Visiting the farms of Japanese Koi breeders makes for a Koi-packed holiday – but do organised Koi trips offer visitors the complete picture of Japan? Jasper Kuijper meets someone who wants to do just that...

During my travels around the world, somehow I always manage to bump into Steve Gibbins – a Nishikigoi journalist and a major Koi fan. I have seen him many times in Japan and the States, where he always has extensive photography and video-recording gear with him. I must add here that he takes stunning photos and makes very good videos featuring Koi. When I meet up with him, he’s selling his photos, but never his videos, which I try to encourage him to publish.
What a lot of people don’t know is that he is not only a massive Koi fan but a real lover of Japanese culture. Even if there were no Koi in Japan, he would visit the country because of the culture and the people – they’re like a magnet for him! This is especially true of the north of Japan – the Koi mecca – which I can understand, having been lucky enough to visit Japan many times myself.
Steve has been even luckier than me and has been visiting Japan since 2003 and started going three or four times a year since 2005. He always goes to the All Japan Show, the Wakagoi (Young Japan Show) and of course, he goes for the harvest period. And he’s got it sorted each time he visits because, since he is a Nishikigoi journalist, he gets press access to all the Koi shows in Japan. He also gets to access Kato San’s facility and has made a day-long video of it – luckily he has a basic understanding of Japanese, which was handy when it came to interviewing Kato San.
The reason I am discussing Steve is to point out the work he’s doing with breeders to organise making access to the Koi farms easier and to make trips to Japan about the culture and the scenery, as well as the Koi, for hobbyists around the world.
As well as visiting for work, he has been making his own trips independently, which I was intrigued about because, without a Koi dealer who has the relationships with breeders in place, it would have been difficult for him in the beginning. But he goes independently because he finds that, if you visit with a dealer, you will only go to a limited amount of Japanese breeders that they’re working with. Then, you go back to these same breeders many times because the dealer will need to buy his own stock too – for this you will still have to pay for the cost of travelling through the mountains to get there and, of course, you have to pay commission on top of the asking price of the Koi and sometimes you have to spend a minimum amount with each dealer.
I personally don’t have any problems with this but even after so many visits, I long to go and see different breeders. So this means you would need to go with somebody else. My own hunger to see something different is still very high, and I would like to see several breeders that some dealers don’t know about and I especially want to see auctions, bullfights and temples when I go. The harvest and the nice scenery spots that Steve has photographed would also be amazing.

All of Japan
So Steve now likes to offer this to Koi lovers around the world, so that they have an extra-special experience. What I was really surprised about was that he was not asking for any commission on Koi purchases because he only charges a daily rate to cover his expenses. With this, you don’t have any obligation to purchase Koi but you can experience the Koi mecca and the Japanese culture and scenery. I can only say that if you are a Koi hobbyist, then this really is the best trip that you can go on and it will open you eyes. 
It is good that Koi hobbyists can now choose if they want to go with a tour guide like this, and this trend is now set in several countries. If you would like to know more about Steve, visit his website at www.koitours.com or www.koi-media.com.

This blog from Jasper is taken from the latest issue of Koi magazine - issue 137 out now.