Today was our last day in the mountains, next weekend is the Nogyosai koi show, so many of the breeders are helping in the show's preparation and therefore fewer mud ponds are being harvested. In years gone by the Nogyosai champion often would be expected to win the All Japan koi show - these days this isn't the case, as the south of Japan also has many top breeders such as Sakai Hiroshima.
Our main objective this morning was to return and visit our Azukari Marayama kohaku recently harvested from the Odakan mud ponds. Marayama won last year's All Japan Koi Show so this bloodline is top class. We were very happy with the development and growth of all 3 koi as they were placed in the mud pond in May at around 32cm and all 3 had grown to between 51-53cm - 20cm+ in 4 months ! The skin and body shapes were excellent and no blemishes to be seen.
We took photographs and videos before phoning our customer at 3am to discuss the options! He decided to leave the koi in Japan for another year. We have decided to bring our two back to the UK and grow them in one of our ponds - this will be an interesting experiment in itself.
We then popped into a couple of breeders to conclude our buying in Niigata and then for one last XL Pork Ramen and off to Nagaoka station to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo.
