I knew I wasn't going crazy.......

....but it was a bit of a surprise!

As mentioned yesterday, this afternoon myself and Hiroshi had an appointment to interview with Katsunori Miya of Miyatora Koi Farm, a farm dating back over 80 years.

I'd only visited Miyatora on one occasion previously, back in February 2007 on my first visit to Niigata.  Since then I've driven past those same premises, although not visible from the main road, many times.  Hiroshi asked beforehand whether I knew where to go which I confirmed yes, or course I did.

As we pulled into the narrow road to the premises in Araya something seemed different, it wasn't as I expected or remembered.

I stood there puzzling for a while trying to work it out.  One thing I distinctly remembered, unless I'm going mad, was Kastsunori-san's father, Toraichi, coming out of a house and into the Koi house on the right.  However, there was no sign of the house, nor Katsunori-san.

Hiroshi called him and he came to meet us, since my previous visit they've moved into a new house, a house I've driven past dozens of times without knowledge of whose it was, and the old house was destroyed last year.  At least I wasn't going totally crazy.

The house on the right contained a few nisai from last year, the house on the left some of this year's Gosanke tosai.  Below a some Kin Ki Utsuri for which Miyatora is well known.

I knew that Miyatora were building a new Koi house, I didn't realise that the constuction site next to the home that I've driven past many times was his new Koi house.  I was in for a big surprise with regards the size of the Miyatora business, one I'd somewhat underestimated.

As you can see below the construction is a little behind schedule for this year's harvest.  The finishing touches were being made to the filtration systems.  Until I play back the recorded interview I can't confirm the exact size of the ponds.

Next door were 2 more Koi houses I'd previously attributed to belonging to Jinbei incorrectly.  They are in fact Miyatora's and stand next to the new large family home. The house below contains around 200 tons of water, as does the other house, and around 20,000 tosai.

I was to learn a lot more about Miyatora Koi Farm about which I'd previously had no idea over the ensuing couple of hours. You'll be able to read more in Niigata Nishikigoi Digest in a coming issue, below Katsunori-san can be seen reading issue 1.