answer to Matt

[dick benbow]

Matt,
looking forward to the day when you can stop by and visit. Otsuka is the only breeder i know of who works with reverse but i suspect there are others. Keep in mind that it will be when my youngsters are 3 yrs old before we know how well and what characteristics they will show for sure with their asagi han (blue).
The narumi babies are easy to detect because of their basic white body
and grey dot on the forehead. the others don't look like that but have a blue cast but will have to wait and see really how they turn out before i want to call them reverse.
I now own two narumi asagi's and am looking to add one more. I have
a very special female and a youngster from her sister that is nisai that I suspect is female as well. I need to add a male and hope to do that in September. Asagi's have such a thin body and smaller head that it takes awhile before I can be sure while sexing.
When do you anticipate returning to north america? There's a book i have read several times that I retain in my library called Learning to Bow,
the story of a teacher who went to japan to teach and became quite the student of the culture.
Best wishes (fishes)

[matt]

thanks dick.

I will be on sado island for one more year, and then hope to spend a year on the mainland as close to Ojiya as possible.

That will take my stay in Japan to 4 years, and I will probably come home then. Just in time to see the reverse developing it seems.

One great thing about Japan is affodable digital camera/cell phones. My new one has a 1.3M camera mounted on it, so I will try to find some time to post a few shots of my Asagi for you.

I haven't read Learning to Bow, will look for it. Currently to two books on Japan I am reading (i tend to read a number of books at once - MTV generation attention　span) are Japan Unbound (a newly published account of Japanase economic, educatinal, and social issues of the lase few years) and The Histroy of the Yakuza. Both facinating.

One of the new English teachers on the same program as me in Niigata is also a koi freak. Workded for a number of years for one of Britain`s largest koi retailors and majored in Marine Biology. I will be introducing him to Koi-Bito soon and take him along this Fall to meed some breeders and help in the harvest.

[dick benbow]

Love to see a photo when you get time. When i was in Japan, I helped out
teaching some english classes for a high school and college teacher friends of mine. While they both spoke excellent english they wanted the students to hear an american accent as opposed to their own japanese
style. It was fun. I had an opportunity to stay on after my time there and teach but didn't. I think it's neat your learning things there and have found a like spirit in niigata!