Day Seven

Friday the 8th of Febuary, and we are back off to Sekiguchi today, where, with luck, I will be selecting the koi I came on the trip to purchase. Hopefully they will be ready for us when we arrive and we can go straight to the Tosai house and begin selecting straight away.

The snow is falling heavily today, so the journey is slow, and Toru decides to stop halfway for a coffee break. He had to work his way through the 6” of snow at the services and parked up in where he thought the parking bays were. In the services there are a number of Koi related souvenirs which got our attention and money, as well as a large tank containing some healthy and attractive koi.

The snow was even worse after our coffee and it was a slow journey to Sekiguchi. We made it in one piece though and when we got there Kazuo Sekiguchi rushed out to meet us with 4 umbrellas in his hands to protect us from the snow. We moved inside where we proceeded to talk for 15 minutes or so about the farm and what his plans were. He told us that he has bred Doitsu Showa for the first time, which should ensure Johnkoi books himself on a trip again soon.

We then made our way to the Tosai house where I was delighted to find that not only had they netted the very best koi below their tategoi, but they had even graded them into very expensive and expensive! The more expensive batch looked extremely good and very large, which explained why we could only see half way across the fish house because of the steam.

One of the brothers had his waders on and jumped into the pond and using a koi sock selected 8 or 9 Tosai which he then passed to his brother, who placed them into a bowl for me to select from. We worked our way through every one of the koi and I had found enough koi to select from. At this stage we had enough to fill a box and I photographed them concluding the deal, even though I had no idea how much I was to pay.

As we waited outside for the breeders to sort things out before selecting from the other high grade koi, Toru came out and told me that they had given me a very good price, much better than expected. Knowing the price of the best koi meant that everyone knew the others would be a little cheaper which ensured that selections were then made from the other koi.

At the conclusion of our business I handed over my gifts and said my thank you’s, before we entrusted our lives to Toru’s driving again.

Whilst we had been in the Tosai house, the snow had been falling very heavily and the steep track we had driven down, and had been cleared.by the two sons for us, was now covered by a few inches of white powder. We got about 1/3 of the way up when the car slewed to one side and slipped into a deeper patch of snow off of the track. Toru tried to drive out of it but succeeded only in spraying the area with more snow. He then managed to reverse back on to the track and drive forward again, but the car just slid into the same hole again and again. In the end the three of us got out and pushed whilst Toru drove and we made it to the top of the hill.

Fortunately, despite the heavy snow, the road on the route back was much better as we had seen half a dozen snow ploughs pass us in the opposite direction on the way there, and they had obviously been successful in clearing the build up.

Next stop was Takahashi, and when we got there the breeders wife saw us getting out of the car into a couple of inches of water and rushed away to get me a cute pair of wellies. No I said, I’ll be alright in my walking boots, but she replied something along the lines of “not round there you won’t it’s 20cm deep”. Reluctantly I took the boots and carried them with me and before we had reached the fish house that the breeder was taking us to I found out that I needed the boots unless I wanted to spend the rest of the day with cold wet feet, as there was a good 6” of water in places. The water was created by the snow melting from the top of the koi houses and having nowhere to run to as the lowest point was protected by a small wall.

We moved into the fish house and a number of koi were selected, including some nice Showa, and I found out that my point and click appeared to have given up the ghost, probably as a result of it’s exposure to snow over the past few days, so name the breeder would be more difficult from now on. The breeder then took us round several fish houses to show us all his Tosai and from the numbers it was obvious he was a very busy man.

Lunch had to be taken on the move today, so sandwiches were picked up to keep us going whilst we headed back to Niigata.

On the way Toru was busy chasing down breeders to see who from our list was available and fortunately the one we most wanted to see was available, so it was off to see Isa at his Nissai house. When we got there he warned us that he was still very ill with the flu and suggested we keep our distance.

We moved into the fish house and saw some of his very impressive Tosai in two large ponds on the way in, before getting to the koi for sale ponds. He let us know which ponds had koi available for purchase and which were already sold. One big pond just around the corner, contained some stunning Nissai, but none were for sale as they were his Nissai Tategoi for selling next Autumn as sansai.

There were 5 ponds with koi for sale 3 of which contained very average looking koi, but one contained some nice koi including a selection of Tancho Showas and Christie needed one of those to fill an order, so he got busy here selecting the best of these. The other pond did not contain a lot of koi, but it was obvious that these were of a higher grade and would cost significantly more. Once Christie had concluded his business and I had got the attention of Toru and the breeder, we proceeded to bowl two small Showa that had caught my eye. A close inspection of the koi revealed nothing that we put me off their purchase, so Toru chatted with the breeder for a while and somewhere in the conversation obviously raised the issue of the price. Once again he took me to one side when he was ready and gave me a price that was within the maximum I was prepared to pay, so we agreed the deal.

We chatted a little longer with the breeder before saying our farewells and headed back to the hotels. We had reserved a table at the German bar tonight, which is quite a lively bar full of small parties and serving good food with pitchers of beer. An excellent evening was had with plenty of food and beer consumed by all before we headed back to the hotel, taking care not to bump into the drunken businessmen out for their normal Friday session.

It is the last day tomorrow, which means a few breeders before handing the hire car back and heading back to Tokyo on the train.