Waking up bright and early we jumped in the car and headed to the Koide region. About an hours drive away the stunning countryside made for a relaxing journey. One or two of us couldn't help but nod off. With the steep ridged Mount Hakkai in the background the snow capped mountain got lost in the clouds.
Our first stop was Takahashi Koi Farm. Here we viewed our Kujaku that we purchased in Autumn. She is doing really well over winter and if anything the metallic lustre seems slightly better. Looking in great condition we quickly placed her back in the pond as she was a bit agitated being in the bowl.
Every visit to Takahashi I try to take a picture of the same view, the small stream, koi house and the huge mountains in the background. This time the snow was falling heavily and the visibility was poor.
First photo is our Kujaku
Second photo is the view from Takahashi taken today.
Third photo is the view taken October 2016.
Fourth photo is the view taken March 2016
Next we visited Tazawa Koi Farm, a mainly Doitsu breeder, also with Kujakus, Ochiba and rather unique Gin Rin Hariwake. The farm is infamous for the smell…. 86 year old Tazawa cooks his fish food concoction in a large steel drum. The koi house adjacent to it has a real hum in the air which at first is very sickly.
Moving onto Wada Koi Farm a few minutes away. Wada specialise in Asagi, Aka Matsuba, Gin Rin Kohaku and a handful of awesome looking Kujaku. At the Japanese Koi shows you often see Wada Asagi among the prize winners. Otsuka and Wada always battle it out in the smaller size classes.
Noticing a koi bowl with a zip cover on top with an airline going into it you know there is something of interest in there. Lifting off the cover our eyes were struck with small perfect patterned koi. Blinding Kujaku and Asagi our eyes quickly focused on one koi in particular. Wada-San explained that these are koi he thinks are ready for the upcoming international Junior Koi Show in April. We made him aware of the particular koi we were interested in. Quoting a price we had a quick think. The deal was done. A quick stop to Wada, 1 koi purchased. Sorted.
A beautiful little Asagi from Wada Koi Farm
Do you want to have a koi entered into the International Junior Koi Show ? Keep an eye out on the website and Facebook if you want to own this koi.
Making our way back to Nagaoka we stopped off at Kase. Kase again breeders a lot of weird and wonderful varieties, Doitsu Ochiba, many Metallic varieties, Shiro Utsuri. Here we selected 40 koi for the shop. All of mixed variety these are some lovely examples of varieties not usually seen.
https://queni-koi.wistia.com/medias/nspz0399yd?embedType=iframe&videoWidth=720
https://queni-koi.wistia.com/medias/rxbimhvwud?embedType=iframe&videoWidth=720
https://queni-koi.wistia.com/medias/13lltbwg8l?embedType=iframe&videoWidth=720
https://queni-koi.wistia.com/medias/k3xb3enk0g?embedType=iframe&videoWidth=720
Ending the day and our trip we made our way back to the hotel, packed our bags and made our way to the airport hotel.
Tomorrow morning we head back to the UK and continue to build our new premises.
A fulfilling Japan trip that has to be one of our best ever.
