Maple Koi Japan Trip 11th Nov 2012
- Nov
- 11
Last day out early up to Hosakai for appointment , we arrived to find that ponds had been treated and we was not able to net koi for selecting.
So we then traveled back across the long twisting roads up and down the hills to then visit a Shiro Utsuri breeder called Seki. I have not been here to visit this breeder for many years now as back in 2004 when Niigata area was hit by a large earthquake , Seki was injured then lost most of his stock. He is now trying to retire after taking many year to rebuild his stock of Shiro Utsuri’s which he has bred for over 40 years. Plus his house where he lived was badly damaged , so he now has a new house near to the road a bit lower down from it original site. But he is lucky to be still near his koi ponds and koi house .The six Shiro Utsuri’s I chose are of the highest quality I have brought for sometime.
Then back to Ojiya town for lunch , a quick KFC snack and the onto visit Hasegawa , I was looking for some orders to fill here but my budget did not fit his price range. So back up the hills and visit once again at Jiroske.
The breeder and brothers where unloading koi into there main winter ponds here and i was lucky to sort through many of nice koi . Small sized but good and strong mix of 18 koi . The day soon came to a close once the sun had dropped .
This had been a busy day netting koi ,so back to the hotel ready for a nice meal in the Baden Baden german style bar for a lovely meal of beef stew and chips .
Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo by bullet train and then spend a few hours around Chiba to look at the temples and shrines.There is also a large lake with water features and many koi .Then into our hotel ready for an early flight of 12 hours back home to the U.K.
P.S – I had some good news today from Hajime Sakuma about the Kohaku i brought that he entered for me at the koi show this weekend had won first prize , it has a large certificate with details plus its picture and details will be printed in koi magazine
-
- Box 10 From Breeder Seki . 30 – 35 cm . £295 – £ 345 .High Grade Shiro Utsuri’s with good white skin and very deep black pattern.
-
- High Grade Shiro Utsuri from one of the best breeder in this class. He has bred this variety for over 40 years. 30 – 35cm . From £295 – £345
-
- Box 9 . Breeder Jiroske . 18 mixed koi . 18 – 22cm . From £ 85 – £ 115 each
-
- Box 9 .
-
- Breeder Hosakai Fish house
-
- As we drove around we stopped for a rare site to see these bulls being trained up. Many of the koi breeders will keep these fighting bulls housed in cosy barns. Here they are training them as it is sunday and it is not raining for once.They do not let each bull fight to hard so not to damage each other. What they do is only push each other by the head , a bit like sumo wrestling.Only with a large live beefy bull.
-
- After a week of rain around the hills.Snow has fallen on the high peeks. Niigata area will soon see snow , as winter approaches. They can get around 2 – 4 Metres each winter.
/iframe>