Day 2 - Japan Trip November 1025

A Huge Day in Japan 🇯🇵 — Ticking Off Two Big Trip Goals

Huge day today, as we ticked off two of our top trip objectives.

Back in 2023, we purchased a range of Goshiki females and males to start our own breeding programme for this variety. It was an exciting but challenging first step — many of those koi turned out to be infertile, poor spawners, or just didn’t match well when paired. The one exception came from a pairing between a Hiroi male and an Ozumi Ikarashi female, which produced promising results and gave us our first real sense of direction with this line.

Returning to the Source

On my trip to Japan earlier this year (February 25th), I revisited both Hiroi and Ozumi’s farms, hoping to find koi along the same lines as that successful pairing. Unfortunately, neither farm had quite what we were looking for at that time — sometimes timing and harvest cycles just don’t align.

Fast forward to today, and we finally tasted success!

The Big Find 🎯

I found exactly what I’d been searching for — true strength in depth for our Goshiki breeding project. I’ve secured four of Ozumi’s top Sansai Goshiki females and five special Nisai males from Hiroi.

Between these new additions and our existing breeding pair, I’m confident we now have the building blocks for at least one, possibly two, highly compatible new breeding combinations. It feels like the kind of moment that can move a breeding programme forward several years in a single step.

A Productive Stop at Maruhiro

The day brought other successes too. At Maruhiro, I completed a customer order and selected two boxes of larger Nisaifor the shop — including Tancho, Showa, Ki Utsuri, and a particularly striking scaled Orenji.

While we were there, Maruhiro himself returned from a harvest, and the energy on the farm was electric. His team moved with incredible speed and skill, transferring freshly harvested koi into tanks — a chaotic but perfectly choreographed scene. Around the facility, a crowd of koi enthusiasts, influencers, and photographers documented every moment, capturing the magic that Maruhiro is so well known for.

Thankfully, all that media buzz kept most visitors occupied, leaving me in peace at the Nisai ponds — where I had a very successful picking session of my own.

With the hustle and bustle , working room at Maruhiro was limited.  High quality footage of my selections may need to wait until the koi are back at Byer Koi Farm later this month. 

Watch the Action 🎥

If you’d like to see what the day looked like in motion — including some great footage of Maruhiro’s skilled handling — check out Woody’s at Koi In The UK’s Day 2 vlog here:
👉 https://youtu.be/wOLAb5_ycSg?si=hFBefMJ1YLJV_x46

Wrapping Up

All in all, a hugely productive day that delivered on both business and passion fronts. We made serious progress on our Goshiki breeding objectives, expanded our shop’s selection, and capped it all off with a superb katsu dinner and great company in the evening.

Days like this remind me why we keep chasing these moments — the years of planning, trial, and travel all come together when you find that one perfect match of koi that makes the whole journey worthwhile.