Dreams for the future – video of Shintaro tosai

Early tomorrow morning I’ll be heading off to Tokyo, a busy 8 days ahead of me.

Monday through until Wednesday we’ll be flat out on Mondo.  Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday will see me at the Ryutsu Centre for the 40th All Japan Koi Show.  On Thursday you’ll be able to see a preview of some of the special Nishikigoi on display as they arrive throughout the day.  Friday is judging day, as soon as I can you’ll be able to see the Grand Champion, along with other winners.

Whilst typing this I really should be packing some bags, working out what camera and computer gear I need and don’t need, etc, etc. In truth I should have sorted it earlier today, oh well!

Having watched English FA Cup football into the earlier hours it was the usual Sunday lie in.  When I awoke the sun was shining, the sky was blue.  Worry about packing bags?  No chance.  I headed for Yamakoshi.  The mountains really do look their most beautiful, in my opinion, when the snow is deep and fresh and the sky is blue.

Having had coffee with Saito san I went to check out the tosai, something I do on a regular basis.  It really does amaze me how quickly Nishikigoi are capable of growing, not under any particularly forced conditions, just good quality warm water and regular feeds.  The periods when I’ve not seen them for maybe a week or 2 this is particularly, of course it would be, some of them are putting on 1cm per week.

I took the opportunity to take some video of them to share with niigata-nishikigoi.com visitors.

In previous posts about these tosai I mentioned that many were situated in Shintaro’s lower Koi house.  These are the ones that at the last selection were deemed not in the top grade.  With over double the stocking rate and not as heavy feeding as those in the main tosai house, their growth isn’t as great, however they are still around 20cm on average.

You can view the video of these tosai here.
From there it was up to the main tosai house to see the Showa with which I have such affinity.  These are the tosai which have excited me so much throughout the latter half of 2008.  I so much hope that one of them becomes something very special.

You can view the video of these Showa tosai here.

Next weekend of course puts everything into perspective.  The distance any tosai has to travel to achieve the greatness of All Japan Grand Champion is simply immense.  Where would we all be without dreams though!