Summary - My thoughts on the trip overall

OK, I got back yesterday evening and after a decent nights kip I though I would offer some thoughts about my trip.

Firstly the number of available koi varied significantly from breeder to breeder.

Older koi

Some places like Hiroi had all of their ponds full of nisai and there were plenty to choose from, whilst other breeders even the big ones like Isa had limited stocks of nisai available, though his sansai pond was well stocked if you could afford to ask for the net to be put in.

Travelling alone also causes difficulties if you only find one nisai at a breeder that you like, as they will normally ship 2 or 3 to the box dependant on size and you can either buy another koi you don't really want or pay the full box shipping charge for one koi. The option I took was not to buy until I found two that I liked at the same breeder, which fortunately for me happened at Isa.

Whilst availability was varied, I did find that prices were lower than I expected, mainly because there were fewer koi on offer at most places. The koi will have developed since they were looked at in November and some that may have been ignored then will have improved so there are still good buys to be had.

Tosai

There are more and more breeders prepared to ship tosai early now, though there are many that will not because they are either too weak or they have not yet graded the koi properly. We were among the first to be able to select tosai at Dainichi this year and bought some excellent specimens, but there will be many more high grade fish available in April as they still have 10 ponds classed as Tategoi and will end up with only 3 or 4 of these that they will keep for another year. Torazo told us he would not be selling any of his tosai at this stage as he believed they were not strong enough despite spawning at the same time and the koi being as large as at other breeders that would be shipping. The breeders know their koi best and you accept the decisions they make.

The difference in sizes of tosai is also amazing at the different breeders. We saw a number of places where the koi were around 12cm and the best tategoi at Dainichi were 35cm plus. Most Go-Sanke at specialist breeders were around 25cm, whilst at the breeders of other varieties the koi were nearer 15-18cm.

Weather

The weather fluctuates dramatically at this time of year and in one day you can have strong winds, rain, thunderstorms, sunshine and blue skies, hailstorms and snow blizzards. You go into the fish house in bright sunshine and come out to find the car under a couple of inches of snow.

The snow ploughs do a pretty good job, but it can come down too quickly for them to get everywhere and it can get very interesting on mountain roads with big drops when you lose grip completely!

The Social Side

The two South African dealers that I travelled round with were really nice people to be in Niigata with, but they were staying in a different hotel and weren’t really into having a couple of pints to unwind at the end of the day. So I missed the craic that you get with a Richdon party and as a result my beer consumption was well down on previous visits. On the plus side, I got to eat in a lot more Japanese restaurants as they were a little more adventurous with food.

Food is quite cheap in Japan when compared to the UK, and with the beer consumption down my expenditure on food and drink for the 9 days was well under £100, which was a café/restaurant lunch most days and dinner with a beer. This was handy as it left a few more pennies to spend on koi.

Breeders

Toru does good business with the vast majority of the breeders that we visited and even though we weren’t bringing the buying power that Richdon does, we got a very good reception from all.

There were no breeders that had any problems with our visits and all happily bowled all koi when requested, with many happy to make suggestions when the buyer wasn’t sure.

Highlights

Without doubt the highlight for me was Sekiguchi with the chance to select from their best tosai and the way that they looked after us. It was a real pleasure with Kazuo, the father, happily spending time with us talking about the development of their koi and the future of the farm. The sons were also incredibly helpful when it came to tosai selection spending as much time as we needed whilst we made our selections.

The Richdon Exclusive breeder was also a great visit and he was as helpful as ever despite it being pitch black in the fish house following tosai selection. Some excellent koi were purchased here at sensible prices.

This was closely followed by Dainichi where the chance to select so early from their tosai meant some excellent koi were purchased. Toru had to work extremely hard here to get the right price for me with as we weren’t buying in the bulk they would normally net a pond for, however once the deal was done they were still very friendly, and happily pointed out the number one koi in each bowl.

Low point

Seeing two ponds full of Benigoi at Hirasawa. Fortunately the sight of all his 80- 90cm koi made the visit worthwhile.

The coffee at Aoki, where you could stand your spoon up in it.

The portaloo at Aoki, which still smells as if Mushio has just left it.

Future Visits

I definitely think that if you are after larger koi then the Autumn is the best time to travel as there is a better selection of koi available then, especially if you are looking for show standard specimens.

If it is tosai you are after then Spring is a better time to travel as there are far more ready for shipping, breeders have concluded the selection of the tategoi, and the koi are larger and easier to select from.

A winter trip is cold, makes travel difficult and slow, limits availability of breeders close to the show but can offer some bargains if you don’t go with pre-conceived ideas about what you want to buy, and I wouldn’t rule out doing it again.

Dave