We arrived at Narita Airport in Japan around 8pm local time on Friday. Yep, we crossed the date line. Mark Bodycott from USAKoi met us at the airport. Mark is a koi dealer. He helped us make our way from the airport to the hotel (a 3 hour, 2 train, and 1 cab journey). He goes to Japan regularly to buy koi. He also takes customers around to the koi farms and helps them to purchase koi. He makes koi buying easy, you just point to the one you want and write a check. If you're ever wanting to go to Japan to buy koi, I highly recommend calling Mark.


We arrived at the New Otani Hotel in Nagoka about 11pm. Our room was on the 10th floor. The trip had taken about 26 hours. Of course, I was so amped up on adreneline, that I didn't sleep at all that night. The room was stuffy, and there was no fan, and Shane snored like a lumberjack. The next morning, the view out the window was amazing.


The hotel served a buffet style breakfast. There was American and Japanese food. Bacon and eggs for me please. Our first glimse of some traditional Japanese culture was this couple who were about to get married. Our first koi sighting of the day was on the van that would be taking us around.