon catching koi , even Rod and Diane were catching and netting thier own koi ( some would say Rod has never worked so hard !!!! ) Rod ended up with a stunning kigoi and an even more impressive koromo , while i had two smaller koromo and a very nice gin rin hi utsuri , which looked very attractive in the bowl , sansai and thought to be female . Stephano was desperate for some very large koi , around the 80cm , only two places for that , Marudo or Seitaro , so we went to both ! Marudo had some absolutley stunning chagoi , karashigoi and yamabuki ogons , the sheer size and volume of them was unbelievable . With five 80-90cm bowl in the koi , even with me buying one or two we couldnt get the deal right for Stephano so it was onto Hirasawa . When we arrived the oldest son had forgotten the appointment , but soon returned and took us outside to show us a newly harvested truck full of 80cm plus koi .Me and Stephano jumped on to the back of the truck and soon we had a bowl of very large chagoi, hi utsuri and many others . Two fish jumped out on me , a superb gin rin chagoi , way over 80cm , and an even bigger chagoi at around 90 cm , then another fish jumped out at me , literally a 90cm soragoi flew out of the tank on the back of the truck hit me on the head and chest and bounced back into the bowl , how i was never knocked of the back of the van ill never know .I  was jumping at the bit for both of the chagoi  , but i know that my new mate had to do the deal as these were fish for one of his Italian customers , when asked which ones he wanted he plummed straight for the two chags and an asagi and a hi utsuri , leaving me very dissapointed ,  my new friend had become my newly declared enemy and i sloped off for a sulk and a cup of coffee with Maruhiro ,who had heard i was a bit touchy about the subject and decieded to drink some coffee with me ! The lads had all finished the paperwork and photos , Stephano approached me and said sorry Gary , i need them all for a good customer , what the hell ,  who is gonna let  85 and 92cm chagois stand in the way of a good friendship ! All joking aside , i really did love these two koi , but Stephano was desperate for these koi and had been waiting all week to get into some big koi so good luck to him , he really is a nice guy , and to prove the point he said if my customer doesnt want all of the koi , ill let you have one of the chags , what a guy , so we then wondered off look at the koi in the main fish house .Stephano went straight in for some go sanke nisai , i looked in a pond of all one colour koi , the father then joined us and gave us a great price and within a few minutes , him , Rod and myself had a great box of Mukashi ogons , kigoi , Mizo ogons and acame yamabuki ogons ( yes !! thats what i said , red eyed yamabuki ogon......) All the while there was a 60cm chagoi and a rather nice asagi in the same pond , when asked the price the father cheap , so they were bowled , inspected and bought before he changed his mind !! As Stephano was still finishing off catching his nisai , i saw a sansai doitsu benigoi , probably the best one ive ever bought , i laughed and said that looks expensive , the agent said no , and that was bowled quicker than the chagoi , along with a very intereasting koi , Seitaro called it a mukashi mizo ogon ( sorry ill have to check on the spelling on that ). Both sansai and female , the koi  looked every part excellant in every was so were purchased and that was the end of that !! Doitsu benigoi was around 55cm while the ogon was approx 60cm .As the paperwork was finsished , there was howls of laughter , i thought what have i done now , but for a change it wasnt anything i had done , as Stephano squated down to look at his nisai the whole of his trousers ripped apart down stairs , there is a god of stolen chagois after all ! Photos as follows , 3 Hosokai doitsu karashigoi , female and around 55cm . Rods showa at Kase .Two nisai koromo from Yamazaki .Gin rin hi utsuri , sansai , female and 50cm approx . Nisai from Seitaro including some great  Mukashi ogons , please remember Seitaro had one of these at the Nogyosai at 1m 8cm ! , 60cm female sansai chagoi , sorry about the pic she wouldnt behave .55cm female asagi sansai .60cm mukashi mizo ogon . Doitsu benogoi , sansai female around 50-55cm .New Jeans please . Maruhiro at night