Japan Final Day

Please see our YouTube video for most of the goings-on from Day Five!

Well what a bizarre way to end the trip! Hosokai appointment didn't go to plan in the morning due to one of their harvest trucks crashing! A real shame as there were some fantastic Koi available there. Maybe next time!

A new breeder visit for us, Sakamaki Koi Farm. Member of Dainichi's Old Boy club, Sakamaki use to be staff at Dainichi. He is certainly doing a fine job himself breeding some beautiful Kohaku and Showa in particular. We managed to bag one Kohaku and three Showa, all female, and all with great frames. You can easily see the Dainichi and Sakai Fish Farm bloodline in his Koi. Excited to see how these get on in the U.K. Very reasonable for the money too which is a bonus!

Moving on from Sakamaki, we visited farms that we had visited the night before. Scouting out always helps! We had seen a number of Koi we wanted to bowl. It turns out us Brits are some of the more polite Koi keepers in the world... in fact. Far too polite! So much so, our next visit Yamaju Koi Farm taught us a lesson to be more selfish once in a while. Making it clear which Koi we wanted to bowl, and more than likely buy we let another Koi dealer pick up the net before us as we eyed up more potential purchases. Lo and behold, said dealer netted up the Koi we had just shown an interest in and subsequently bought it. Talk about double standards! Really frustrating moment for us but we move on.... Next time, we won't be so inviting!!!

One beautiful Asagi from Yamaju. Big fan of his Asagi. They tend to body up more slightly than other breeders such as Otsuka and Oya. Clean, and lots of potential.

Moving on from Yamaju, Aoki Masaki Goshiki was on our hit list. Having seen an outstanding Goshiki the night before at Masaki, he knew we were coming back today to look at it, and potentially more purchases.
Could we find the Koi ? No. It had disappeared. No where in sight. We hunted for 20 minutes in every pond, including the sold ponds. Sat at dinner a few hours later we were telling our friends over diner about our roller coaster day. Opening Instagram, there it was. The Goshiki staring at me! It turns out, the Goshiki was sent down to Narita Koi Farm late last night... typical!

What a day! The Niigata roller-coaster.