June, 2009

When I walked out of my door this morning at around 11.30am it was as though I'd walked straight into an oven.  Earlier this week the roadside thermometers had read 29c, today must have been well into the 30's.

I was off to Marudo to meet Rob from Ornafish who was selecting some Tosai (technicaly nisai now really I guess, not sure when they were born) Showa there.  According to Hisashi Hirasawa, owner of Marudo, these were genuine tategoi, they'd been held back from the mud pond for Ornafish and, unless purchased would go to mudponds next week.

When I arrived the pond had just been netted.  If the temperature outside was hot you can imagine what it was like inside the polythene covered Koi house.  Hisasahi-san apparently had been happy to be in the rather cooler water which was just 22c!

Rob had orders for 15 of the Koi on offer, all of which were probably 35-38cm in size now.

Hisashi-san selected various examples as his suggestions, some were taken up, others rejected for whatever reason until 15 were selected, 10 going to a customer in Holland, 5 going to Gatwick Koi in the UK.

The 2 Showa below were a couple of personal favourites of mine, I could have been tempted to purchase either. The first is going to the Dutch customer, the second to Gatwick Koi.

As we left the sweltering heat of the Koi house Hisashi-san invited us for lunch, suggesting soba noodles.  I recall writing on last years blog that hegi soba, a local soba speciality, was an acquired taste.  I guess I've acquired it now as I actually find them quite delicious with some freshly cooked tempura vegetable and shrimp.  I knew Rob didn't like soba at all so soba was off the menu!

We ended up at a restaurant along Route 17 near Marudo's premises.  To be honest I really didn't need lunch, it was only 1pm and I'd picked up breakfast on route to Marudo.  I like to make up for my woeful inability to speak Japanese by trying to read some when and where I can.  Menus are a invariably a mix of kanji, hiragana and katakana.  Any dishes written in kanji are off the menu, those in hiragana and katakana have a chance of being chosen.  I could read 'curry set', written in katakana, consisting of curry and ramen (chinese noodles).  For 750 yen I hadn't expected a full bowl of chicken curry and rice, which was quite delicious, along with a large bowl of ramen noodle soup!  That's 2 meals in one!

Some very interesting discussion ensued, joined by Fujio Oomo who was taking lunch at the table next to us.  Readers of last year's blog, and subscribers to NTV, will probably recall two young guys that worked at Marudo, Devin Swanson from the US and Bram Rohan from the Netherlands.  Devin spent some time here in Ojiya as a tourist, making numerous trips to learn about Nishikigoi at Marudo, before Japanese immigration decided that he'd been here too long as a tourist.  It's been almost a year since Devin left, I guess, and during that time attempts have been made to secure a proper visa for him to stay and study at Marudo.  Koi hobbyists will probably find it strange that, according to immigration, Nishikigoi are not recognised as part of Japanese culture.  That in itself presents considerable issues in getting a visa.  Japanese is rightly proud of many aspects of it's culture and it's possible to apply for a 'cultural exchange visa' to come and learn about bonsai, ikebana (flower arranging) or even origami (paper folding).  You can't get one for learning about Nishikigoi.  Anway, over lunch Hisashi-san advised me that Devin had a couple of days earlier been issued a Certificate of Eligibility for a visa to stay in Japan at Marudo Koi Farm.  I'm certainly very pleased for Devin who was/is very passionate about being here in Ojiya and learning, and I hope that we can pick up where we left off last year in bringing you some great information from Marudo Koi Farm with his assistance.

With regards to Bram, having spent 3 months here last year as part of his study programme in Holland he'll be returning again next week for a further 2 months.  Again, I hope we can bring you some great stuff with his assistance.

Later in the afternoon I headed up to Yamakoshi to see what picture opportunities were on offer.  The scene below must surely be the most photographed in all of Yamakoshi.  I stopped for no more than 10 minutes.  In that time 3 vehicles stopped, their drivers taking pictures of the same view, on their mobile phones!

As I stood there, as if perfectly on cue, Saito-san arrived to add a bit of human interest to the pics.  The pond you can see him wading in is the same one where the Sanke kego were videoed a couple of days ago - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/432.  I'm not sure what he was spreading in the pond but will find out tomorrow.  The pond top left of the picture (just above the tree) is the pond where the Showa ake-nisai were filmed last week - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/430.  In fact, most of the ponds you can see are Shintaro mud ponds, apart from the one at the centre top of the image.

It was around 5.45pm as I made my way back down to Ojiya.  As the sun shone brightly in the sky I figured it may be an opportunity for the pictures I'd hoped for at the Torazo ponds a few weeks back - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/406.  Sadly the picture didn't quite work as I'd hoped.  I have to say that the ake-sansai in the pond look to be doing really well.

I drove to the far end of the adjacent pond where a scene of great potential unveiled itself.  I have to convince the electric company that the pilon to the right really should be removed though!

It's 5 weeks ago that I posted the last updated Mushigame panoramic image - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/395

This was the view today, as you can see things getting ever greener.  The weather has turned very warm and there has been a fair bit of rain too over the last couple of days.

There were quite a few people around in the valley today, as you pan from the left you'll see that a pond had obviously been netted earlier in the day, there are several Kei trucks around and then, on the far right, Shousuke Saito was out tending his vegetables.

Click on the image below to open the full 6500x1212 image (2.6mb)

In 3 weeks time I shall be in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, with Hiroshi Toyama to visit the 8th Malaysia Koi Show and represent the INPC there.

For all the time I've spent in Asia, all of it has been in Japan, I've not actually visited any other Asian countries so it should be an interesting experience.  As well as that it's also my first visit to a Koi show other than in Europe or Japan.

I understand the show was only formally announced on the 16th May, despite that there are some impressive stats:

• Koi are expected to be entered from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and possibly Thailand.
• 50 rectangular tanks (8ftx4ft), 20 x 7.5ft circular tanks and 5 x 6ft circular tanks have all been booked already.   As such an additional 10 rectangular tanks and 4 x 7.5ft circular tanks have been added.

This 87cm Showa was Grand Champion at last year's show so the quality of Koi on show promises to be high.

You can see more pictures of the 2008 show here.

For more details of the 2009 show visit here.

Things are rather quiet here at the moment.  Most spawning activity is finished and now it's a waiting game whilst the kego that have been released to the mud ponds reach an age and size when they can start being culled.

I popped over to the Shintaro fry ponds in Kawaguchi yesterday where the Showa kego were released a week earlier - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/423 - and set about trying to capture some video of them, a task that is easier said than done it transpired.

On a mini tripod the video camera was set vertically pointing downwards, it's front precariously millimetres from the water surface, the water being perhaps 2cm deep.  Then it was a waiting game until the fry ventured beneath the camera.

I would guess the field of view in the video is around the size of a matchbox, giving you an idea how small the fry still are.

It'll never win a BAFTA for nature video, nor challenge the BBC Wildlife Unit's work, but you can see some larger than life detail.

Subscribers to NTV 2009 can of course download the high definition version by logging into http://www.nishikigoi.tv/2009/index.html

For more details about NTV 2009, or to subscribe, please visit http://www.nishikigoi.tv/ntv_2009.html.