Shopping wiith a difference.......in Japan

Two years ago I visited Japan for the first time and ever since I've regularly been asked about my trip. Fellow club members often take me to one side to ask about the country and the koi. Because of this I suggested a Crouch Valley members' Japan trip and it was a resounding "Yes"!

I began to make enquires, one of which was Geoff Kemp of Connoisseur Koi. Geoff and myself had numerous conversations about costs and hotels etc. and when I couldn't get hold of the man himself, his better half Tina was always there to answer all my queries.

Nine members decided they would like to make the trip. I got back to Geoff again and he organised everything, including flights and hotels. All we had to do was prepare for departure on 13th October 2006. I'll spare you the travel details and get straight to the trip itself.

On our first day we clambered into the mini bus with Geoff as our driver and set off for our first breeder. The drive up into the mountains was beautiful - it was hard to imagine there was ever an earthquake there at all. In fact the only evidence remaining was that parts of the mountain had been shored up where there had been landslides and the roads were being re-laid.

First breeder

First stop was the Nogami facility. During a buying trip here the previous year Geoff bought a three-step Kohaku which he left to grow on in the mud ponds. The koi was bowled and much to everyone's delight it had improved in size and colour - it was beautiful. After taking a few photos it was time to move on to the next breeder, Kaneko. Unfortunately, he was very busy so we decided to call back later and instead continued to Marusho.

Here we were invited to visit a harvest of two-year old koi. So we drove further up into the mountains to reach the mud pond where they were being held. I must say that the views and scenery are absolutely wonderful in this part of Japan.

The mud pond had been partially drained and as we waited to watch the harvest, Marusho came over and asked if two of our party wanted to help. WOW, what an opportunity. Luckily for myself and Arthur Sutton, we were the only two who could fit into size seven and a half waders!

We started neting from one end of the pond until we reached the bottom end, then the net was pulled into a semi circle where it was propped up so the koi could not jump out. We bagged up the koi and they were put into water tanks on the back of small trucks. Their colours were absolutely unbelievable.

Being able to take part in a koi harvest is one thing I will treasure for years to come. It was not only helping with the harvest, which was a fantastic experience, but being able to see and handle these koi as they came out of the mud pond for the first time in six months was truly a breathtaking moment.

Two trucks were carefully driven back to the NND facility, which is a joint venture between Fujio,Oomo, Kaneko and Marusho. On arrival they were separated into two different bowls, and each bowl had its own price. The breeders then gathered round to pick out the best three koi, which they term as their number one, number two and number three. These are then individually priced. It was here that we all bought our first Koi from a pond full of two-year old Purachina.

Hold on to your pockets!

Having been lucky enough to have visited Japan in the past, I was well aware of the lure that each and every koi had. It's all too easy to spend all your money at the first couple of breeders, so I was careful not to get over excited - I wanted to be able to purchase koi from a range of breeders.

After thanking the breeders for giving us the opportunity to watch and help with their harvest we continued to our last breeder of the day - Yagenji. On entering this facility the first pond we came to had a loverly Char Utsuri in it. Alan Hurley saw this koi and asked for it to be bowled. Impressed with the quality and size, it didn't take him long to shake hands on a deal! There was also another even bigger Cha Utsuri in this pond which Arthur was interested in but he just couldn't make up his mind. But we'll come back to that one later.... Chris Belinger bought a Koromo and Colin Wainwright a nice Shiro Utsuri.

The following day our first stop was Oomo, one of the top breeders in this area. We found he had some loverly Showa which he bowled for us. I bought two very nice two-year-olds and Arthur bought a larger three-year-old before moving on to Torazo.

I had visited Torazo before and knew that we were going to see a very high standard of koi. We were all looking at two-year-old females, many of which were being bought as quickly as they were bowled. I decided to have a wander around some other ponds a bit further away and was completely amazed. There were koi here that would blow your mind - or as Geoff would say, 'clonkers'! I fell in love with one particular koi. The red,or hi as we say, was unbelievable. I didn't ask for a price as I thought it would be too expensive.

A bargain at Torazo's

After everyone had finished buying and photographing their koi i t was time to move on to the next breeder. As we were leaving I asked Geoff, out of curiosity, to find out the price of the koi I was looking at. He looked at me and said, 'Lots of money'. Pointing at the koi he handed Torazo his calculator, came back to me with a smile on his face and showed me the price. I looked at Geoff and asked to bowl it - it took less than 10 seconds for me to make up my mind and buy this koi. I left Torazo a very happy man.

The next breeder was Izumiya, who is especially known for Yamabuki Ogen, a beautiful one -coloured Koi. We were here to look at two-year-old Ogons but they were not being harvested until the following day. Promising to return, we continued to Shinoda where we were able to view some fabulous parent koi measuring approximately 80-90cm long.

Day three was going to be another interesting day as we were invited to our second harvest of the week. Many people travel to Japan to buy or look at koi and have never seen a harvest, so we felt priviledged that, on just our third day, we were being given the chance to watch our second harvest.

Geoff drove us up to the mud pond which belonged to Marusho. In it were all his four-year-old koi. There were a few top breeders present: Fujio Oomo, Kaneko, Marusho and Tanako. The first time they netted the pond they managed to retrieve just 19 koi. They knew there were 25 in total, and managed to catch the other 6 on the second netting. All the koi were moved down to Marusho's facility where they were bowled and photographed before being put into large ponds.

The colours and patterns on these koi were breathtaking to say the least, and had any of us been lottery winners, we would have been very excited. Although we left empty handed, we did come away with some wonderful memories. The urge to spend our money was satisfied at our final stoop of the day Yagenji.

On day four we decided to visit the koi museum at Ojika. This brought back many memories for me aas I have been here before. Anybody who loves koi and has the chance to visit this part of Japan should definitely visit the museum. It is so beautifully laid out and offers the chance to unwind and simply enjoy the world of koi. We spent two hours feeding the koi and wandering around the gardens before moving on to the dry goods shop where we bought koi socks and air stones.

Dipping and dining

The following day most of the party decided to visit Kyoto for the day and stay overnight. This left Geoff, Chris, Arthur and myself to relax and spend the day as we wished. so we visited a few breeders before stopping for lunch. Not only does Geoff know his koi, he also knows a good cafe, and we had the tastiest curry ever.