2018 February Japan Trip Day 1

A little late posting this, so apologies! The first day, I never rush to buy koi. I need to take a look around and check out what is available before I blow my cash in one day. It would be so easy in Niigata to do that if not careful. 

Our first stop of the day was to Shintaro. I bought an awesome Sanke from Shintaro in autumn which sold almost straight away, and I had my eye on a couple of Kohaku from the Autumn Harvest which I wanted to see. 

There was lot of snow! So glad we don't have this in the UK. Access to the farm was ok, but there was snow falling off the roof during our appointment. 

The Kohaku in question... Lacking in body since the harvest as it's not been fed, but everything I remembered! 

 

Nisai, 55cm, female. Price was much better than in Autumn, I couldn't afford it back then. 

After just one hour in Shintaro, there was over 6 inches of snow. 

Saito san invited us in for lunch, but the snow meant we had to make a massive detour around the village to get back up the hill!

After our delicious yakisoba, we headed to Masaki Aoki to look at some tosai for our shop stock. The tosai we were interested in picking through wasn't available today, so we made a plan to visit the following day. Again, lots and lots of snow, even had to dig a path to the fish house. 

As the snow continued falling, we decided heading towards flatter terrain was a good option. Our next stop was Maruhiro. Nothing here that I was looking for on this occasion though others in our party did buy. 

Always good to look in the round pond though and admire the many excellent examples. 

From there, we checked out the largest breeder in the area, Marusei. So many big koi available here almost all the time. I merely checked the stocks and will speak to a few customers about availability before I commit to buying. 

It's a huge facility, with ponds behind my view point on this image, and at least 4 more fish houses in the area full of koi. Stocking levels are unreal in this place. 

Snow really made the day hard, getting around was a challenge with many breeders not really accessible in the car, certainly enough to breeders to visit without getting a car stuck in snow.