| DAY 4
Bright and early again we headed off to the
mountains - Peter and Denis leading the way - and we made our way to
the famous Japanese Breeder called Marusada ... and were greeted by
Marusada and his son who was very much like his father in a great
number of ways. Marusada was proud to show us what Koi breeding was
all about and we saw some really stunning Koi .. but before we had a
chance to lift any out for a closer look he insisted that we joined
him in his home for a drink ... now normally when we are offered
drinks we can expect Japanese Tea or something that resembled tea ..
but believe me it is nothing like the tea that we are used to and
enjoy back in the Uk and it really was an insult to the famous blend
that we have in Yorkshire called quite appropriately 'Yorkshire Tea'
... sometimes they served us with what looked just like yellow water
- and it did not taste much different to that .. but with Marusada -
it was slightly different .. we all sat round the center table and
Mrs. Marusada brought out a dozen large bottle of beer ... I thought
... this is more like it ... and Marusada took great pleasure of
serving us each a large glass of beer ... but the amazing
thing was as soon as we had taken even just a sip from the glass and
placed it down on the table .. Marusada would reach over and 'top it
up' again ... and that went on for ages and by the time came for us
to wonder back to the tanks ... I was well away .. believe me ...
but I was very happy with it if you know what I mean ... Marusada
himself was also well happy ... now I'm not even going to mention
Peter I will let you do your own thinking ....
We had another longer and better look at Marusada'
stock and I had already decided to buy a couple of extremely nice
Doitsu Koi - a super Sanke that one of our special customers had
asked me to look out for .. and a magnificent Doitsu Kohaku ..
and we told him that we would return to see him and to settle up for
the Koi the following day ...
On the way back down the mountain we visited Jinbei
(famous for his Sanke) and wandered around for a while but we
neither saw Jinbeaa himself or anyone else ... so we moved on ...
until we came further down the mountain to the home of Kaneko ...
probably one of the most famous of the breeders in that part of
Japan ... After the introductions I asked Kaneko about any
nice Doitsu Sanke .. just in case he had one that may beat the one
that I had already seen at Marusada's .. and his eyes lit up and he
asked me to follow him .. we entered the area where there were
literally thousands of smaller sized Koi and a couple of the
Japanese lads started to move a couple of large nets around in this
particular tank and eventually they brought up a fantastic Doitsu
Sanke .. and placed it in a bowl and took it outside into the
daylight for me to have a closer look at it ... wow ! it really was
some Koi and it was clearly a very special Koi by the way they all
talked about it ... I asked the price of this Koi and nearly had a
heart attack right there and then .... the price I was quoted was
far beyond the budget that I had been set by our customer and
although it really was magnificent I simply dare not make a decision
there and then ... Kaneko then produced the catalogue from the all
Japan Show held in February that year .. and turned to the page
showing this Sanke .. it was, as I had expected, the champion for
its class in that show . hence, of course, the extremely high price
that had been set on it ... I decided that I would leave the Koi for
the time being and try to contact our customer when we got back to
the hotel .. the only problem of course was going to be the date
line as the time in Japan is 10 hours ahead of the UK but I would
try at least.
After looking so long at the Doitsu Sanke we then
moved into the area where there were much larger Koi and Peter made
a bee-line for a Large Kohaku that he had seen in the Autumn and
spent some time catching and bowling it for further inspection .. I
studied the contents of the pond and spotted a rather nice 'Shiro
Utsuri' hiding under the walkway .. and asked Kaneko if I could have
a closer look at it ... when she was bowled she was magnificent -
probably one of the best Shiro Utsuri's that I personally had ever
seen and I was determined, subject to the price, to have this Koi
... When Kaneko told me the price I did a quick calculation
converting these Japanese Yen into English £'s and Dennis who was
stood with me gave me a sharp dig in the back and told me to buy it
... well that was all the encouragement that I needed and I
agreed with Kaneko the price and we did the deal ... followed by the
usual chanting performance I had come to expect from shopping with
Peter ... and everybody was happy .. especially me ...
We then headed off back to Nagaoka City and back to
our hotel .. where I tried hard to contact my customer who wished to
have this nice Doitsu Sanke but as I expected I could not get hold
of him so that was that ... so I thought that I had better make my
decision on the Marusada Doitsu Sanke that I had seen after all ...
That evening we decided to Eat in one of the many
German Restaurants not too far away from our hotel .. so after we
had rested up a couple of hours - leaving Peter of course, as anyone
who knows him would expect, to put away half a bottle of Scotch -
and by this time we had been joined by Jack and Maureen - some
friends and customers of Peter's who I knew reasonably well and they
too were going to join us for dinner and so we all set off
towards the restaurant .... Due to the meal, or whatever I had eaten
the previous evening which left me feeling extremely poorly and up
half the night , I deiced to eat rather lightly and ordered an
Omelet whilst the others ordered lashings of this that and
everything else imaginable ... As we sat there waiting for our meals
to arrive we all downed a few more drinks - wine seemed to be the
favorite at the time I seem to remember ... and we continued a
steady pace through the meal during in which we chatted about things
in general and I asked Jack if he was looking for any particular Koi
to which he replied 'Well Kaneko has a rather nice Shiro Utsuri that
I saw in the Autumn and I think that if that has grown any, and it
is sure to have done so, then I may just buy it' ... I found it hard
to keep a straight face as I said ...'Well we were in Kaneko's this
afternoon and I don't think that he has a Shiro Utsuri as you
described or at least I don't think so and asked Dennis if he saw
one ..' well Dennis could not stop laughing and Jack of course
wished to know what the joke was .. so I told him that I had bought
that Shiro Utsuri that very afternoon .. Well Jack called me
everything from a donkey to an Elephant ... but eventually settled
down although I got the distinct feeling that he did not forgive me
.... Whilst all this was going on Peter who had been steadily
continuing with the wine was sat there on his stool with his arms
folded and his eyes closed and was nodding off ... but each time he
got close his subconscious must have warned him and he would shoot
bolt upright again only to be dozing off again within a few minutes
.. I tugged at Jack' arm and drew the attention of Sal, the American
who was with us, to look at Peter .. just as we all looked Peter
fell completely off the stool and lay flat-out on the floor - he
went with such a bang that everybody in the restaurant looked round
to see what was happening .... I helped to pick the poor
drunken sod up and to sit him back on the stool again .. and had to
apologise to the rest of the people explaining that he just cannot
take his drink .... and today several months later I don't think
that Peter has forgiven me ... he said that he was so tired
that he just fell asleep ... some story .. and yet he is still
sticking to it .. but whatever it was one of the highlights of the
trip .... |
