Had a very busy day today selecting koi from a few breeders we had narrowed things down to from all those visited

Our first stop was Dainichi as we had not yet visited but gene had some requests for these.  Unfortunately they did not have the quality we needed available as they have yet to be selected and we knew we could get some high quality kohaku elsewhere.  However it wasnt a totally wasted trip as Gene wanted to meet Futoshi san and so at least I was able to introduce them and they could have a chat for a while.

After this we went to check out a couple fo alternative places for some Yamabuki Ogon as although we had already found some great examples it's good to know exactly what is available.  We also paid a visit to some smaller breeders before calling in to Yamanak Ohya to have a look.  After this we picked up a few various varieties we had seen yesterday before grabbing some lunch.

We had an appoitnment with Koda later in the afternoon and so before this we decided to pop along to the Nokyo Auction.  It is the first auction of the year and therefore gets a lot of TV coverage so I thought it would be good to go as the crews are always keen to interview foreign visitors and thought it would be some fun for Gene.  Sure enough he was interviewed by three of the crews there and I think he enjoyed himself.  It was quite fun when we arrived as being the only foreigners there the crews almost jumped on us and as we looked at some of the available lots we had cameras filming us from all angles.  No doubt we will be local celebrities on the Niigata TV channels this evening.

After this it was off to Koda where we managed to select a lot of what Gene needed and also got a good look at the tategoi which are being kept to put in the mud ponds next year.