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Carl went to Niigata for the fall harvest. He was there for about three weeks, choosing from the best koi in the world bred by the top breeders in Japan. Follow his journey to see where he went, get a taste of what it's like to be in Niigata during the fall harvest season, and view some spectacular koi.

Day 1, Sat, Oct 12, 2002
There is no rest for the weary. Landed at Narita at 5:40pm on Friday the 11th. After enduring the customs thing, it is off to Tokyo station to catch the Shinkensen (a bullet train that travels at 200 kilometers per hour) to Niigata. I was met by Mr. Hoshino of Koda koi farm at the Nagaoka Station and we went to a good Japanese diner. After a good night’s sleep it’s off to pick up the rental car at 7am and back Koda koi farm in the mountains by 8am to start pulling mud ponds.

This is the Koda koi farm main facility. There are Tosai greenhouses on the left and the main greenhouse is on the right. We prepare the 4-wheel drive truck to go to the mud pond. The transport tank needs to be anchored on the truck since some of the roads leading to the mudponds are very steep.

We stop to fill the transport tank by siphoning water from a mudpond behind Mr. Hoshino’s new tosai greenhouse.

We then arrive at the pond where you will see that the water level has already been lowered by replacing the original stand pipe with a shorter one. The midsize standpipe is removed to let the remaining water drain out.

This photo is of the drainage runway that lets the water drain down the side of the mudpond to the rice patty below. Mr. Hoshino's 71-year-old father-in-law Syosaku clears the debris to keep the runway clear.

Mr. Hoshino and his 20 year old son Masato are waiting for the water level to drop enough to start harvesting the koi.

Once the water is low enough we pick up the koi by hand and place them in the bowl in the water. This pond has housed 35 three-year-old koi since April.

Back at the main greenhouse Masato inspects the new harvest before treating the koi and putting them into the greenhouse.

Lucky is "guarding" the house.

This is a closeup photo of our holding tank at Koda Koi Farm with our first purchases.