Today was our last day and it wasnt to disapoint at all ! We started at Hosakai in Ojiya , this is the premises of the younger brother and he has some very nice koi .High light of the visit was a 75cm doitsu ki goi which was out and out the best ive ever seen , not for sale at any price , i can see why .There was some lovely asagi but all sold , so it was off to Hoshkins . At his large facility there were some excellant kohaku , but way out of budget , even the small ones were double the price of last year , but in fair the quality was up , but still expensive for koi that were mainly male for me . A quick look in Dianichi , but there was no one there , and i guessed that i couldnt even afford to turn the airline off ! We had a little spare time so we popped into Marudo where he had harvested some enourmous nisai sankes , but as he was very busy we decieded to leave and quickly pop into Oomo .The new facility was amazing and i had never been there before , very impressed , but not many showa so again we moved on to Marasaka where nothing was seen that needed bowling . Then our agent suggested Suzuki , this really pricked my ears up , this guy breads a large number of kindai showa .We have been there before the earthquake , but the village he was in really suffered during earthquake , and he has really only recently got breeding again . When we arrived i was shocked to only see a few buildings , even Suzuki had lost his house , but thankfully the fish house remained . Really only looking for a few kindai showa i was amazed to many of them along with a few other varietys so i bought around 16 , very happy as we are always being asked for kindai showa , and at around 30-35cm they are ideal for growing /quarantine tanks .As usual , we had to go to Yagenji last to say good bye , also i had a word with the guys about a koi to leave out on a small budget , he said he would sort out 4/5 for me to choose from .As soon as we got there he bowled up a kohakau ,a gin rin kindai showa , some shiros , a sanke and a strange looking showa .Then Jerone from Holland arrived and Mark Gardener , so with the agent , Rod and Diane all looking over my shoulder i felt under pressure , so i asked everyone for thier imput , the kohaku was amazing with a massive frame and was very big for nisai , but i had issues with the beni down one side , and as it was the most expensive it was returned . The collection of shiros were narrowed down to one and that left the four : sanke , gin rin kindai , shiro utsuri and weird looking showa . Feeling complexed i asked the breeder for advice , he asked if i was a gambling man , feeling brave i said somtimes , he said the wierd looking showa , ( at this point the word wierd was replaced by mysterious ) , that threw me as i thought it was going to be the next to be put back . Jerone is a dutch dealer who buys many , many high grade koi , he through his weight behind yagenji on the "mysterious showa" , so somtimes you have to go with experiance and him and yageji have plenty so the showa was pciked .Yagenji then said "just one for Azukari ? " , so i thought in for a penny , in for a lot of pounds , i liked the shiro very much , it had similer layout as Nicky the shiro that had just been harvested , i thought it was too good a sign so i choose the shiro as well , Jerone gave a nod of aproval and i thought yagenji smiled as well . The shiro im very pleased with , the showa every one agreed was a gamble , so she will now be known as Vegas . Looking back at the gin rin kindai showa , i diddnt want it to go back in the pond , it wasnt the sort of koi to leave in Japan so i put it in to the equation with the two Azukari and got a very good price on the whole lot , as long as i bought another 3 gin rin yamabuki ogons to ship with the kindai , not a problem , photos taken and hands shook and i left the Yagenji farm feeling very satisfied . I usually like ending the trip at Yagenji , its kind of like a tradition , this year it wsnt to be as we had to go and buy another nisai to ship with my two step from Torazo . When we arrived we looked around , and although the fish were magnificent , we could not find a fish as good the two step in the same price range in the better quality nisai fish house . It was decieded that the koi could be shipped in a smaller box , saving the shipping costs a little as opposed to spending a lot more money on a second koi .Once again we were met by Mark Gardener from https://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/ who took some of the photos for us . At this point i would like to take the time to thank Mark for helping us out with pictures and taking time out of his busy schedule to join us for a while .If you are a dealer reading this who comes to Niigata , id seriously think about sponsering Mark through his advertising on his website .Mark does a first class job on reporting to the world what goes on in Niigata and can be very usefull seeing he is based out here all year round almost .Mark once again stepped in for photo duty and annoyed the hell out of me when i thought i had a great picture of the two step untill he emailed me his , perfection ! Professional person for a professional job !!!!! Anyway , to the two step , she is beautifull and has fantastic skin quality and sums up to me what Torazo is all about ...............Class. May be ending the trip here was as good as anywhere .pics are as follows , showa and shiro which are staying out , gin rin kindai and ogons which are coming back . Two step kohaku from Torazo .