An eventful journey on our way to Japan. Our first flight to Amsterdam was delayed by 2 hours and we very nearly missed our connecting flight to Osaka, Japan. Thankfully we had a quick transfer time in Amsterdam and our connecting flight was a little delayed too, this allowed time for our luggage to be transferred to our connecting flight, at least we hoped. On landing in Japan, we had a painful wait at immigration. It was a bit nerve wrenching as we made our way to baggage re-claim, on our last trip one of our bags didn't make the connecting flight.
A big sigh of relief as we saw both of our bags. Phew. Off to a good start!
Hopping on the Nozomi bullet train we zoomed to Nagoya. Nagoya is a busy hustling metropolis and we usually spend a night here but as time was tight we have appointments made at many of the Southern farms in only a few days so we have a lot of ground to cover !
In Nagoya we made our way to Narita Koi Farm, if you don't know by now then Narita Koi Farm is probably the top Koi dealer/wholesaler in the world. Being based in Japan, Narita has excellent access to the best koi the breeders have to offer.
Narita in general specialise in higher quality koi destined for Koi shows. At the farm you can find very high quality specimens in literally every variety. In recent years Narita has supplied and looked after hundreds of Show winning Koi. Visiting the farm is quite a spectacle and if you're a follower of the Japanese shows then you'll recognise award winning Koi in pretty much every pond.
Currently at Narita we have 15 koi. A few of which will be attending the All Japan Young Koi Show coming up. The majority will be shipped back to the UK very soon. The ponds where our koi were being kept were being heavily fed so bowling the koi was not possible unfortunately. Seeing the koi in the ponds we were over the moon how they'd progressed. Here are just a few that we managed to catch up with, photos taken last year.
Check out our Facebook page on how you can win a Narita Koi Farm desktop calendar. These are really smart calendars that look great.
On leaving Narita we caught the train down to Okayama. We use Okayama as a base to visit Momotaro, Sakai, Omosako and Taniguchi. Tomorrow we head to Momotaro bright and early, then to Sakai Fish Farm and Omosako.
Getting in to Okayama we had a bite to eat at a local Yakiniku restaurant, then headed next door to the famed Aussie Bar for a few drinks.
