After an exciting morning we composed ourselves over lunch and had some more delicious ramen and Japanese curry. It was still early and we had many farms still to visit.
We then drove up into the Mushigame/Yamakoshi area for quick pop-in visits, Isa Kazuhiko, Miyaishi, Marusei, Marusaka and a few others. Today being a national holiday here in Japan the mountains were very quiet which is a nice change from the busy roads and even busier koi houses.
Time to turn it up a notch again! This time Isa Koi Farm. Recently we had 59 Showas shipped from Japan that are currently in the UK and in quarantine. As many of you know 30 of these will be put forward for our Grow and Show this year. On speaking to Mitsunori Isa of Isa Koi Farm, we told him about our plans for the Grow and Show. We asked him if he'd be kind enough to select two koi to be the prizes for our Grow and Show. He really got onboard and liked the idea, so much so we netted a huge pond of Tosai, Isa-san selected two koi that he felt were true Tategoi. Two lucky winners from our Grow and Show will be awarded one of these koi, which of course will be Nisai by then.
Finishing off our Go-Sanke fuelled day was a visit to Kansuke Koi Farm, just as the sun was setting we had to be quick. Here we have one koi that we selected back in Autumn. Kansuke shows so much care for his koi, everything is done at a slow motion pace. Which is really nice to see, as the koi at Kansuke are all in tip top condition. You'd rarely see a bit of damage on his koi.
Our Kohaku was looking in very good nick, beautiful white skin, rich pigmented beni. We can't wait to see this koi again after it has spent the summer in a mud pond. During winter many breeders do not feed their Nisai and older koi at all. Quite often koi can lose weight during this period. What is very reassuring with this koi is that the body has remained very broad indeed. Once harvested in autumn it should be looking like a power house.
