Here you can see pictures of the koi currently being
purchased in Japan
for the 2014 season. Follow the trip here or get the feed on facebook by adding
"causewaykoi". You can contact us if there's anything special you
would like brought home
Saturday
22nd February
The trip is just about over! (Scroll to the bottom and work
your way back up for the full trip) Most of today we will be travelling from Tokyo
to home. It has been another very successful and enjoyable buying trip. The koi
should be following us in about 3 weeks time and then will be quarantined for
about 4 weeks before going on sale at Easter.
This morning we started by making our way over to the famous
Hama-Rikyu gardens which had been the family garden of the Tokugawa Shogun.
These are very beautiful gardens with much to see and learn.
In the Nakajima-no-ochaya (tea house) we had traditional
green tea and Japanese confectionery.
Next we had a walk through the amazing grounds of the Zojoji
Temple Tokyo
Tower
After lunch we took a City Tour by bus through many of the
main tourist attractions and learning much of the city's history. We stopped at
Asakusa at the Sesoji Temple Nakamise Street .
The main attraction of the trip was the new Tokyo
Tower Tokyo .
Returning from the tour we had a quick turn around at the
hotel before heading out to Roppongi for a very special dinner - Teppanyaki at
the Grand Hyatt.
Being the last day, and with no more fish to buy, we visited
the Koi Museum Sun
Plaza
After a good coffee in Starbucks at the station in Nagaoka
we bid farewell to Rene for another year and made our way back to Tokyo
on the shinkansen. All good things come to an end, but now it is time for us to
become tourists!
This afternoon we visited Akihabara, the electric village,
including a tour around the Big Apple Pachinko halls and a visit to the awesome
Yodobashi Camera electrical products store. We also went over to Kanda to have
a look around the Kanda Myogin shrine before returning to Akihabara for dinner.
Steak and chips for me tonight!
We had a bit of business to do at Hosokai this morning so we
went there first. Here you can see Masaru netting up a fine aka matsuba and the
next picture gives you some idea of the size of the fish.
Here are a couple of fine 57cm Sanke.
This is a 40cm Tancho sanke from Hosokai.
Another visit to Izumiya followed so I could take pictures
of a Tancho Sanke for a customer. Here are some pics from Izumiya.
After a fine feed of pork and rice in the mountains we made
our way on up to Kanno to see his beautiful goshiki and go-sanke. There is so
much snow up in Mushigame! I bought tosai there.
Next we went back to Marusei to pick up some smaller nissai
having called at Kawakami only to find him sold out. These are the fish bought
at Marusei. The first picture is with 33-42cm koi. The fish in the second
pictures are 28-34cm.
We finished the day with a visit to Dainichi followed by
coffee and cake. The visit to the mountains is almost over!
Had a super dinner tonight in the restaurant just opposite
our hotel. This chicken was amazing!
Off to the hills early this morning with so much to see and
do. Our first stop was the huge Marusei fish house. Have a look at some of the
lovely fish I picked up at Marusei. They are approx 38-45cm.
After visiting Miyatora we stopped in at Choguru to secure
tosai Purachina. The quality of Choguru's Purachina proved too irresistible and
we have this happy picture to show as a result. A cracking 4yr old Ogon.
While waiting for Yamazaki san to come I took this nice
scenery pic. There is plenty of snow!
Of course there is more to see than snow and mountains! Here
are some of the Yamazaki koi. A big variation, from about 30-48cm.
We visited many other farms today including the amazing
farms of Torazo and Izumiya. A few very nice koi were purchased at Aoki, including
these which are available for sale.
We finished the day at Marusaka before returning to the
hotel to tidy up business, freshen up and get ready for dinner. Tonight we went
out to a fish restaurant with the Hosokai brothers. What an amazing feed -
though there were a few things I ate tonight that I just didn't ask many
questions about!
The road up to Yamakoshi was full of snow this morning but
we made our way up the twists and turns to reach the birthplace of Nishikigoi.
There is always plenty to enjoy at Kazuto Ikarashi. As
always, the koi were stunning. We bought a very nice Tancho here and a good
selection of high quality year old fish
We visited Sakai Matsunosuke and bought tosai at Yagengi.
After noodle soup for lunch we went back up to Hosokai. It usually takes quite
a while to do the Hosokai visit and today there was good reason with the
purchase of some very nice koi.
We did visit a few other farms, but the last picture for
today is of some Doitsu Go-sanke and a gin-rin Showa purchased at Shinoda.
The weather delayed our flight out of Dublin
which left us having to sprint through Charles De Gaul airport in Paris .
Although we made it to the plane on time, unfortunately our suitcases didn't.
Having sorted that out, we came out to find that the weather
in Japan has
been causing havoc and we were unable to book the shinkansen at the airport.
The queues in Tokyo station were
very long, but eventually we got our tickets and caught the bullet train up to
Nagaoka.
We have since learned that the Expressway is closed due to
the heavy snow. Our suitcases will be sent to the hotel in Tokyo
so it means working without all the usual equipment while here in Ojiya. I
apologise now for the quality of the photos as I don't have my good camera with
the polarising lens.
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