Koi Acres Blog

Photos from the 2012 All Japan Koi Show

2012-02-05T12:51:00.003-06:00

The 43rd All Japan Koi Show took place at the Tokyo Ryustu Center from February 4 to the 5th, 2012.

Grand Champion

85 bu Showa

Jitsuo Takagi

Fukuoka (Japan)

Jumbo Champion

90 bu Kohaku

Felix Denanta

Indonesia

Mature Champion

65 bu Sanke

Seiji Komatsu

Nagano (Japan)

Mature Champion (Male)

70 bu Kohaku

Kanji Yagura

Osaka (Japan)

Kokugyo Prize

75 bu Showa

Mr. N Budiono Gunawan

Indonesia

Best of Sakura & Best in Variety Champion

75 bu Goshiki

Ena Suzuki

Shizuoka (Japan)

Tsubaki Prize

70 bu Koromo

Andrew Tsui

Hong Kong

Sakura Prize

60 bu Kujaku

Isman Cahyono

Indonesia

Kokugyo Prize

50 bu Showa

FP & Juxing

Malaysia

Best of Tsubaki & Best in Variety Champion

90 bu Doitsu Koi

Mr. David Soon

Singapore

Tsubaki Prize & Best in Variety Champion

80 bu Tancho

Koi San Europe

Belgium

Best in Variety Champion

90 bu Sanke

Jitsuo Takagi

Fukuoka (Japan)

43rd All Japan Koi Show Grand Champion

2012-02-05T12:27:00.005-06:00

Grand Champion
85 bu Showa
Jitsuo Takagi
Fukuoka (Japan)

51st Niigata Nogyosai Koi Show Oct. 29-30th 2011

2011-12-13T20:44:00.002-06:00

The First Dainichi Auction November 30th 2011

2011-11-20T00:13:00.001-06:00

Dainichi Koi Farm will be holding their own auction for the first time at the end of this month. Photos and info on the koi to be auctioned can be found here: http://www.dainichikoifarm.com/auction/index.html

Should you find a koi that peaks your interest, please get in touch with Devin before November 27th to discuss which koi you would like to bid on. You can reach him at: devin@koiacres.com Please include the Number (ex. No. 2087, ect.) of the koi and maximum amount that you would like to bid, in Japanese Yen, on your select koi. Please keep in mind that Koi Acres will charge a commission fee on top of the winning bid price. Winning bid price does not include any shipping fees or grow out fees should that option be available. Further details and questions can be answered by contacting Devin.

Check us out on Google+

2011-11-11T10:52:00.001-06:00

We now have a profile on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106419944118760735589

Follow us, we may put up some deals exclusive to our profile from time to time.

Photos of the 2011 Nogyosai Koi Show

2011-10-31T12:30:00.001-05:00

The following pictures were taken by Devin at the 2011 Nogyosai Koi Show in Niigata.

Nishikigoi Shinkokai Niigata District Breeders' Auction Nov. 8th 2011

2011-10-31T02:25:00.000-05:00

The Nishikigoi Shinkoikai Niigata District Breeders will hold their annual autumn auction on Nov. 8th this year. Photos of all the koi to be auctioned can be viewed here: http://www.echigo.ne.jp/~nishikigoi/auction.htm#4

Should you find a koi that strikes your interest, Devin will be there to take part in the action. Please get in touch with Devin before November 6th to discuss which koi you would like him to bid on for you. You can reach him at: devin@koiacres.com Please include the maximum amount that you would like to bid, in Japanese Yen, on your select koi. Please keep in mind that Koi Acres will charge a commission fee on top of the winning bid price. Winning bid price does not include any shipping fees or grow out fees should that option be available. Further details and questions can be answered by contacting Devin.

Below are a few examples of the koi to be auction:

2011 Nogyosai Grand Champion

2011-10-31T02:02:00.000-05:00

Nogami Koi Farm takes the top award at this years Nogyosai Koi Show with their beautiful 5 year old 82 cm Kohaku. Congradulations to Nogami Koi Farm!

Devin's Vlog

2011-10-20T12:13:00.005-05:00

Check out my new vlog! In it you will find the reason for my decision to start a vlog as opposed to writing in my blog. I talk about the first annual Koi Acres' Mud Pond Harvest, along with the events leading up to the big day. Including the importance of the diet the koi are being fed to bring them to their full potential. Enjoy!!!

Transcription:

If you've been following my blog through the years, you'll find there are periods where I go stale and stop writing, often because I'm out of inspiration. I like to think I'm a really good writer, but sometimes it just doesn't come out as good as I thought it would. And since Mikki started writing a blog and I married her and all, she's actually a pretty good writer I think. She likes to think otherwise. And I'm afraid I can't compete, there's just no comparison in her writing skills to mine. So that's the end of my blog writing. How does that saying go? Something about something or other, if you're not good at it just give up and try something new. So I think I'll try a vlog, because personally, I think I'm much more interesting in person than Mikki is.

I'd like to talk about the Koi Acres First Annual Mud Pond Harvest today. From the beginning of construction of mud ponds, we got a little bit later of a start than we'd hoped to due to road restrictions not allowing us to get the heavy machinery in as early as we wanted to to dig the ponds. We'd initially planned on digging the ponds in April. Unfortunately, we were tied up with building a pond down in Tennessee this winter, and by the time the pond build crew got home from building the pond, road restrictions were on so we could not move in machinery without some serious fines if we got caught. So we got off to a late start. The ponds were completed, I think, around mid-May and the fish were moved out on June 12th.
In between the completion of the ponds I had to get them filled and the water conditioned properly before I moved the fish in. So throughout the summer, unfortunately, I didn't have any auto feeders this year. Hopefully should have some next year. So everything was hand-fed. When I was home, not out at koi shows during weekends, I was feeding them six times a day. Other times, it was my mom I had to rely on to feed. I hope she fed them three times a day, but I'm thinking maybe she only got around twice on some days. But as you can see, I'm very happy with how the fish turned out even without the aid of auto feeders with consistent feedings every day. I did not expect the fish to grow to the size they are. I think the largest growth we got is around 20 or 21cm, and the smallest 11cm which is great considering the conditions, first year mud pond, no auto feeders so we're just relying on humans to try to stick to a set time schedule for feeding them. And the consistency of the food being fed. I was pretty consistent because I weighted the amount of food and split it up over the feedings per day, and I tried to tell my mom how much to feed, but I don't know how consistent she is.

I chose ToMiGAi because it's a very nice, high-protein food. It's manufactured here in the US. So as far as a feeding regiment goes in the mud ponds, in both of the ponds that I harvested there was mixed Gosanke with Shiro Utsuri. The best thing to do would be to separate, have a pond itself of Shiros and a pond of Gosanke, so I can better control the diet of each fish. But since they were mixed, the Hi is one of the more delicate colors of the fish so I want to cater to that, to make sure I'm keeping the Hi from breaking down, losing its quality. So for the ponds, throughout the summer, when the temperature was above 70 degrees Fahrenheit I would feed half ToMiGAi spirulina, and half ToMiGAi wheat germ. Those are both high-protein foods, 50% each, so it gets good growth out of those foods too along with the Spirulina helping to maintain the Hi and make it better. Because there's a big misconception I believe here in America in the Koi industry, that everybody's afraid of using color-enhancing foods or whatnot because it's just going to destroy the red on the fish. But that's not true at all. The fish are not going to naturally synthesize carotenoids in their body, so they need to take it in from an external source whether it be from algae in the pond they're eating that contains carotenoids or through their food. I think that's something a lot of people don't quite understand. So it's very important to feed Spirulina to your fish, or make sure, if they have red patterns, they're getting some form of carotenoids. Because without it, it's like painting your house once and just letting the sun burn it up and never putting a fresh coat on.

I think another misconception too is a lot of people don't realize what the breeders are feeding the fish in Japan. During my time there, I spent extensive time refilling auto feeders. I know exactly what these fish are being fed. And typically through the summer months, they were fed half growth food, half color-enhancement food or whatnot. So trying to debunk the myth that color-enhancing foods are bad for the fish, it's just proof to show you. It's needed for the fish. Without it, the fish are not going to develop to their potential. In the future I'd like to pull up some fish and do individual breakdown on the fish, how it's developed. Right now I'm just letting them de-stress, watching them now after the pull. They've only been out of the pond about four days, and I started feeding them yesterday. But so far everything is looking very good. The fish speak for themselves. You can see the results. I didn't think the fish would turn out so good, but I attribute a lot to the food, being that it's fresh. Just look at the fish, they're amazing.

Congrats!

2011-10-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Bryan & Bay Bateman for taking home the Mature Champion Award at the 2011 Ikona koi show with the Showa bred by Devin during his internship at Marudo Koi Farm!

2011 Mud Pond Teaser

2011-08-20T20:02:00.004-05:00

Catch a quick preview of the Koi in the mud ponds.

Harvest dates are:

10.7.11

10.8.11

10.9.11

Check our website for photos of the harvested Koi after those dates.

Congratulations to Dick Thomas!

2011-04-11T23:13:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Dick Thomas! He was the high bidder on the Oya Koi Farm 2 year old 54 cm Female Sanke in the recent Shinkokai Charity Auction that benefits the victims of the Hokuetsu earthquake.

Shinkokai Charity Auction

2011-04-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Due to the tragic earthquake & following tsunami that struck the North East Side of Japan last month the Shinkokai decided to call off this years Wakagoi Koi Show. In it place they are mounting a Charity Auction. All of the proceeds from the Auction will be donated to the victims of the Tohoku earthquake. The Auction will take place on April 10th 2011.

Dealers & Hobbyist alike are invited to take place in this auction.

Details and photos of the koi to be auctioned off can be found here: http://www.echigo.ne.jp/~nishikigoi/auction.htm

If you would like to place a bid on a fish you can contact me at: devin@koiacres.com
Please include what fish you would like to bid on and how much (in Japanese Yen) in the e-mail.

*Remember: All of the proceeds go to the victims of the Tohoku earthquake!!*

Rental car conundrum...

2011-03-24T17:50:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Japan, down in Hiroshima looking for koi at the moment. First stop: Omosako. The plan was to rent a car to get around. I first tried to make a reservation online prior to coming here but, I couldn't get any of the rental car websites to work. I wrote it off as possibly being a server problem due to the recent events here, so I just decided to go get a car in person.

I walked over to the closest rental car place from my hotel, one that I had tried to make a reservation online. Upon asking whether the had any cars available I was told that they were sold out for the day... At the next place it was the same story. I ended up going to five different rental car shops, but they were all sold out! I decided to give Omosako a call to inform them of my dilemma, I asked them if I could reschedule for the day after. To my surprise Omosako graciously offered to come pick me up!

I spent the afternoon with Omosako picking out nisai & tosai Shiro Utsuri to bring home. I'll upload some pictures later. For now I'm off to pick up a rental car and head over to Sakai. They said they don't have much available right now, but it will be fun to visit regardless!

New Feature: Bowl This Koi

2011-01-29T19:36:00.002-06:00

We're exited to introduce the new "Bowl this Koi" feature for all of the medium and large Koi that we have listed on our website. When you click on the button, a video clip pops up and allows you to view the Koi in motion. You can try it out for yourself on any of the Koi pages at http://www.koiacres.com/koi.html

Don't Ignore Your Koi This Holiday Season

2010-12-09T11:17:00.001-06:00

You may be busy with shopping or visiting family and friends. You might be constantly distracted by carolers at your door. Even though your Koi are dormant in the pond or tucked away in their winter tank, they still need some attention.

Take some time out of each day to watch your Koi to see how they are doing, even if it means bundling up and going outside (it helps to have some hot chocolate ready when you get back in.) Check each and every Koi in your collection for any health problems. Viewing your Koi will help you relax if you are feeling stressed out (it will also get you away from your inlaws.)

Inspect the air pump and the de-icer to see if they are working correctly. A powerful de-icer can trip a circuit breaker and the pond will lose power, cutting off the Koi’s oxygen supply.

If you escape the cold and take a vacation, have a friend or relative watch the Koi for you. Teach them how to take care of your collection, including any special instructions, by making a list and checking it twice. Give them a phone number to reach you by in case of any ponding emergency.

Koi & Christmas Parties

If you have an indoor pond and are hosting a Christmas party, your guests will naturally be drawn to the Koi. Try to keep your guest’s food and drinks away from the pond. Eggnog, fruitcake and pond water don’t mix well. Bad Christmas music will stress out the Koi and will bother some of your guests, play it in a different room to muffle it.

Koi as Gifts

Giving a Koi fish to a person as a gift is not usually a good idea, unless you have prior approval. Many hobbyists like to pick their own Koi, from their own trusted sources.

Can’t find a present for someone that has everything but also keeps Koi? A gift certificate from Koi Acres will spread some cheer, whether the person receiving it has been naughty or nice.

Happy Holidays!

-Michael Swanson

2010 Nagaoka Nogyosai Koi Show

2010-11-30T15:10:00.000-06:00

The 2010 Nagaoka Koi show

New ToMiGai Hobbyist Issue

2010-11-25T12:23:00.000-06:00

ToMiGai released a new issue of their publication today. Download a copy:

Issue Three - (view in Google Docs)

Back in Japan...

2010-10-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

Its almost surreal, like waking up from a dream, or like I'm living two lives. Having spent so much time here, growing up, maturing into the person I am today. I've had many first time experiences here, such as buying a car, and living out on my own to name a few. Its different this time though, I'll be home before I know it. Unlike before, when I didn't know when I would next step foot homeland.

After being cramped up in the plane for twelve hours I was sent out into the orderly chaos known as Japan. Bombarded with all different pings, pongs & buzzers informing you of incoming planes & trains. I grew accustomed to the various noises when I was living here, but had forgotten them since. It almost feels foreign now, being thrown back into this plastic, futuristic, bustling country.

Currently I am in a hotel in Okayama. This trip will mark the first time I visit the breeders in Southern Japan, with plans to stop at Momotaro, Sakai & Omosako. I can't wait for the sun to come up...

Devin is on the way

2010-10-14T14:08:00.000-05:00

Devin is in the air, on his way to the Kansai Insternational Airport in Japan!

A special man made island was built to house the Kansai International Airport right in Osaka Bay. Currently, the island is 4.1 square miles in size. Planned expansions in the future will increase its size to over 5 square miles.

Source: TDK Licensed Under: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

Here is the concourse, it is the longest one in any airport in the world.

Source: 663highland Licensed Under: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

TKFGS 2010 Koi Show

2010-10-14T00:17:00.004-05:00

Last weekend Devin traveled to San Antonio for the Texas Koi and Fancy Goldfish Society's 18th annual Koi Show. He gave a talk on living in Japan at the Marudo Koi farm. Hobbyists from around the area brought their Koi fish to the show.

MMM Look at all that TOMIGAI Koi Food

A group of Gosanke

A Shiro Utsuri and a Showa

Sanke

A jumbo Sanke

Getting ready to release the Koi

The Koi is in the tank

Koi benching and handling by the "World Famous" Texas Koi Wranglers

"Join to learn about Ponds, Koi, Goldfish and Water Gardening"

Some of the past Koi show winners

A Tancho Kohaku and a Showa

A Sanke and a Kohaku

Some of the tanks at the show, with protective screens

The Koi tanks were set up underneath the shelter

People visiting the Texas Koi and Fancy Goldfish Society Koi Show

Netting the Koi for the judges to see

The judges are talking about the Koi

Devin Swanson of Koi Acres giving his talk on Life in Japan

The Display Pond is Empty

2010-10-06T19:45:00.000-05:00

We moved the Koi that reside in the display pond during the summer into the Koi building. The move went well and all the fish are adjusting to their winter home. Here is a couple video clips of the move:

Here are some pictures of the Koi in the tanks:

ZNA Potomac Koi Show 2010 Part Two

2010-09-17T10:00:00.001-05:00

Part two of the 2010 ZNA Potomac Koi Show:

ZNA Potomac Koi Show 2010 Part One

2010-09-16T21:43:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we were in the Capitol area for the 2010 ZNA Potomac Koi Show. Here are a few pictures from the show:

Devin is setting up the Koi Acres' show booth.

Guided Japan Koi Buying Trips. Ask us about the advantages of using Koi Acres.

Ultima II bead filters and a Sequence pump

Tomigai Koi Food

Don't miss our pond construction slideshow if you are at one of the shows we set up at.

The trophies for the winners of the Koi show.

Dallas Koi Kichi Group 2010 Koi Show Part 2

2010-09-07T23:23:00.000-05:00

Koi tanks set up all over for viewing the show fish

Pond in a Box

Big Indoor Waterfall

A water wheel

Dallas Koi Kichi Group 2010 Koi Show Part 1

2010-09-07T23:22:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday we made our way down to Dallas, Texas for their eighth annual show. It was hosted by the Grapevine Bass Pro Shop. Here are a few pictures from the show:

Welcome to Texas

Getting ready for the Koi show

Mikki standing next to a Koi tank

The Koi Acres booth

Devin holding some tank clamps

Ultrabalance Koi Food

Gosanke

Platinum Ogons

Koi Show Judges

Koi fish look at home in the show tank

Kikusui

Koi fish swimming around their show tank

Kohaku and Goshiki

Six ways to reduce Koi pond maintenance

2010-09-06T13:13:00.001-05:00

In a perfect world, everyone would be able to enjoy their Koi swimming around the pond without the hassle of taking care of it. Since we live in the real world, ignoring your pond maintenance isn't an option. If you follow these steps, the amount time it takes to maintain your pond will shrink.

1. Feed your Koi better food

Cheap Koi food will pass through your Koi only partially digested. The resulting influx of nutrients in the pond will spur algae growth.

2. Place leaf netting over your pond in the Fall

Other than dealing with string algae, removing leaves accounts for the majority of work involved with keeping a pond. It may be unsightly, but placing leaf netting over the pond for a couple weeks in the fall will eliminate a lot of work.

3. Remove the rock from the bottom of the pond

Rock will trap any leaves that fall in the pond. Fish waste will also collect in the small spaces between the rocks. The rocks needs to be cleaned often, otherwise anaerobic bacteria will break down the waste and will produce hydrogen sulfide (it smells like rotten eggs.)

4. Add a bottom drain

Bottom drains remove waste from the pond automatically. Any waste that moves within range of the drain is captured and then deposited in the filter system.

5. Add mid-water returns

Most ponds use only a waterfall to return the filtered water to the pond. There is little or no control of the flow of water inside the pond. Mid-water returns help reduce maintenance in the pond by creating currents that push any suspended debris towards the bottom drain.

6. Upgrade your filter

A good filter system will keep the pond clean with a minimal amount of maintenance. The filter should trap waste and debris so you can flush it out with the turn of a valve instead of having to scoop it out of the pond with a bucket.

Koi Tank Construction 2010

2010-08-31T01:43:00.000-05:00

This video shows a small fraction of the work that went into the Koi tanks which were built in the spring of 2010. We give a big thanks to all the people that helped with the construction and made this happen!

Mike is using the bobcat to break ground.

Forming the first base.

The concrete truck has arrived.

First couple bases are poured and some walls are framed up.

Air lines, fill lines and water lines are embedded in the walls.

The trench is ready for the waste line.

Prepping the tanks for the Polyurea liner.

Applying the Polyurea spray liner to waterproof the Koi tanks.

The gravel around the Koi tanks arrives.

Electrical conduit for the power to the pumps and UV lights.

Placing the first Koi in the new tanks.

Shade sails are installed above the tanks to keep the Koi cool.

RMKC Koi Show 2010

2010-08-30T23:25:00.003-05:00

We hit the road again! We made the trip to Centennial, CO for the Rocky Mountain Koi Club's 21st Koi Show. We hit a few snags along the way (no worries, just a few blown tires.) We did arrive in time for my presentation on pond construction (you can view slides from it at the bottom of this post). Later on, Devin talked about his apprenticeship at the Marudo Koi farm. Here's a few pictures from the trip:

The Koi show was hosted by the Tagawa Garden Center.

Mikki Hernandez of Tomigai Koi Food and Devin Swanson of Koi Acres.

The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Nebraska.

Here are the slides from the pond construction presentation:

UMKC Koi Show 2010 Part 3

2010-08-02T16:48:00.000-05:00

2010 UMKC Koi Show winner

At the Koi USA 2010 Pond of the year.

Everyone gathered around for the auction.

UMKC Koi Show 2010 Part 2

2010-08-02T16:21:00.000-05:00

Standing under the cool Shade Sails.

Viewing the Koi fish in the show.

The Koi Show support area.

The trophy shelf.

Kujaku Koi fish.

Anjon Manufacturing's Booth

Upper Midwest Koi Club members manning the information booth.

UMKC Koi Show 2010 Part 1

2010-08-02T15:37:00.002-05:00

Scaffolding for the curtains is erected.

Getting the air lines ready for the Koi tanks.

Drilling a new hole for a bulkhead fitting.

Scrubbing the Koi tanks so they are clean for the fish.

Getting the Koi tanks in place.

The Koi tanks are now in place

Placing the 2010 show banner, supplied by Tomigai Koi food.

Filling the Koi tanks.

Show banners from previous years.

The Koi Acres booth is set up and ready for customers.

Donations for the auction and raffle.

UMKC Koi Show

2010-07-30T13:21:00.005-05:00

We will be at the 2010 UMKC Koi show at this weekend from July 30th - August 1st. We are bringing a nice selection of our Japanese Koi with. We will also have pond filtration equipment and other Koi care supplies you need like Koi food, dechlorinator, test kits or Koi clay. Don't miss our booth!

Location:
Bachman's Garden Center
6010 Lyndale Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55419

Hours:
Friday - 4pm - 8pm
Saturday - 9am - 5pm
Sunday - 10am - 2pm

2010 MPKS Koi Show

2010-07-29T12:00:00.001-05:00

Koi Pond Pictures 7-8-10

2010-07-08T13:11:00.001-05:00

The Koi are loving the sunshine:

Indiana Koi Show Part Two

2010-06-23T22:44:00.006-05:00

The second half the the Northern Midwest ZNA Koi Show pictures:

Mike Hernandez of Tomigai Koi food interviews a couple.

Indiana Koi Show Part One

2010-06-23T22:26:00.009-05:00

We went to the Northern Midwest ZNA Koi Show last weekend. The "intermittent" weather wasn't enough to deter the Koi hobbyists from competing in the show! Here are some pictures:

Our booth at the show. We can't wait for next year!

Blog Changes

2010-06-23T18:17:00.001-05:00

There have been several changes to Devin's blog. Since he is now home from his sojourn at the Marudo Koi farm, he can't really write about living in Japan. This blog will now be about everything Koi: updates, shows, trips, care tips, and much more. We kicked off the change with a whole new layout, new url (http://blog.koiacres.com/), new title and new writers. Both my dad and I will now regularly contribute to this blog.

-Michael

Strange luck

2010-04-17T21:24:00.002-05:00

In all the years I've been here, its been a strange occurrence that a shipment has been returned to us. Its happened twice this year already!

Last Thursday night we packed up a shipment of 8 boxes bound for Amsterdam. I brought the boxes to the loading site of the truck that will haul the shipment down to Narita airport at 8 pm. All of the boxes, including those from the other breeders, totaling 360 pieces were labeled & loaded onto the cargo truck without a hitch. The truck headed out & the rest of us retired for the night, or so we thought...

Around 10 pm I received a call from a number I didn't recognize. Turned out to be somebody from the cargo truck company. They informed me that the flight had been cancelled, so the truck would be returning to Ojiya. They were unsure of the time or the place the would return to, so they decided to give me another call once everything was sorted out.

I was surprised that the call came to me, but seeing as Marudo was out at for dinner with some clients he probably wasn't answering his phone. So I called Marudo's house to inform them that the shipment was being returned, Shige the youngest son offered to help me unload the shipment.

Around 10:30 pm, the shipper called me up saying that the truck had returned to Miyakoya, and that I could either leave the boxes overnight or pick them up. I had already decided to pick them up, so I made my way out for the Miyakoya loading site. Upon arrival, with the help of a couple of the other breeders there, we searched for the boxes containing Marudo's fish. Once finding all 8 in the sea of boxes, I called up Shige to meet up with me at Marudo's tosai facility. Together we unpacked all the boxes and returned the fish to the shipping prep tanks, finishing up a little past 11 pm.

I was wondering why the flight had been cancelled, but was more concerned with getting the fish back safely to ask. The next day I found out that the flight was cancelled due to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland, causing flights into Europe to be cancelled. As it stands now the shipment has been rescheduled for the 20th, but as the news is saying that that volcanic cloud is showing no signs of dissipating, we'll see how it plays out.

Heading Home

2010-04-12T05:57:00.002-05:00

I've got a return date, I'm going home for good. In total I've spent about 3 years here, studying koi at Marudo Koi Farm. Its been over the course of 4 years, with many ups and downs. The downs ranging from visa issues to homesickness, and the ups of learning Japanese to having the chance to grow out & cull my own koi. Given the chance I would do it all over again, its been one hell of a ride.

When I first came here I was still a kid, only 17 years old. I did a lot of growing up in Japan, yet I still consider myself maturing. On arrival I was fueled by the excitement of moving out, to the other side of the world! On top of that, I would be studying koi at one of the top breeders in Niigata. There are so many oddities of the culture differences between Japan & America, some that I like, other that I don't. Its funny thinking back to when I first arrived, how some of these things that seemed so strange feel normal to me now.

I was given an amazing chance of a lifetime, and I am very thankful to my family for supporting me through it. To Marudo for making this all possible. I've learned so much, and I'm not going to let it go to waste. I'm going to use what I have learned to further my business, and to start a new chapter in my life.

I'm scheduled to fly out on May 5th. I was supposed to stay until July, but due to circumstances back home I am flying out early. Realistically, I will gain more by leaving early, than by staying a couple months longer. I'm really looking forward to this koi season. Even in Japan I've been splitting my time working at Marudo, and taking care of matters concerning my business back in the States. I've been waiting a long time to be able to focus all of my attention on Koi Acres, to get it to the point where I want it. I feel my family has been taking good care of the pond building division, but I know the koi department could be better.

I shipped a box of my possessions home today, working on selling my car, and generally getting ready to move home. Its been a great experience, and I'm looking forward to a new chapter. Mama, I'm coming home! :P

Forklift Safety

2010-03-17T07:39:00.002-05:00

I broke my big toe two weeks ago while stepping off a forklift when we were moving fish. The rear tire caught my heal and pushed my toes into the concrete floor, my big toe took the blunt of the force in the impact. I don't think the bone broke right then and there, cause I walked it off without much pain. My guess is the bone just cracked, but separated later in the day as I kept putting pressure on it.

Thinking that nothing bad had happened, I didn't pay much attention to it, continuing work as usual. I was carrying buckets of tosai being picked out for shipments between the ponds and shipping preparation tanks for the remainder of the morning. I starting to notice a little pain developing in my toe as the day went on.

After lunch break I got up from my napping place (don't laugh) and was hit with a burning sensation in my toe when I put pressure on it. I decided to suffer though it till the end of the day when the pain was no longer bearable. So I headed out for the doctors office to get a look at my toe.

After a couple X-rays it was pretty apparent that the bone was broken. I broke the corner off of the second bone in from the tip of my toe, where the ligaments hold the two bones in place. That means that when I bend my toe, the ligaments spread the broken piece away from the bone, ouch... The doctor recommend against putting a cast on it, saying the it should heal up just fine as long as I keep pressure off of it. I was sent home with some numbing patches & pain pills.

Keeping pressure off of your toes and working with koi doesn't go quite hand in hand. So I spent the first week or so limping around like a lame farm animal. This past week it has been feeling pretty good and I back to walking like a human. I was told to go back in after two weeks for a check up and today was D-day. The doctor took another couple of X-rays to see how the bone is healing up. It looks pretty good, the bone still hasn't really grown back together though. He initially told me it should take about a month to fully heal, so I wasn't expecting much. The broken piece hasn't shifted and I'm not feeling any pain, so I was told I should make a full recovery.

This is the first bone I've ever broken, and its kinda pathetic it had to be something as small as my big toe. But I guess I appreciate my toes more now cause I never realized how much you rely on them until it feels like somebody is poking you with a hot iron when you try to use them. Also, something is really messed up with America's health care system, cause this whole ordeal only cost me about $40 for 4 X-rays & two visits.

Thought it was just going to be another day...

2010-02-23T00:34:00.002-06:00

A couple days ago I came home to 7 fire trucks, 3 ambulances, and 2 patrol cars parked along the road next to my apartment. It started out a normal day, with a shipment going out that night. I brought all the boxes to the shipment consolidation area and helped along with all the other breeders to load all the boxes onto the cargo truck that would transport the boxes down to the airport. We finished up around 7 pm so I headed back to my apartment to change since I had plans to go out for dinner with Shinji, Marudo's younger brother. At that time there was nothing out of the normal around my apartment. On the way to the restaurant we were passed by a fire truck and a patrol car, we thought it kinda odd, since not much goes on in Ojiya. After dinner we walked over to a bar run by a mutual friend for a couple drinks. We took a taxi home and upon telling the driver my destination he asked me if I heard what was going on around that area. I didn't have a clue, everything was normal before I headed out for dinner so I asked him what was up. He said his dispatch heard there was a suicide in that area. Sure enough when we arrived the whole place was lit up with flashing red lights.

The alley way next to my apartment was blocked off, with fire fighters and police men investigating the scene. I asked one of the fire fighters directing traffic what had happened. He told me there had been a car fire down the alley way, so I became skeptical of what the taxi driver had said. Once I got in my apartment and turned the lights on there was I knock on my window. I opened it to find one of my friends, I had forgot that he was a fire fighter. He filled me in on what happened. He said somebody committed suicide by lighting themselves up in their car.

Its kinda disturbing, being that close to where I am living. On the way home from work the next day I took a look at the scene. The car the person was in was completely burnt to a shell and half of the car parked next to it was burned up too. The car was situated in the middle of a 30' wide parking lot at the end of the alley way. The parking lot is surrounded by buildings on either side, one side is another apartment complex and the other side is some kind of processing plant. My apartment complex is on the same side as the factory, with probably only about 10' between the two buildings.

I believe it is inconsiderate enough to take your life, you bring pain to more people than you can imagine, probably more pain than you are even feeling. Then to do it in such a careless matter that you could have put other people lives in danger is outrageous. A lot of people could have gotten hurt had either of those cars blew up. Thankfully the fire fighters did a good job keeping the fire contained.

Here I thought it was just going to be another day...

EPIC FAIL

2010-02-04T04:24:00.003-06:00

Yea... We had a "fun" day at work the other day.

Started out 4 AM at the tosai house in Sanbusho, it was a cold morning and had been snowing since the night before. We had a shipment of fish going out at 6 AM, 59 boxes in total. Somebody who was supposed to help pack didn't show up cause they didn't wake up. I won't name any names, but I will be sexist and say it was a woman. Granted there was enough help there to pack, we could have worked much faster if everybody showed up.

We finished packing the 33 boxes of tosai at Sanbusho around 5:20 AM, we didn't really think we were running late cause we didn't have as many boxes left to pack up at Muikaichi. We loaded all the boxes into our trucks and headed over to Muikaichi to continue. By the time we arrived at Muikaichi around 5:30 AM the cargo truck to take all the boxes to the airport was waiting there.

At Muikaichi we packed 20 boxes of jumbo tosai and 6 boxes of nisai with the sleeping helper nowhere to be seen. It took a lot longer than expected to pack at Muikaichi, with the last box being loaded onto the airport cargo truck at 6:20 AM, just within the time limit of the driver being able to make it up to the airport in time. With the koi all packed and sent out we took a break and had breakfast.

The truck was supposed to be up at the airport at 7:30 AM, but didn't arrive there until 8 AM. It is normally a 45 min. ~ 1 hour drive up to the Niigata airport from Maurdo's house, but appearantly the driver got caught up in the morning traffic in Niigata.

We got a call around 8:30 AM from the shipping company explaining that the boxes might not make it on a flight due to the late arrival and a couple flight cancellations due to the snow. We would know by 10 AM whether they would make it on a flight or not. Sure enough a call came telling us that the shipment would not be sent out that day, so we asked for the boxes to be returned to us.

Just as we finished lunch the cargo truck showed up at Muikaichi. All of the boxes were the same size and none of the were marked with what they contained or where they came from. So we unloaded and opened all the boxes to see what was in them. Then we separated all the boxes by where they were packed and loaded all the ones from Sanbusho in our trucks. Lastly we released all the fish back into the shipping preparation tanks until a new ship date is set.

So yea... We got up early, in the cold & dark, and packed 59 boxes all for nothing. We were planning on ending the day early too, but with the All Japan Koi Show just around the corner many customers are in town. So we ended up working a full day helping customers until the sun went down, but we can't complain, a sale is a sale.

It was not a complete loss though... We learned a couple things from the days failure. Marudo takes extra care in preventing bags from breaking or leaking during transit, using triple layer bags, box liners & adding padding between the bags on the bottom side to prevent punctures from fins on the big fish. We noticed that all the boxes had been opened and resealed when they were returned to us. Upon opening the boxes we found that the shipping company added more padding and another box liner on top of what we do in order to avoid complaints from the airlines if a box were to leak. Now that we know that the boxes are going to be opened for inspection at the airport before being sent out we won't waste as much tape sealing them up.

We also learned that you can never trust a woman. :P

Turning 21

2010-01-06T04:05:00.002-06:00

So I'm turning 21 soon, the legal drinking age in the States. I'm not particularly excited about it, looking at it like, "Oh yea! I can go out drinking now!" I guess its probably cause I am jaded living here in Japan, like most countries outside of America, the drinking laws are not very strictly enforced.

Since I came here when I was 17 I have been able to purchase alcohol for consumption at any establishment without being ID'ed. Turning 21 now I'll be able to do the same back home, but in truth it kinda loses the mystique once it becomes legal to do. Besides, who really buys alcohol for themselves once they turn 21? You get pressured into buying liquor for your underage friends once you're 21, cause if you don't, you're not that "cool" friend anymore.

Becoming the legal age, I can see the following scenarios happening-

Scenario 1
Its 1 am, your underage friends are having a party and they run out of booze. Who are the going to call? (The answer is not the Ghost Busters)

UF: Dude! We're having a party!!! You should join us!
Me: Really? I don't know man... I have to get up early for work tomorrow.
UF: Nah Dude! Its cool, you should come by! Oh! On your way over stop by the liquor store and pick up some stuff, okay?
Me: Are you only calling me cause you guys ran out of booze?
UF: Nah Dude!! The party is just getting started!
Me: Right... I know thats a lie, cause you're slurring beyond the legal limit.
UF: So does that mean your not coming?
*click*
UF to other Underaged Friends: Damn... I don't think he is coming.

Scenario 2
Drunk Uncle who lost his drivers license to a DUI/DWI calls you up.

DU: Devin?
Me: Yea! Long time, not contact, huh?
DU: Oh, sorry about that... I've... I've been busy.
Me: So what are you calling about?
DU: Well, I heard it was your birthday. So I was just calling to wish you a happy birthday.
Me: Thanks. (I guess)
DU: You know, I haven't seen you in a while... You should swing by, bring a bottle or two, or twelve of whatever you like. We'll have a good time.
Me: Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll have to pass, doesn't really sound like a good time to me.
DU: DAMMIT! I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU! JUST BRING ME OVER SOME DAMN BOOZE, YOU KNOW I CAN'T DRIVE, YOU SON OF A
*click*

Scenario 3
Cute underage girl heard you turned 21, calls you up.

Me: Hello?
CUG: Is this Devin?
Me: Uhuh.
CUG: Hey Devin, its Tiffany, you remember?
Me: Yea, whats up?
CUG: Not much... I was just thinking about you.
Me: Really
CUG: I heard you turned 21.
Me: Sure did.
CUG: You know, I always had a crush on you...
Me: Really!?
CUG: (sexy voice) Yea...
Me: How come you turned me down when I asked you out?
CUG: Oh, I was shy then. We should hang out sometime.
Me: Yea, that'd be cool.
CUG: Do you mind picking up a couple bottles of vodka for me?
Me: Umm.. How old were you again?
CUG: If you're going to be like that, just forget about it.
Me: Okay... Sayonara!
*click*

Luckily, I don't think I'll encounter those scenarios during the rest of my time here, cause as long as you don't show up to a bar in your school uniform, they'll serve you. (Yes you heard me right middle schoolers) So I figure I have a little over 6 months left of no late night calls from drunk underage friends, crazy alcoholic Uncles, and girls who are just trying to use you, all just looking for the liquid that fuels the night.

Devin's Kohaku

2009-12-20T07:03:00.000-06:00

I culled my kohaku down to open up space to grow out. I left only the fish I felt had potential for the future, from the 55 I culled out 33 fish that just didn't make the cut. Leaving only 22 fish, with lots of room to grow.

I'll be doing some traveling this winter, so in order to make life easier for the rest of the staff here I set up an auto-feeder on my tank. I had to modify the auto-feeder a little in order to make it work, but its up and running now and working like a charm. For now I have it set to feed my koi twice a day cause I don't want to overload the filter when I'm not there , but once I'm done traveling I'll probably bump it up to 3 or 4 feedings a day.

There has been some noticeable growth since I thinned the herd and set up the auto-feeder. When I am able to clean the filter more often and bump the feedings up to 3 or 4 times per day I'll really be able to get some growth on them. My plan for next is to release these kohaku out into my fry pond instead of growing out fry. I'm scheduled to be heading home for good mid July next year, so if I were to grow out fry I would be heading home after the first cull. It makes more sense to use the pond to grow out these kohaku, instead of relying on others to finish up the culls cause I'll be leaving in the middle of the culling season.

My goal is to try and grow my kohaku out to around 12 inches by next spring, I'm a little over half way there.

I'm heading to Manila tomorrow, I'll be spending Christmas with my girlfriend and her family, and also translating for The Art of Koi put on be Kois & Ponds and Tomigai koi food.

Life as of Lately

2009-11-29T03:25:00.000-06:00

Hectic...
Nisai and up harvests started on the 10th of October and its been busy since then. For a while I was balancing two jobs, working at Marudo harvesting and helping customers. Then whenever I could get free time it was spent going around buying koi with my dad & customers, whom I met up with down in Tokyo. We caught the last train up to Nagaoka out of Tokyo after seeing ZED, the Cirque Du Soleil show at Tokyo Disneyland. It was an amazing show and I recommend it to anyone, a lot for your eyes to take in.

Dad stayed for about 2 weeks but once he headed home I had to schedule a ship date, and coordinate the shipment for all the koi we purchased. That was all done at night though cause the days were spent harvesting ponds at Marudo. Everyday many customers were coming to Marudo too, so a lot of the days were spent helping pull up koi for them to view and purchase. Most of the customers came between the 15th of October to around the first week of November. Some are still trickling in here and there, but nothing like the October rush when people were having to wait turns to pick out koi.

Towards the beginning of November the shipments started going out in full force, sometimes we were packing morning and night. A few days we had 3 to 4 separate shipments going out. Whilst this was all going on we've been preparing for winter, and finishing up the last of the ponds to be harvested. The oyagoi were the last koi to be harvested, with all the koi indoor for the winter we drained all the mud ponds completely. After letting them dry for a couple days we spread lime to condition the mud for next year and plugged all the drains and set the stand pipes. From now until spring the ponds will collect rain water and snow melt so they will be full and ready come next spring when we release koi out into them once again. Among other work in preparation for winter we put up poly insulation around the tosai tanks to help cut down on heating costs in the winter. Cleaned all the auto-feeders and put away the ones we won't use during the winter. Along with consolidating koi as tanks open up with koi being shipped out.

I'll be heading to the Philippines for Christmas and to take part in The Art of Koi, being put on by Kois & Ponds and Tomigai koi food.

Devin's Pond

2009-10-05T04:02:00.001-05:00

Harvest

The days are getting shorter and the nights cooler as we are entering fall, so it was time to harvest my pond. Without warm water the outdoor growing season is coming to a close, so there is no point in leaving the fish out while they could be growing at a faster rate in an indoor controlled environment. I set up a 500 liter tank with built in trickle filter to house my kohaku for the winter in preparation for the harvest. With everything ready and in place I pulled my pond on the 4th of October, four weeks since the last (3rd) cull on the 6th of September.

While I was in Minnesota for the koi show my pond had a bloom of hair algae, so instead of dragging a seine net to catch the fish; I decided to drain the pond down. Also, because there was under 100 fish left over from the last cull, it would be less work just to drain the water out. Once it was down to about 10 cm of water depth I plugged the drain and caught as many of the koi that could be easily netted. Then I proceeded to drain the pond completely, catching the left over fish as the water ran out.

In total there was 81 koi, so somewhere in the four weeks since the last cull one of the fish disappeared. In the final pond side cull I threw out 26 fish that didn't turn out so well, or look like they had any potential to get better. Bringing the total down to 55 fish, with 12 of them being somewhat good and 3 of them fairly good. They ranged in size from 10 to 15 cm in length, had the water not gone bad with hair algae bloom; I would have expected them to have reached 15 to 20 cm in length.

My pond was the last of all the tosai ponds to be harvested this year. I thought I would have pulled it much earlier, but we have just been so busy that I never had any free time to do it. 55 fish is quite a bit for a 500 liter tank, but as the year goes on I'll continue to cull down the kohaku. By next spring I hope to grow them out to around 30+ cm, so the ones the aren't turning out will have to go to make room for the others.

Mark Gardener has been following the development of my kohaku, his blog and eMagazine Niigata Nishikigoi Digest, it can be viewed at www.niigata-nishikigoi.com

Life (aka work) as of Lately

2009-09-22T05:18:00.000-05:00

My body can't really decide on what time zone it wants to operate on. I've been getting tired and waking up at weird hours. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I really only got about one nights rest spread out over 5 days while I was in Minnesota for the UMKC's Third annual koi show. Which by the way was quite a fun show, for various reasons...

Back in Japan however, we have started the harvesting of tosai. So everyday consists of going to the ponds we are pulling that day to seine them 3 times to catch as many of the koi we can. Then a final cull and sorting of tategoi and fish we'll sell will take place. Lastly we completely drain the pond(s) to catch any of the koi that avoided being caught by the seine net. We're averaging about 4 ponds a day.

Once all the ponds we are harvesting for that day are culled and sorted or we run out of box nets to put the koi in after we seine, we'll load them into a transport tank on one of the trucks. Sanbusho is the designated tosai house, so we'll unload all of the tosai there. Sanbusho is made up of 5 seperate houses in one area. There is a vinyl house with 6 tanks, and then there is houses A through D clustered together. House A has 7 tanks, B has 5, C has 4, and D also has 4 tanks. At the main entrance in House D there is also 2 small tanks we use to prep tosai for shipping. The vinyl house is where all the tategoi are kept throughout the winter, and the rest of the houses is where we will store the fish that are for sale. While unloading the sale able tosai we'll usually separate them by size.

With a little over 50 tosai ponds and only 12 ponds into the harvest it looks like we'll be pulling ponds up till about the end of this month. Once we are finished pulling the tosai ponds, work will start on prepping for the big fish harvest. Which usually starts around the 15th of October, we've got some busy days ahead of us.

Devin's Pond

2009-09-07T04:31:00.003-05:00

Second & Third Cull

The second cull on my kohakus' was undertaken on the 30th of August. After receiving help pulling the seine net from the Boss, I set about culling. This time was nothing like the last, many of the fry didn't turn out well, so a lot of them were thrown away. I started out with the 1,800 selected in the last cull, and culled down to 105 fish With about 13 of them having any chance of turning out alright. The fry were about 4-6 cm at the time of culling, and quite of few of them had deformed heads. I'd figured there would have been around 300 koi picked out if they would have developed well, but I culled strictly, so that might be a factor.

The third cull took place just a week after the second cull, on the 6th of September. Ideally I would have wanted a wait a couple extra days to cull. Since it is starting to cool down and the growing season is coming to an end, I opted to hurry up and do a third cull to open up more room for keepers to grow out. I selected 82 fish to keep out of the previous 105, there was a lot of Aka & Shiro Muji thrown away. I believe they must have escaped the net last time I pulled the pond because it didn't look like any of the fry really lost their hi at all. This time around there was 16 koi I believe have a chance at developing well, all within the 6-10 cm range. There was a couple fish I didn't recognize, so its possible they were missed by the seine net in the previous pull too. Soon the tosai harvest will start and all them will be moved indoors for the winter. I think around the 20th or so of the month I'll be harvesting my fry. At that time I will be doing a final cull before they're moved to their own tank for the winter.

Mark Gardener has been following the development of my kohaku, the second cull is featured in the first issue of his new eMagazine Niigata Nishikigoi Digest, it can be viewed at www.niigata-nishikigoi.com

Ojiya Festival

2009-08-30T04:07:00.001-05:00

Summer time in Japan is packed full of festivals, from small towns to big cities. Niigata prefecture is famous for its firework displays at their festivals. Nagaoka is said to have one of the best displays in all of Japan, possibly even the world. Kashiwazaki also has an impressive display. Katakai shoots off the worlds largest firework every year at their festival, its a 1 meter diameter shell; and it makes the ground shake when it goes off. Ojiya also shoots off fireworks at their festival, but nothing like the other cities. Something special that Ojiya has is the parade where groups of people from the different areas of Ojiya make their own Mando. A Mando is kind of like a float in an American parade, but usually it is some kind of character.

Around the first of August, I had been helping build the Mando for Higashi Yama along with many of the residents of the area including Marusaka's son Teruyuki & Izumiya's son Ryu. Work had already started on the Mando before I showed up to help, and many long nights were put in to get it finished up in time for the festival on the 22nd & 23rd of the month. Higashi Yama's Mando was a giant blue dog, I think it is the mascot for Niigata News. It lit up and had movable arms and a rotating head, all controllable from beneath the platform it sat on. It was affixed to a 2 ton truck fitted with speakers, a small tv (where Billy's Boot Camp was played on a loop), along with parady paintings on the side, and last but not least lots of alcohol!

Along with the Mando-sha (Mando truck) there was also a Hayashi. The Hayashi was a 4 ton truck with a roof and lanterns set up on it for the festival. On the Hayashi drums and seats were set up so we could play traditional Festival music with Japanese recorders, taiko drums and a small bell. As with the Mando-sha, it was also fitted with enough alcoholic beverages to drown a donkey.

I rode on the Hayashi and was assigned to play a drum on the first night, even though I had no idea what to do. They said to just guess and go along with the flow. This was on Saturday, so it was during the fireworks display, so the Mando parade wasn't the main attraction of the night. On Sunday night the Mando was one of the main attractions though, so a lot of us got dressed up in different costumes ranging from Dragon Ball Z characters to Japanese comedians. I donned white body tights suit painted my face yellow and wore a lemon over my head, mimicking a Japanese comedian.

It is tradition to chug bottles of sake all together, so lots of alcohol was consumed. I remember Saturday night for the most part, but I blacked out on Sunday. Monday morning I woke up with one shoe, and a newly decorated body. I did find my shoe later when I was driving home though.

As if we didn't drink enough at the festival, we just had the Otsukarasama (thanks for all the hard work) drinking party last night...

I need to go cull my pond now.

Devin's Pond

2009-08-19T06:09:00.002-05:00

First Cull

I did the first cull on the 14th of the month, just 18 days after releasing my kohaku fry. I may have culled a little too early, but for the most part you could make out patterns on the fry. It worked out better to do it on the 14th because it was the first day of a 3 day break for Marudo due to the national Obon holiday. Any of the days after and an impeading hangover from the drinking to be had might have interfered with the quality of culling!

Most of the fry were between 2-3 cm in size, and there was a lot of step patterns in the lot. We recently culled another pond of kohaku fry from the same Oyagoi set and step patterns seemed to be prominent in them too. So it will be interesting too see how they turn out. I culled down to 1,800 fry from 15,000, its kind of a lot for the size of my pond; but they'll soon be culled again. Many were kept because they were too small and the pattern hadn't quite emerged on them, but now with less fish in the pond they'll have room to develop and grow.

Mark Gardener came by to help cull and shoot a video of the day, his video and blog can be viewed at www.niigata-nishikigoi.com

Devin's Pond

2009-08-05T05:11:00.001-05:00

I'm raising Kohaku fry this year, on 7-27-09 I received 15,000 offspring of a Hoshikin female bred with a Nogami male. The Hoshikin female has a 3 step pattern with very good skin quality, and the Nogami male is around 75cm in length, with a decent body for a male. I haven't even started the first cull yet, but I am looking forward to see how these koi develop.

The pond I'm using is different from the previous years at Tatsushiro, the pond I am using is at the very top of Myoken Mountain. Myoken is where many of Marudo's best nisai & sansai are grown, the mud there produces very good hi. In regards to size, the pond is about the same size as the pond I used previously, about 30' by 30' and 3 1/2 feet deep. The only problem with the new pond at Myoken is that it is at the very top of the mountain, so the is no constant water supply. So, if it doesn't rain enough, my pond could dry up, luckily this year there has been plenty of rain this far.

Since releasing the fry on the 27th I've only been able to check my pond a couple of times because I've been assigned to work else where. As of the 4th of August (8 days) my fry have already grown to about 1.5 to 2 cm in length, compared to about 1 cm or a little under when they were released. I believe the fast growth is due to the abundance of daphnia in the pond.

At this rate I'm hoping to do the first cull around the 16th of the month, maybe sooner...

Finally got this figured out...

2009-07-30T07:23:00.001-05:00

Marudo's computer has been broken, but now I have internet access. I should be posting an update soon.

A lot has changed in the year I've been gone...

Back again...

2009-07-22T12:16:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago I received a call that my visa went though. So I headed down to Chicago for the MPKS koi show and to have my visa validated at the Japanese Embassy. Now, after a couple spur of the moment going away parties thrown by my friends, my bags are packed and I'm heading out the door.

We'll see what horrible movies will be in store for me on the plane ride over...

Home

2008-07-20T09:34:00.002-05:00

I head out for home tomorrow, still with no news on how my visa is coming. Atleast I'll keep busy while back in Minnesota, we have the 2nd Annual Upper Midwest Koi Club's Koi Show at Bachmann's coming up. I'll be there helping out and after that Koi Acres is also very busy building ponds, so I'll be working on that too. So atleast as I wait for my visa to be processed I won' t be sitting around bored.

Devin's Pond

2008-07-15T09:02:00.002-05:00

I did the first cull on my pond this past Sunday the 13th. Last year when I did showa I only release about 10,000 fry in my pond, but this year I released 20,000 sanke fry. Showa are culled once (picking out only the black fry) before being released out into the mud ponds, therefore not as many fry are released. So this year with double the amount of fish I asked my friend to help me cull. He agreed to help & I am very thankful for it!

From 20,000 fry we culled down to 775, with about 3 that really stand out. My fry have grown to about 3-4 cm, not too bad; but they could be bigger. With only 775 pieces left over though, they should have a lot more room to grow! I'm already looking forward to the second cull!

Fan Mail

2008-06-24T01:27:00.002-05:00

There was an article written about me in Niigata pref.`s main new paper (Niigata Nippo) a couple weeks ago. I`ve been getting recognised out in public a lot lately because of it, its kinda odd. I`ve been in the new paper back in Minnesota, even on TV, but I`ve never gotten this much recognision back home.* But then the topper came a couple days ago, I got a letter in the mail, written in English & Japanese. It is from a family in a town about 30 minutes away, they said they were amazed at my interest in Japanese culture. They invited me to come stay at their home and attend a large 3 day festival held in their town. They left their phone number in the letter, but I don`t know if I`ll be in Japan during the festival; so I haven`t called them or know if I should? The kicker though, is how the letter got to me. My address wasn`t exactly written in the news paper, so they just wrote down my name, general area I live in and `Koi Farm`. The letter made its way to me though... maybe the people at the post office read the article about me too...

*Its probably cause I stick out like a sore thumb in this sea of brown eyed black haired people though.

Devin`s Pond & Problem

2008-06-24T01:10:00.002-05:00

I don`t have a problem with my pond (yet) like the many I encountered last year. I`m having a problem getting a different visa so I can stay in Japan. My current visa ends on July 24th and Japanese Customs & Immigration thinks I`ve stayed long enough. I`d like to continue my studies of nishikigoi, but I`m having trouble changing over to a different visa. I`ve applied for another visa, so now all I have is to wait and see if it is accepted.

With all of this in the back of my mind I contemplated whether or not to raise fry this year, knowing that I might not be here to finish out the growing / culling season. I decided to go ahead and do it though, if things don`t work out then Marudo will take care of my pond and keep the koi in the fall. So about 2 weeks ago I added sanke fry to my pond, 20,000 pieces. They`ve already grown to about a 1.5 cm in length, form about 0.7 cm when they were added. If they keep up the pace they should be ready for the first cull around the first week of July!

Spawning Continues

2008-06-07T21:24:00.002-05:00

Since the first set, we`ve spawned two more sets of 3 females recently. To accomodate for more fry we moved out tosai to open up some more tanks. We reset up the hatching nursury in the tanks we opened up, now we have lots of room to work with!

The majority of the females spawned recently were showas (5 out of 6 of them), so we have a lot of fry culling ahead of us. We only keep the black fry produced from showas, and we`ll usually start the culling process 2-3 days after they have hatched. Luckly we have a group of grandmothers come and help us because it is very time consuming work!

Spawning

2008-05-24T19:33:00.002-05:00

The breeding season is upon us, and we spent the last week preparing for it. We set up all the spawning liners in the concrete tanks & constructed a support system to hold it all up. We also modified the air system by adding spliters into the lines so that each spawning liner has an airstone in it. Next was onto the artificial spawning station, getting all the supplies ready, and tanks set up so we could start spawning.

Two days ago we spawned the first of many sets, a Kohaku, and also a new Sanke we picked up this year. The Sanke is big, and had a lot of eggs! I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

While waiting for the fry to hatch, we set up the `nursury` where we grown the newly hatched fry up to about a centimeter in length before releasing them into the mud ponds. The `nursury` consists of a box net (fine mesh), so again we had a build a support system to hold the box nets. Also, in the `nursury` we us pure oxygen, so we had to set up another air system too. Lasty we set up a brine shrimp hatching station, we use the brine shrimp as a first food for the koi fry.

G8 Summit

2008-05-13T19:31:00.002-05:00

On the 11-13th of this month the G8 Labour and Employment Ministers Meeting was held in Niigata city at Toki Messe. Many displays were set up inside of the exhibitors hall featuring products produced in Niigata, along with displays of Niigata`s culture. The Shinkokai was asked to bring koi to put on display, since Nishikigoi are a large part of Niigata`s culture.

On the 10th we headed up to Niigata to set up our booth, it included 3 show tanks, a bench for laying out pamphlets & videos, and a couple display boards about Nishikigoi history & different types. Dainichi brought 2 big kohakus & 1 big showa, all over 80 cm, to put on display. Takahashi brought a dozen or so mixed 2 year olds, and Marudo brought 2 yamabuki & 2 Kujaku 4 year old koi for display. The displays were set up as an appeal of Niigata, and the Ministers & Delegates were allowed to walk around and look in between meetings.

I worked the booth with Otsuka on the 11th, it was a little slow in the morning, but we had quite a bit of people come look in the afternoon. The next day the booth was tended by Dainichi & his wife, and Suda`s daughter Yukari, they said they had quite a bit of visitors. The last day Marudo & his wife were there to answer questions, they said it was pretty slow though. Overall though, the koi were the most popular display, the other exhibitors would often come by to look too.

The afternoon on the last day we tore down, there was a couple news paper photographers taking pictures of us bagging the fish up. So we might be in the news paper! The Summit was very fun, and good exposure for Nishikigoi to the world. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I`m glad to have taken part in it.

Whats Happening in the Koi World?

2008-05-02T21:25:00.003-05:00

At the moment, not much. It`s Golden Week (Japanese Holiday) so most people are taking it easy. But a little update on whats been going on lately:

Most of the koi have all already been released out into the ponds. Pretty much all that is left to put out is the Jumbo Tosai & Tategoi.
Most of the predator netting on the big koi ponds is done too, only about 3 more ponds left to do. We have about 20 ponds or so that we string.
Progess on the new koi house is going good, the rebar for all the walls is done; and the forms for the outside walls are almost set.
We`ve also been doing a lot of moving and shifting around of koi the didn`t sell so that we can make room in preparation for breeding coming up.

After Golden Week is over it looks like we`ll start to release the Jumbo Tosai & Tategoi out into their ponds. Then after that its time to start breeding!

Also, over Golden Week, the boss is in Singapore judging the All Asia Koi Show. And Toshi, the son, is in Aichi prefecture for a koi sale.

What's Happening in the Koi World?

2008-04-08T06:52:00.003-05:00

We've been buzzing with activity lately, many things going on.

The All Japan Young Koi Show is coming up this weekend, so the boss is busy with the show area set up.
All of our ponds down in the low lands have been prepped for releasing koi into them. The predator netting is up & the auto feeders are set. Most of the snow in the mountains has melted by now too, so we've also been working on those ponds
We've already started to release koi into the ponds, but so far only 3 ponds have had koi put in them.
Building of the new koi house is well under way, they poured the concrete base the other day. Last year we couldn't pull one of the ponds because we had no place to bring the koi in for winter. We made too many koi for the amount of space we have, so we're building a new green house.

Thats pretty much whats been going on lately, on top of orders of koi being sent out in the mornings & nights.

Fooled

2008-04-04T08:40:00.002-05:00

Let me start off by saying that Japan is a country that doesn't really joke around. Sometimes it seems like jokes only have there place with comedians, and don't really fit into daily life. Yes, this is a very sad, sad, depressing country.

That being said, I kinda forgot about April Fools this year, big mistake. Its not like Japan doesn't have it either, its just not widely celebrated. Last year I tried to get somebody in Marudo's family to call my family and tell them I was badly injured in a car crash, but nobody saw the humor in it*.

*Or am I just weird?

Anyways... my family got me good this year. Here is how it played out:

March 31; 22:30 PM-
I haven't talked to my family in a while so I decide to call to see whats going on.
Nothing out of the ordinary, same old, same old. Dad tells me how the koi & hockey team are doing, and Mom goes on the usual rant about the cats or another bird flying into the window. Talked to my younger brother too, older brother wasn't up yet (like always). Nothing suspicious at all.

April 1; 06:30 AM-
Too busy making breakfast I don't even realize what day it is.

09:00 AM-
Too busy thinking about what needs to get done today to notice what day it is.

20:00 PM-
Busy packing a shipment of fish, still haven't remembered what day it is.

23:00 PM-
Return home from loading the boxes of fish on the cargo truck. Mom (Japanese one) tells me my parents called. Which I thought was kinda strange cause I had just talked to them the night before. So I call them to see whats up.

Me: Hey, you called?
Mom: Yeah, hold on, let me get dad.*
Dad: Hello.
Me: You sound tired, whats up?
Dad: I've been up since 4 AM, the alarm system in the koi house went off.
Me: What tripped it?
Dad: We got quite a bit snow last night.** The roof over the back section of the koi house collapsed under the weight, crashing down onto all the tosai. (that were shipped a little over a week before)
Me: What WHAT WHAT! Are the fish okay.
Dad: Their hanging in there, I rigged up a generator, so all the pumps are running.
Me: (In Shock) Woah... what are you going to do.
Dad: (Suddenly Sounding Much More Uppidty Mood, Breaks Out Laughing) APRIL FOOLS!
Me: (Remembering What Day It Is) Shit, you Jackass, I forgot what day it was! (Followed By Profuse Swearing & Death Threats)

I was fooled! Now I need to think of something better to get revenge with!

*I thought it was kinda strange that my Mom gave up the phone without trying to talk my ear off first.

**The only true sentence my Dad said in the entire conversation.

Foreign Taste

2008-03-23T02:37:00.002-05:00

In the past I've made pizza for Marudo's family, including crust made from scratch. They really enjoy it & I've been wanting to make other dishes for them to try. Last week I had the perfect opportunity to do so, it was the mother's birthday. I offered to make dinner, which everybody willingly accepted.

To start out I e-mailed my mom asking her for a couple recipes the night before. The next day I went to the supermarket to pick up some ingredients, luckily they had everything I needed. Then to the kitchen, I started out making banana bread. While that was cooking I mixed up a chocolate cake because it seemed appropriate for the occasion. Then onto the main courses.

In addition to making pizza, I wanted to try something new. I decided on Lasagna. I made up 2 types, regular meat lasagna & vegetable lasagna. For the pizza's I made 2 types I hadn't before, Hawaiian (pineapple & Canadian bacon), and a cream cheese vegetable pizza.

In total I made:

2 loafs of banana bread
1 chocolate cake
2 square pans of regular lasagna
1 square pan of vegetable lasagna
1 Hawaiian style pizza
1 cream cheese vegetable pizza

It might seem like a lot of food, but considering that there are 10 mouths to feed at Marudo's house, its not really. Everybody really liked the lasagna, it turned out really good. They were a little leery about the Hawaiian style pizza at first because of putting pineapple on pizza, but after trying it they loved it. It was a lot of fun cooking for the whole family, but a lot of work!

schreeech crunch!!!

2008-03-04T06:49:00.002-06:00

The grandfather is the source of a lot destruction, especially to his own car. I think he has crashed more than Evel Knievel has in his career. Its kinda scary to think that he is still out there driving.

His main problem is that he doesn't really look around enough, he just merges or backs up without really checking to see if he is going to hit anything. He has backed into the garage & many other things, because of this his car's back end has been rebuilt countless times. He also has a problem judging distance & speed, he recently pulled out in front of a speeding car, which ended up hitting him. He lost his rights to put his car in the garage too, mainly because we're afraid he'll back into one of the support pillars. But also because he ran into the garage door while trying to get his car out without opening the door all the way.

We often contemplate taking away his driving privileges, but we're afraid that if we do he'll end up going crazy or turning into a vegetable cause he can't get out of the house. Honestly, he doesn't really leave the house that much, but when he does he usually winds up in an accident. Seriously, when he leaves there is about a 70% chance that he is going to run into something. Those aren't good odds, so remember, when in Japan watch out for the cars with the balloon shaped yellow & orange stickers on them. That is the elderly mark for cars, its kind of like a warning to other drivers. There is also a mark for new drivers too, green & yellow arrowhead shaped sticker, but thats story for a different week.

Well... at least they have markers for elderly drivers in Japan.

All Japan Koi Show part 2

2008-02-13T04:58:00.002-06:00

After spending a couple hours walking around in Tokyo, I got on a train & headed towards Marudo's older sister's house in Chiba to spend the night. Marudo's daughter Keiko & father had come down for the weekend to visit, so they were staying there too. Lucky for me Marudo's sister runs a butcher shop with her husband, so for dinner we had delicious BBQ beef, pork & chicken. Marudo's niece studies english so we spent most of the night conversing in english. I had a lot of fun & had great food at the Aunt's house, I greatful they let me stay the night.

The next morning I headed back to the Ryustu Center to catch the awards ceremony. It was pretty funny at the end when they throw the Grand Champion winner up in the air. Then the mad rush to pack up fish started. First I packed up Marudo's fish, then after throughly sanitizing, I helped a couple others pack up their fish. I got some lunch around 4 pm, then hitched a ride back up to Niigata with Nogami san. A bunch of Niigata area breeders all drove back up together, so after we all unloaded our fish we got together for dinner. We celebrated the ending of another All Japan show.

I had a great time, met a couple new people & socialized with a lot of friends. I can't wait for next year!

All Japan Koi Show part 1

2008-02-07T16:18:00.002-06:00

I headed down Saturday morning to go see the show, I was very impressed with it. Endless rows of tanks with many beautiful fish & and many familiar faces plus a couple new ones. A very fun experience over all.

The Grand Champion was won by an America, Andrew Filipowski with a Sakai Kohaku, runner up was a very beautiful Dainichi Showa. A Maruten Sanke bred by Marudo took Mature Champion, also a 4 step Gin Rin Kohaku from us was awarded the 55 Bu Sakura Award. Both were entries from customers.

After feeling like I couldn't possibly see anymore fish in one day & having sampled on the koi food at FD Food's booth (it tasted pretty good actually) I headed out to do some shopping in Tokyo.

All Japan

2008-02-01T08:22:00.000-06:00

Packing my bags and heading out tomorrow morning down to Tokyo to go see the show. This will be my first time seeing the All Japan Koi Show because I missed out last year due to the flu. But, I'm healthy this year, and I can't wait!

We found out today the a sanke bred by us(sold to a customer) won the kokugyo prize in either the 70 or 75 cm class. That was exciting, but none of the 5 fish we sent down took any awards. So we are a little disappointed in that.

I'll report more after I head back on Sunday.

Back in Japan

2008-01-29T07:51:00.000-06:00

I'm back! I brought my snowboard with me to catch some runs on my days off, and I ended up using it the first day. They had given me the day to rest after I flew in, but with fresh snow falling I got the itch to go out and enjoy it. So, I heading up to Yamakoshi's ski area to play in the powder. It was coming down pretty good, about 30cm of fresh snow had fallen by the time I got there, with a base of about 120cm. Its been a long time since I've boarded in fresh powder, since we don't get much in Minnesota anymore, so it was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to a lot more snowboarding this winter.

Birthday

2008-01-17T09:07:00.000-06:00

Today is my birthday! Grandparents are coming out to have lunch, grandma is making a cake to bring with. Later tonight I'm going with a bunch of friends down to the cities to party. It should be fun despite how cold it is here in Minnesota.

Also, I'm scheduled to fly back to Japan next week. I'm looking forward to it, except for the long boring flight. Maybe, we'll hit some turbulence to liven things up.

Home for the Holidays

2007-12-31T09:45:00.000-06:00

I flew home to be with my family for the holidays, just before Christmas. We actually had a white Christmas for once, I can't even remember the last time we had snow before Christmas. It was nice to see everybody again, its been a while.

So I've just been taking it easy keeping an eye on the fish on the farm. Also, been playing a lot of hockey, the ice is really nice this year. Along with snowmobiling cause we actually have snow this year. Haven't hit the ski hills yet, but I'm itching to get out.

Network

2007-12-08T23:33:00.000-06:00

I noticed we never buy fruits or vegetables from the super market, but we always have an abundance of them at our house. That seemed a little odd to me. So, one day I decided to look into the mystery surrounding why we always have fresh produce, its not like we're growing it.

Around the same time I also wondered what the grandparents do all day? I don't really think they help around the house much, cause sometimes the mother complains to me about it. Do they just sit around bored doing nothing? The grandma kinda has a social life, cause she has one friend who comes over about 500 times a day one her trike. Then proceeds to lay in the entry way talking, making it really hard to get in and out of the house. But other than that there is not much else going on for them, but they have to be up to something.

Curious as to what old Japanese people do, I watched them, secretly..... from a bush... But, not really. I took notice to that fact that the grandparents receive, and send a lot of packages. Then I put the two together and figured out that the grandparents are the ones responsible for all the produce. As I dug deeper, I realized the grandparents have an amazing network, one comparable if not larger than the verizon network!

One morning I eaves dropped in on the grandmother on the phone while I was doing something in another room. She called a handful of people in about an hour, making deals, and setting up trades. She was bartering with stuff she hasn't even received yet. As to who they are doing these trades with I'm not sure, but I have a hitch that it is other elderly people around the country, and not drug dealers*. When I say around the country I'm serious, one day we received a vegetable that only comes from southern Japan. I'm pretty sure trike buddy didn't bring it over, it wasn't laying in the entry way when I saw it.

*I don't think drug dealers are as connected as these grandparents are, and they don't even have cell phones!

It amazes me what the grandparents do to get all the produce, starting from nothing cause they don't even have their own garden. I just hope they keep it up cause the stuff they get in is really good.

Reason of absence

2007-12-03T07:02:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, life has been a little hectic. To make a long story short, I met a girl. Dated, got close, fell in love, then she broke my heart. I guess she just didn't love me as much as I love her, and she wanted to break it off before things got too complicated. It was a pretty clean break though, so I am happy for that; it didn't drag on and we don't hate each other or anything. Maybe if I have time (and if I want to let you that far into my personal life) I will post more about it in detail, but for now I'm going to leave it at this.

Devin's Pond

2007-10-07T02:49:00.000-05:00

I set up a 500 liter tank to overwinter my fish in at the tosai house. We have a lot of tosai this year so there isn't any room for my koi in one of the big tanks. Luckly Marudo has lots of misc. tanks and filters, so I was able to throw something together for my koi.

After the tank was up and running I pulled my pond. I culled one last time before moving my fish in. The count is at 77 fish, culled down from 10,000! I'm happy with how they turned out, I have about 3 that look promising. Marudo is letting me grow out 4 of my fish in one of his mudponds next year, I'm so excited! My tategoi are in one of the big tanks, so they'll grow through the winter too. Most of my fish are at about 20 cm in length right now, so I look forward to how big they'll grow during the winter

What's Happening in the Koi World?

2007-10-07T02:19:00.000-05:00

Culling was finished up a while back, so we started pulling the tosai ponds and bringing them in for the winter. We just finished up pulling the last 2 remaining ponds, so tosai harvesting is finished for year. After the ponds have been pulled we drain them for the winter and catch any fish that managed to escape the seine net while pulling, and bring them to the koi house. All of the ponds are already drained, and we broke down the little storage houses we built at the different pond locations too. Pretty much anything to do with tosai ponds is all set for the winter.

So we moved our attention to the big koi houses. We cleaned the filters and scrubbed clean the tanks at Muikaichi. The paint still looks pretty good so we didn't repaint this year. Also we cleaned all the windows & doors to tidy up the place. With cleaning we have been doing a lot of organizing, putting away tools & supplies we won't need again until next year.

Coming up is the harvest of the big fish, I can't wait!

Car Cologne

2007-09-17T05:09:00.000-05:00

I went with my friend to an auto parts store the other day, he had to buy some new cologne for his car. I'm not talking about some little leaf thingy that you hang from your rear view mirror either. No, I'm talking about a little jar full of magical wax that slowly melts and fills your car full of plentiful wonderful scents! Mostly its used to cover up the tobacco smell because Japanese people smoke more than Chinese factories making toys for your happy meals.

At the shop there was a whole aisle dedicated to car cologne, with every imaginable flavor you could think of and more, in your face Willy Wonka! There were a couple scents that struck me as odd. While picking up every scent and sampling it I came across one that smelled like those little disks in urinals, swear to God. After further inspection it turned out the name of this scent was "oriental". I can just see some Japanese guy going to America on vacation and taking in a baseball game. When using the bathroom, he realizes that the piss trough smells like his car. To bad I forgot to look where the "oriental" scent was made, because if its made in America, then that's just like the ultimate ownage. Not only is "oriental" the scent of our urinals, but there are people in Japan using that smell to cover up the stench from their tobacco!

The other scent didn't smell weird or nothing, just the name was odd. It was kind of a girly perfume smell, but the name was "musk". I don't know if its just me, but I would picture the smell "musk" being a little different. Like, if you have a younger brother and he moves into your basement. I think musk would be the word used to describe the smell of the basement after he's been down there in the darkness for a couple months, doing who knows what. Or maybe, if you've ever gone to a nursing home, there is that weird lingering smell of old people*. I would think that too would be considered "musk", not some girly perfume.

*Everybody knows the smell, cause you know when you were a kid your parents used to drag you to the nursing home kicking and screaming to go see your grandparents. If you've never gone before, or long suppressed those frightening memories, I'll merrily remind you. Your grandparents are always in the back somewhere, never up front near the check in desk, never. So you have to trek through hordes of old people that are reaching out trying to suck the youthfulness out of you like some kind of mummy/zombie mix. While you are suffering through that, you have to endure the horrible stench of a mix of bed pans, dying skin, rotting teeth, and I don't really care to know what else. Its horrible, horrible horrible! Please parents, don't bring your kids to the nursing home, bring your parents to your kids. I sure your parents would like to get out sometime too. With your help we can prevent childhood psychological trauma.

I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now, feel free to join me. Remember, its okay to cry.

What's Happening in the Koi World?

2007-09-10T05:02:00.000-05:00

Most of the culling is finished, we just have a hand full of ponds that need to be culled one last time. While doing the 3rd cull on the gosanke ponds we separated the middle grade koi from the high grade koi and only released the high grade koi back into the ponds. We brought the middle grade koi to Sanbusho. They'll stay indoors for the rest of the season and winter until they will be sold and shipped out next spring.

With culling for the most part done, we have turned our attention to cleaning and fixing up. A typhoon came through a little while ago, before it struck we re nailed down the roof on all the houses at Sanbusho. If we hadn't, most of the sheets probably would have blown off in the strong winds we had.

Also at Sanbusho we have been putting up new siding inside one of the house. We also redid the filter a little bit. Along with cleaning the tanks and the whole koi house in general. It looks pretty good, and next we'll move on to the other koi house to clean them in preparation for the harvest coming up.

Still busy, busy, busy...

Devin's Pond

2007-09-02T03:21:00.000-05:00

I culled my pond for the final time (3rd cull, for those that haven't been counting) this growing season. My fish are about in the 15-17 cm range, and I'm pretty happy with how they are turning out. I culled down to about 110 fish, from 10,000 this spring /early summer. I cut way back on food as to not grow the fish too fast. If I grow them to fast they will out grow their hi, it usually doesn't come back. Don't really want a pond full of shiro utsuri...

Singles Party

2007-08-28T06:57:00.000-05:00

Since I'm such a failure at meeting girls, one of my friends invited me to a singles party. Yep... I suck that bad, I've been here for little over half a year (in total) and haven't really met anybody. My such "good" friends never fail to remind me either. They use the whole your a foreigner, girls should be fainting at the sight of you bit too.

The dress code for the party was tradition Japanese clothing, which sucked. Why? Cause no matter what, being a foreigner, you will never look good in Japanese clothing. When trying to pick up girls aren't you atleast suppost to look good? So there was strike one against me right off the bat.

I went to the party with a group of about 20 people, in all there was about 200 people at the party, most quite a bit older than me. That actually made me feel good about myself, (laughs to myself) 200 people at a singles party! And its not like the party was in a highly populated area either, it was at a camp ground kinda in the middle of nowhere (most of the people were from the area).

At the party there was food, drinks & games/contests. There was an open bar with just about anything imaginable, I know I drank more that what I paid for the ticket to the party. The tickets weren't cheap either. As far as games, we started with Bingo, there were some pretty sweet prizes, but I didn't win. Next they held a contest where everybody got to vote for who the thought was the coolest guy and cutest girl.

Apparently a bunch of people from the group I was in voted for me as the coolest guy, so I made it into the final five. I thought it was cool until we got up on stage and they started asking us questions... about our sex lives. The guy before me got asked when the first time he had sex was. He responded that he was still a cherry boy, whheeeww, that took some pressure off me. I got asked how many time I've has sex in one day, so it wasn't so embarresing to say that I was a cherry boy too. Since the guy before me said it too. In the end I didn't win the coolest guy award, but I think I came in second. If I'd won, I would have recieved tickets to Tokyo Disneyland, too bad. (Its not so bad though, a 5 year old girl won the cutest girl contest. It just goes to prove that Japanese guys like their girls young, BTW how did a 5 year old get into an adult's singles party anyways?)

In all the party was very fun and well worth it. I accidently taught about 200 Japanese the shocker, I shouldn't have done that. And I did managed to get a phone number and better yet e-mail address* from a girl at the party, she is a little bit older than me though, but I don't really care.

*Nobody uses their cell phones to make phone calls anymore.

What's Happening in the Koi World?

2007-08-21T10:32:00.000-05:00

Lately we've started the third cull on the ponds, but we're still finishing up the second cull on some ponds. We also have one more pond we have yet to have started the first cull on, a pond of Asagi that were spawned late. So still culling, culling and more culling.

We ran around and checked all of the bigger koi's ponds too. Making sure the koi are okay and topping off the auto-feeders. I'm suprized by how big most of the koi have grown, and I'm really looking forward to the fall harvest.

Devin's Pond

2007-08-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

My fish have been doing good and growing lots. I did have a couple die a while back, though. I think it was because I was feeding too much. So I cut down on the food and haven't had any casualties since.

Also, the heat (and humidity) has been unbearably hot (but, I'm from Minnesota, so that doesn't help), almost around 100* F everyday. So I had to run a hose that constantly adds fresh water to my pond to keep the water in good condition.

The fish look good, when I can see them, the water is really green. But according to Marudo, its the color of water that I want in a mudpond. Brownish green, brown, and clear water in a mudpond aren't as good for the fish.

My fish look to be in the 12 - 15 cm range, just from looking at them in the pond. I'm quite happy with how they are growing. I think I'll cull the pond once more before the fall harvest, but I need to be carefull with how fast I grow my fish. Marudo told me if I grow them to fast then they will probably lose their hi.

Meeting People....

2007-08-13T20:42:00.000-05:00

When meeting new people in Japan it seems like they all follow a script. Japanese tend to say the same things, or so it seems, there are about 4 questions/comment that come up when meeting new people. Bellow are some of my experiences from meeting new people when out eating/drinking with them.

Usually the first thing they bring up is the size of your "face". I don't quite understand why? But, I always get the comment that I have a small face. What is that? We don't comment on the size of peoples faces in America. Seriously, can you imagine meeting somebody new and telling them they have a big or small face? What are they to think, that you're making fun of the size of their head? I really do not understand Japanese peoples fascination with the size of faces.

Now that they are already talking about your body anatomy, their next favorite question is what your blood type is. The first time somebody asked me that question I thought why would they want to know that? Are they searching for somebody with the same blood type in case they need an emergency transfusion? To tell the truth, I don't even know my own blood type. The Japanese people were mystified that I didn't know, probably because they know everybody and their cousins blood type. (That could come in handy if you're ever in Japan and need an emergency transfusion. Just about anybody on the street could probably give you the name of somebody with the same blood type as you within a 1 block distance.) I even asked my mom what blood type I am, but she didn't know, so to this day I still don't know what type I am. I should find out though, it might come in handy sometime, besides being able to answer one of Japanese peoples favorite questions.

Next, no matter how good or bad you are at speaking Japanese, you get hit with a brigade of compliments about how good you can speak the language. I don't know if it is because Japanese people are baffled that a foreigner could even speak their "difficult*" language or what. It doesn't stop after that first time they have met you either. Oh no, it continues on and on and on and on... It gets kind of annoying after a while, cause you hear it from everybody, down to the convenience store clerk.

*After all they do use 4 alphabets you know ;). Some people in Japan believe because of that, it makes Japanese the hardest to learn (ego boost?). I think it just makes it a little more annoying, but defiantly not the hardest.

After they've got a couple drinks in them and have loosened up a little (doesn't take much, some even ask sober) they ask what seems to be their all time favorite question, probably has to do with its sukebi nature. So... Which are you? S or M? (I'm not saying here, if you want to find out you'll have to come to Japan) As in Sadism and Masochism. I don't know about you, but when I meet somebody new it is not one of my priorities to find out whether they are S or M. Doesn't that seem a little odd to ask when you've just met? From the little bit I've talked about S & M is America, it was usually with somebody I've known for a long time. Not somebody I just met. Guys aren't the only ones who bring it up, I've had just as many women ask too. Age plays no factor either, Japan is just weird that way I guess.

Who knows, maybe Japanese people are just searching for their perfect match. The S to their M, with the same blood type (just in case things get a little out of hand).

What's Happening in the Koi World?

2007-07-27T09:21:00.001-05:00

Still Culling...

We've finished up breeding for the year, artificial spawning was finished a while ago, and now we're done natural spawning too. All of the Oyagoi have been moved out of Sanbusho & Muikaichi, released out into the mud ponds. Most of the breeding tools & supplies have been taken down and put away until next year.

Today we finished up the last of the black fry culling on the last two showas bred. Other than that we have been starting the second cull on some ponds, Kohaku & Sanke so far. It is starting to get very interesting because you can make out patterns on the fish really well. Along with starting the second cull we have been starting the first cull on ponds that contain fish that were spawned later.

Tomorrow I'm flying back to Minnesota for the first koi show put on by the Upper Midwest Koi Club. You can read more info about it at: www.umkoiclub.org

Devin's Pond

2007-07-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

I had a day off so I decided to cull my pond for a second time. I had Marudo help me pull the seine net because my usual partner in crime, Shinji, was busy. I already learned how to cull showa so I culled by myself. That way I could get a good look at all my koi.

We pulled the pond twice to make sure that we got all the koi. I couldn't believe how big they've grown since the first cull, they were about 6 - 7 cm in length. For the most part I could make out the patterns really good on the koi, the shiroji & beni have emerged nicely. In all it took me about 5 hours to cull by myself.

This time I counted how many fish I culled down to, I released around 350 fish. I didn't count how many I culled out though, but from the start I released about 10,000 black fry into my pond. I didn't have time during the first cull to count how many I kept. I'm going to cull my pond one more time before harvesting in the fall, Marudo thinks I'll probably cull down to about 120 fish.

Overall I am very pleased with how my koi are turning out. Everyone at Marudo koi farm has their own pond for growing koi out, so in the fall we are going to compare and see who raised the best fish. I can't wait for fall to come.

Earthquake, My Story Part 2

2007-07-23T07:58:00.000-05:00

7-17-07 Today I called the station to see if train service was running between Niigata and Nagaoka, it was, so I to go home. After lunch I headed the station on got on the first of 3 trains I had to take to get back to Nagaoka. In reality Yamagata is very close, but there is no direct route to get there (by car or train). All of the trains were running smoothly & on time, until I got to Niigata.

At Niigata all of the time tables were messed up, showing trains coming in that were from 2 hours before. I asked one of the station workers what time the next train was leaving. He didn't know, but he thought the train on track 13 would be leaving first. So through the sea of confused Japanese people I made my way to platform 13. I boarded the train and searched a couple cars for an open seat before realizing the train was packed. I decided the just stand in the hallway of the train since the ride from Niigata to Nagaoka is only about 20 mins. I watched as dozens of people frantically searched for an open seat, only to come up empty handed.

Occasionally anoucements would come saying when the train was going to leave, but they kept changing. Nobody really knew what was going on or why we were sitting at the platform for so long. Later I found out it was because a bolt in the concrete raiser shook loose during the earthquake. In all it took me about 6 hours to get home, when it usually only takes about 3 hours.

Once I got home I saw for myself that everybody was okay. The Nagaoka and Ojiya areas did not really suffer any damage from the quake, but Kashiwazaki got hit hard. I think the fire at the power plant was an electrical fire. Some radio active water spilled into the ocean during the earthquake. It is unsure how much and it is still under investigation right now.

7-22-07 The Shinkokai has been bringing water to Kashiwazaki for the victims at shelters for none drinking purposes. The earthquake destroyed the cities water system, and safe drinking water was already brought in. But there isn't enough water for people to do laundry, ect. So the Shinkokai set up show tanks at the shelters & truckes in new water about everyday.

On the 22nd I volunteered to go. It was amazing to see the damage in person as compared to on TV. The road looked like waves because how it buckled, the manhole covers were all push up and looked like gopher mounds in the road. Mmany garages & storage houses fell in the quake, some houses collapsed too. A lot of structures were shaken almost to the point of falling, they will need to be taken down. Also, a lot of houses had some kind of decorative stone fence or gate, but in the earthquake they all tumbled down.

Earthquake, My Story Part 1

2007-07-21T06:35:00.000-05:00

7-16-07 I spend the weekend up at my friend's house in Yamagata and I was supposed to return home on the 16th. But an earthquake struck Niigata and parts of Nagano at 10:13 a.m. The earthquake was very small in Yamagata, only about a magnitude 3, but in Niigata the magnitude was 6.8 at the strongest, in the Kashiwasaki area (a coastal region in Niigata pref.). And about a 6.1 magnitude in the Ojiya and Nagaoka areas (where I live).

The first thing I did after seeing that Niigata was hit hard again on the news was to try and call Marudo on the phone. But it was worthless, the phone lines were either jammed or taken out by the quake. I was really worried because Kashiwasaki has a Nuclear Power Plant, and sure enough it got damage by the quake. They had a live feed from a traffic camera showing black smoke comming from the plant on TV. Because the camera was a fixed, we couldn't tell where the fire was comming from. So we were really worried that the earthquake caused a meltdown or something.

I kept trying to call every hour, but it wouldn't go through. Finally around 3:00 p.m., I got through to the grandfather. He told me everybody was okay, but nobody was around because they all went out to go check the ponds.

I saw on the news that train service had been suspended, and because we didn't know what was happening at the Kashiwasaki Nuclear Plant, my friend said it would be fine for me to stay with his family as long as I need too. I really wanted to return home to see if everybody was okay, but there was no way for me to get back. So I stayed another night in Yamagata...

2007-07-17T10:14:00.001-05:00

Niigata was struck by another earthquake, it looks like everybody in the Ojiya & Nagaoka areas are okay. The coastal area was hit pretty hard though. I'll type more about the earthquake later, for now you can read about it here.

2007-07-12T07:44:00.000-05:00

Shinji (Marudo's younger brother) & I had the day off together, he agreed to help me seine my pond so I could cull it. My fish were about 3 - 4 cm in length, big enough to start to be able to make out a pattern on them, so I decided to do a quick culling. I only culled out the kohaku, all black koi, plus anything that had any deformities and any koi that had dropsy. I have yet to learn how to cull showa, so I just culled out the obvious.

Things I accomplished while culling:

I cleaned most of the algae out of my pond, it was kinda starting to take over.

I got rid of all the uneeded koi, kohaku, aka muji, ect. So now there is more room and less compition for the developing showa to grow.

I think I eradicated all the fish with drospy from my pond, not that it is contagious though, just nice to have it out.

Thats about it, I'm going to visit some friends out of town, there should be a new post maybe on Tuesday next week.

2007-07-10T06:37:00.001-05:00

I noticed my some of my fish looked funny while I was doing kanri at my pond on morning. I asked Toshi to take a look at my fish, so he went during lunch break. He came back with some bad news, he told me some of my fish contracted matsukasa. An internal bacterial infection, dropsy in english. It was probably brought on by too much food and poor water quality, I think the water quality took a turn for the worse during the heavy rains that caused a small landslide into my pond. The soil never really settle in the water collum because of repeated heavy rains we had, and with the water temperature dropping from the cool rain, it made my fish more susceptible to disease.

Toshi recommended to raise the pH and stop feeding for a couple days, and the other fish shouldn't get infected. I followed his recommendation and no other fish came down with matsukasa, he said I was lucky to catch it early. It could have been devastating otherwise.

2007-07-10T06:37:00.000-05:00

Culling.

We started culling sanke on the 4th of this month. All of the fry ponds on Myoken mountain (one of our main four fry pond areas) contain sanke fry. We've just finished culling at Myoken, so we moved to Sekihara to start culling kohaku fry.

Sanke fry look a lot like showa, when we are culling we look for deformities and a pattern. If the fry have any deformities we cull them out. When looking for a pattern we make sure that the fry has all three colors, which can be difficult depending on how developed the fry is. If the fry is under developed it is hard to make out the differance between the shiroji & hi plate, especially if it is heavy with sumi.

Kohaku are much easier to cull in regards to sanke, the differance between the shiroji & hi is much easier to see since you are not trying to look through sumi. Again we cull out any deformities, missing an eye, bend spine, missing fin(s), and deformed heads, ect. Mostly just looking for a classic kohaku patterns, some very easy to pick out if the shiroji is already developed. On others that are under developed we look for areas that look weak that could be a possible break in the hi plate if the shiroji hasn't fully emerged.

Before culling we need to seine the ponds to catch the fish. So every morning 4 of us get up early and seine the pond before the others (including the Obasan Culling Team, OCT for short) arrive for culling. Pulling the seine net is a slow process and kind of an aquired skill. Do it wrong and you could accidently let the fry out, or worse, get them tangled in the net. Overall culling is a slow repetative job, but the funny (read perverted, this is Japan you know, its amazing what a grandmother will ask you) conversations we have while culling sure make the day go by faster.

2007-07-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

I found the source and reason why there was a land slide into my pond, and fixed it!

It was raining very hard and I happened to be at my pond doing kanri at the time. I noticed that water was starting to gush down from above, in a matter of a couple minutes it was coming down very hard in 3 places like waterfalls. I quickly lowered the overflow pipe to help keep up with the incoming water. Then I ran up the hill to see where the water was coming from.

There is a drainage channel above my pond for rain, but it was clogged full of sticks, ceder needles and over grown with weeds. With all the debris in the channel, it was causing the water to overflow down into my pond when it would rain heavy. I quickly cleared out as much of the channel as I could with my hands, and stopped the water from overflowing.

In the afternoon I headed back to my pond with a brush cutter & shovel. I cleared out all of the brush around the drainage channel that was catching debris and clogging it up. Next I used the shovel to widen out narrow areas to prevent it from happening again in the future. Hopefully I've fixed my rain problem, the only good thing about the rain this years is that it has solved the water problem from the lack of snow this winter. Most of the mud ponds are topped off, if not very close to being full.

2007-07-05T09:01:00.000-05:00

Originally posted March 21 2007-
"The other day I saw a really funny commercial on TV, only that it wasn't meant to be funny. I think it was a commercial for cereal, but in it was a mother serving her son breakfast. And on the kids shirt it said "I Love M.I.L.F.s!". The kids mom was pretty hot too, how ironic is that?"

Tonight while I was watching horrible Japanese TV, its not like I have a better choice, its either watch it or get beat up by two little kids. Plus, the kids over here don't fight fair, so I just put up with the crappy TV programs, which the kids love for some reason. I don't know why, does it even have any entertainment value?

Anyways, tonight the M.I.L.F. shirt commercial was topped! How can you top the M.I.L.F. shirt you might ask? Well, there was a little girl (maybe about 10-12) wearing a shirt that said (I kid you not) "What's the Big Fucking Deal?", printed in bold black letters on a pink shirt. I couldn't believe it.

The girl wearing the shirt was a host on this boring kids show where they invade viewers houses and do crappy magic tricks, lame games, & sing horrible renditions of Happy Birthday. The show is basically all kids interviewing kids while they are being controlled by a bunch of kids & two adults dressed up like gothic elfs (I know, WTF? kids show w/ gothic elfs?) inside a digital world.

Some of their crappy magic tricks include pulling a banana out of a top hat that has been sitting on a table the whole time without showing the viewers the inside of the hat first. I know the show is targeted for kids, but, I mean, how dumb can kids be? You'd think they could make theirs tricks a little more complicated than just pulling a banana out of a hat.

One of the dumb games I saw on this show was, one kid throws a paper airplane from one end of the room to the other end where there is another kid with a net trying to catch the plane. While there are about 3 others with fans trying to prevent the one kid from catching the paper airplane. The game is not so bad, but the fact that the kids playing are decked out in full body armor with helmets seems a little odd. Can you even get hurt from trying to catch a paper airplane?

I'm not even going to go into how bad the ear wrenching Happy Birthday singing was, but that is what the "Fuck" shirt girl was doing on the show.

2007-07-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

Lots and lots going on lately! We've been busy breeding, culling, pond prepping, pond care, & releasing fry.

Usually the days start out running around to all the fry ponds to give them food & do any maintenance. We have over 30 fry ponds with about 25 where fry have already been released in and we are doing daily maintenance on. On top of all that we just had 7 new fry ponds made for us. We split up into groups or go alone to do maintenance on the ponds at their different locations (4 main locations but now 5 with the new ponds finished).

Also we have been continually breeding, I think we'll probably be finished with breeding around the middle of July, maybe... Within this last week I have been on breeding duty twice, it was only supposed to be once. But since only one of the four females spawned the first night (Marudo's shift), Toshi and I were on duty the next night. Incidently, none of the remaining three females spawned on our shift, but one did later at 9:30 a.m., which is odd because they usually spawn between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. The sencond shift was a complete 180 from the first shift we did earlier that week. In our first shift all of the five females spawned between 10 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.

This past week we bred Kohaku, Showa & Shiro Utsuri. About 2-3 days after the fry have hatched we release them out into the ponds. Before releasing the Showa & Shiro Utsuri we cull out any of them that haven't developed any black. After releasing the fry, we start supplimenting them food if the plankton levels in the pond are low. Otherwise we just do kamasu (mixing the pond's mud & water by dragging a metal bar around inside the pond) until the fry have depleted the plankton, then we start them on food (while still doing kamasu). Once the fry have grown large enough to dig through the mud by themselves then we stop doing kamasu and just give the food.

When the fry attain a size large enough (about 5 cm) to be able to start making out a pattern on them then we start culling them. In the case of Showa and Shiro Utsuri it is the second cull, but in Kohaku & Sanke it is the first cull. In two days we start the first cull on one of our kohaku ponds, I look forward to it.

2007-06-28T08:33:00.000-05:00

I was looking through a koi magazine one day and came upon a picture of a breeder wearing a shirt that looked like it said Coca-Cola. It was written in the same front and everything, but something looked wrong about it. So, after closer inspection, I realized his shirt said Cocaine. The best part about it is that this breeder has somebody who speaks very good english working for him. But, I guess it just goes to show that just because you can speak english, doesn't necessarily mean you can read or write it. Or, maybe his employee doesn't even care, or its his own little inside joke (the employee's).

The other night I was one breeding duty with Toshi. We always check the fertility of the male oyagoi, and also if the eggs were fertilized after spawning. We came across a particular male showa with a very high sperm count, jokingly Toshi renamed it Devin, because it was so "genki"! We'll see if the name sticks (pun totally intented).

We were talking about music one night, and came upon the subject of lyrics. Probably cause we started singing keitai karaoke (almost as fun as real karaoke, btw keitai = cell phone). They thought that when M.C. Hammer says, "Can't touch this." at the begining of the song You Can't Touch This, that he was actually saying "Kentucky". "Kentucky" also happens to be the name of the KFC chain here in Japan. Anybody else see the irony in that besides me? The Japanese are so racist without even trying. I'm not even going to get into what they thought the lyrics for the Spice Girls were.

I went out one night with my friend, she brought along her husband and one of her co-workers. Her & her co-worker both speak really good english, so her co-worker & husband wanted to meet me. We went to a tonkatsu restruant, the restruant gave us a mortar & pestle to grind up some black pepper. So my friends husband starts making masturbation motions with his mortar & pestle (keep in mind I just met him, and he wasn't even drunk). My friend's co-worker looks up and says, (in English, then explaining to him in Japanese) "They call that polishing the apple in America." I just about spit my drink all over the table, did not see that coming. How the hell did she know slang for masturbation?

A lot of Japanese people give me sh*t for not having a girlfriend, sometimes people I don't even know. They're all like, "You're a gaijin, japanese girls should be throwing themselves at you!" I tell them it doesn't work that way, but they never believe me. One particular day after taking some heat from an old guy, he turns around and tells me, "Ahh, your still young, and have perfectly functionable hands. You don't need a girlfriend." This leads me to believe that he has arthritis and/or parkinson's.

2007-06-25T08:49:00.000-05:00

Everyday we do "kamasu" on the fry ponds. "Kamasu" is the act of taking a metal bar (sometimes with chains tried to it) and dragging it around the edge of the pond. We do this to mix the mud with the water, stirring up food for both plankton and the fry. Along with kamasu, everyday we give the fry powdered food, unless the pond has enough plankton to support the fry.

Everyday I don't get to see my pond, becuase Marudo koi farm has 20+ fry ponds, that is a lot of ponds to take care of. But on my days off I always go and check my pond, spend time doing general maintenance, do kamasu and give the fry food. It had been about 2 days since I last saw my pond, so right away in the morning on my day off I headed over to it.

It has been raining heavy here a lot lately, we have entered Japan's rainy season. It runs from about midway through june to midway through july, the cool rain is a nice break from the heat and humidity. But, when I arrived at my pond I noticed that because of the rain, there had been a small land slide directly into my pond! Luckily though, because it was raining heavy, I think most of my fry were hanging out in the center of the pond. Usually they hang out around the edge, because that is where they get fed. So I don't think I lost any or many fry to the small land slide.

On the bright side, my fry are growing well, but not too fast. They are up to about 1.5 - 2 cm long. Which is pretty good considering that they were fed only artifictial food because the plankton never really did get established in my pond.

I guess it holds true what they say about challenges, "you learn from failure, not from success". Lesson learned this week: Those weeds I sprayed this spring I probably shouldn't have raked up clean. If I left them to just dry out then they probably would have helped stabilized the ground, and I probably wouldn't have had a land slide. Lucky for me damage was minimal, it could have been much worse.

2007-06-20T08:20:00.000-05:00

So I've already explained that we use chicken poop in the fry ponds as food for plankton that the koi fry eat. Well apparently the big koi like to eat poop too, I learn something new everyday. So today we went to Kaki to dump keifun (as it is called in Japanese) in the nisai, sansai, and yonsai ponds there.

Unlike having the luxury of the keifun being in bags weighing 15 kg from the local garden supply store. Today we had a big stinky (wasn't really for me though "farm life", but everybody else sure complained about the smell) pile of it thats been sitting under a tarp for who knows how long at Kaki. Lets just say it was growing moss and all sorts of other weird colored organisms, thats how long; almost liquid state like jello.

So with shovel in hand we scooped it and dumped it around the edges of the ponds, where the koi can rut in it. And I guess... eat it. *long pause* Supposedly it helps with their colors, or we just can't think of a better way to throw away a pile of chicken poop. Where did we get it from anyway?

There is a crematorium right next to Kaki, located a little bit lower than the pond area itself (terraced into the mountain). So just as we were finishing playing with the poo, one of the guys suddenly says, "Its time to go!" while pointing in the direction behind me. I was thinking to myself, why in such a rush, usually we walk around and check all the ponds & fish before heading back. Then I looked behind me... There was a cloud of smoke rolling towards us from the crematorium. Yea, we kinda throw all the tools in the back of the truck and sped out of there.

To bad Mezaki wasn't working with us today, he & I are into the heavier types of metal (death, black and so on). We couldn't wetted ourselfs with the pond water, actually we would have been fine with the sweat on our bodies cause it so fricking humid here. Then we could walk into the cloud. Wet body + body ashes = instant (and literal) corpse paint! Too bad we don't have a band.

I wonder how the colors are going to look on the koi from Kaki (AKA Crematorium Pond) this fall?

2007-06-19T08:16:00.001-05:00

My parents called me and told me our dog died. :( She was suffering from a tumor, not sure what kind, because I left before it really developed. Which in some ways is kind of good, because all of my memories of her are of when she was happy & healthy. It makes me feel bad for the rest of my family though.

Callie was an Australian Shepherd, a great dog and friend. We had her for four years, I was only around for three, becuase I left for Japan to study. I am unsure how old she was, I think somewhere around 8 to 10 years old. We acquired her from the farm next door when they moved to Florida, with all the hair she had and the heat in Florida we didn't think she would like it down there. Callie had become very attached to our family when we moved in, she would come from the neighbors house everyday to play we us. We would have to walk her home every night, until the neighbors moved away and gave her to us.

Callie wasn't the same dog when I visited home earlier this month. She wasn't the usual playful and friendly dog, and she wasn't eating well. She would still get up and chase the cats around though, but that is the only thing that remained of the dog I remembered. I'm glad she didn't have to suffer very long.

Callie you will be missed...

2007-06-17T03:14:00.000-05:00

Last year while I was here helping with the harvesting, Marudo told me that when I came again in the spring that he would give me a pond to try my hand at raising some fry in. So this year after arriving Marudo gave me a couple ponds to choose from to be my own. I chose the smallest one, cause its primarily just going to be me working on/at it. (That is unless I get a gf, then I can make her help me. haha, that would be so (male) japaneseish of me!)

Next I had to choose which type of koi I wanted to raise, I wanted to do Gosanke, but which? Marudo wanted me to do Chagoi, but I twisted his arm enough to let me do Showa. Later I found out that Chagoi are one of the most difficult types to raise. Because they change color so much as they grow, making culling very difficult.

Then I had to choose which Oyagoi I wanted to use, my first choice was Raijin. This would have been the first year of using Raijin as an Oyagoi so nobody knew what to expect. But, Raijin didn't spawn, I was disapointed and had to choose a new Oyagoi to use. Next I chose Kurohime, usually Kurohime produces many black fry, hence the name "Black Queen". But this year Marudo thinks he made a mistake, because the majority of the fry from Kurohime this year were red. We almost didn't have enough black fry, I would have had to choose another new Oyagoi. But there was just enough black fry left over from culling for me, about 10,000.

Before releasing the fry into my pond I asked Marudo if there was anything special I had to do with the water. A couple days before I spread "keifun" (chicken poop) in my pond for planton food, so I was wondering if I had to do before letting the fry go. But Marudo said no, you don't need to do anything special.

[Fast Forward] While eating dinner:
Marudo asks me,"Hey, did you test pH of your pond before releasing the fry?"
Me,"What? No... You told me I didn't have to do anything special before letting the fish go."
Marudo, " You didn't test the pH? OMG all of your fry might be dead."

The next day I went to go check on my fish, all of them were still kicking and doing good, so I guess I lucked out. But there wasn't much plankton in the pond, that kinda sucks because the fry grow way faster when eating natural food as opposed to fake. So I stirred up the mud around the edge of the pond, as to provide food for the small amounts of planton that are there. I also gave the fry some powder food too before heading back.

Today I went back and the fry are still doing good, but there is little to no planton in the water column. My solution? I stole plankton (after asking) from the pond next to mine (Marudo's pond). I also stirred up the mud again, and gave the fry some more powdered food.

I'll update this blog on the progress of my pond. Raising, culling, ect. Who knows, maybe this fall you can be the lucky owner of a Japanese bred, American raised (in Japan), limited edition Showa tosai, brought to you by Marudo koi farm and Devin! (don't get you hopes up)

Stay tuned to see what Devin is going to do next, you never know whats going to happen.

2007-06-15T06:47:00.001-05:00

Lately lots of breeding & culling. We artificially spawn the koi, so we have more controll over the results, though we have already had a couple accidental natural spawns because someone forgot to check the fish. I'm not going to say any names though. After spawning we keep the eggs in the same water that the oyagoi were in until we can see eyes developing inside the eggs. Once eyes have developed we transfer the spawning matts with the eggs attached to them to a hatching tank that is lined with a net. When the koi hatch we wait a couple days (feeding them brine shrimp during this time) before releasing them out in the ponds. Or in the chase of showa, we cull them, and only release the black fry out in the ponds.

So the last couple of days we have been culling showa fry. For the most part the fry are either all red (in reality yellwish, like egg yolks), black (or mostly black but with some "red"), or white (clearish). We pick up only the black ones, because the other ones will probably develope into (worthless) kohaku, or shiromuji (even more worthless!). We have a vacuum pump rigged up with air line and a bottle. The air line is fixed into a cork and pushed into the bottle top, to create a vacuum. With this system we just suck the black fry up and they collect in bottle. Making life much easier so we don't have to try and use a net to pick up all the black fry, the fry are only about 50-80mm long, so it would be pretty difficult to use a net.