I'm pleased with my new working environment for the next 7 months!

First of all I would like to apologize of the lack of updates since I am in Japan. I arrived at May 3^rd, five days ago already. Since then a lot of things happened and I was either to busy or tired to post any blogs. I wasn’t lacking with collecting any interesting video or photo footage. I will try to show them to you at least two times a week from now on. For the people who are not aware of it: I am at Dainichi right now, for an internship of approximately seven months. I will start with a blog about the daily work here since I have arrived last Tuesday. Read More →

Osame-san working on Rokutanbu, the #1 pond of Dainichi

In my previous blog I already explained a little bit about the daily work at Dainichi. Now I got some video footage as well, which I could make in between the different activities. The main activities at the moment are the preparation of the mudponds. We are now mainly busy with the preparation of the ponds where nisai and elder Koi will be released, because that will be the first thing which we will do after all the preparation work is done. This day, the seventh of May, I was working together with Kanno-san and Osame-san; a new staff member and one very experienced one. Read More →

Breeding couple from last year

A couple of days ago we moved the female oyagoi from Dainichi to the main house of the farm. I must say, it is a very impressive pond. Lots of famous oyagoi, but also a lot of new ones. Can you remember the names Kokugyo, Gachapin, Sakura, Shigeru Dai Junior and Butta Nidan? Well, you can see them all on the video published in this blog. The breeding will probably start around the beginning of June. This will be done on the traditional way: a female and one, two or three males of the same lineage will be put together and spawning will occur on a natural way. More about that in a later blog, when the breeding is actually going to happen. Read More →

Hirata-san

Today (12th of May) we worked at the Kawaguchi area. Together with Takahashi Hirasawa (we call him Hirata-san) I have been working on some tosai ponds. It was another day of mudpond preparation in which we added liming material and artificial fertilizer to the different ponds. At the end of the day I made the following video, with the assistance of Hirata-san. I really like him, and although I can hardly understand him because of my pover Japanese and his’ very strong Ojiya-accent, it is always a pleasure to work with Hirata-san.

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Look who's there!

With a lot of Grand Champions who won at the major Japanese Koi Shows it is always difficult to find out if they are still alive and where they occur at the moment. Since I am close with Dainichi, I know (and you too, if you follow tihs website on a regular base) what happened with Sakura after she won the All Japan Combined Nishikigoi Show in 2007. A couple of months after her victory on the show, she was already a mama of a couple of hundred thousand babies! She is still alive and will be used again this season to experience her fifth breeding season. Can you remember the 2010 All Japan Grand Champion from Kato-san? The Maruten Yondan Kohaku of 99 cm? Later that year she was 102 cm and won the ZNA Show. I saw her a couple of days ago…

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Preparing Koi for release to Rokutanbu

Yeah, yeah: today (18th of May) we did something else then working on the mudponds! Instead of right away going to the mountains in the morning, I was asked to fill the two transport tanks on the big truck. When that was done, some big blue bowls were filled as well, continued by catching some of the best Koi at the Dainichi Koi Farm at the moment. It was a really =pleasant alternation of the daily work! While the fish were in the bowl, anesthetic was added to allow us to check every individual Koi very detailed. Of course I made some photo and video footage and in this blog I want to share them with you. Ow yeah, I forgot to tell: these Koi were later on released in Rokutanbu, the number one mudpond of the farm! Read More →

The rear view of the drive to the mudpond

Together with my big friend Hirata-san, who is by far the most experienced staff at Dainichi, I was given the opportunity to release some of the best big Koi of the farm. I must say it felt kind of special, because Rokutanbu is the number one pond of the farm and I was allowed to release all those Ferrari’s and Porsches into the mud! This really felt like a token of appreciation. Underway I made a video to experience a little bit of my band with the staff and to see some surroundings of my office.    Read More →

It's happening all here at Dainichi!

It’s happening all here at Dainichi! We are going to breed Sakura, Kokugyo, the Grand Champion of the All Japan Combined Nishikigoi Show of the year 2010 and many more! Although I have written the last couple of blogs in the past sence, it is now time to present you the present. I am doing this because from tomorrow onwards it will be a very important period. You probably already got some idea what might go on around this time of the year… Yes, I think you were thinking the same as me: it’s breeding time! Read More →