Thanks for that, Mark. Hard for folks like us that live in places like Southern California and Florida to fully comprehend the severity of winter in Niigata/Yamakoshi.
As for the sub-text of the conversation going on here, it started on KoiShack, continued to Newt's and recently resurfaced here.
Hopefully, this portion of JR's post (#29, this thread) should suffice to explain:
Luke, you disappoint me when you pull this twisting stuff as if we are all too dumb to recognize when you are spinning-- The original debate/conversation was about removing a winter cover to give koi more light in midwinter during thaws. I suggested that this was counter productive as it rouses the fish in stasis when they will have to return to that condition once again very soon and moving around wastes valuable energy stores. And a poor trade off to boot; to trade a few degrees of heat gain for a distruption of stasis. Do you remember that??? In response, you brought in the old methods of how koi used to be kept by Japanese, that I had discussed before. And now you are pulling a 'hot air tactic' of trying to rouse the crowd regarding cruel methods the Japanese used to use. Hey Einstein, the alternative in those days was to leave them out under ice! Experience taught those mean Japanese that covering the koi or bringing them in and placing them in vats under the floors of the house allowed a greater chance of predictable survival than leaving them in the reserviors.
Having watched March of the Penguins, Luke thought he'd all the ammo needed to rebut JR's argument --but you, luckily, have come to JR's rescue just in the nick of time.
