A few questions answered regarding the trips.

We do get many emails enquiring about Koi buying trips to Japan. These are some of the most common questions answered.

Do Koitrips book the entire trip?

No, we do not book the entire trip, this is how it works.
We have an excellent travel agent who deals with all our flight needs, he gets the group(s) booked together and the times each person are staying on the trip. We use this guy because many people who book to come to Japan with us often want to do other things too, so the Travel Agent we use can make all that happen.
When the flights have been found and we are happy with the price etc, each client telephones the travel agent and pay the flights directly to them, you will then receive the travel information direct, through email.
The Hotel we use in Nagaoka, is the New Otani. A very nice hotel with a good breakfast which is included. We get a discount on the room which we pass onto our customers. Like any Hotel, you will pay direct when you checkout. They take all Credit Cards.
We will book the rooms in advance, or as soon as the flights are booked. So while we do book the hotels, the customer will pay when they check out.

How far are the mountains from the Airport?

When we pass through passport control at Narita Airport we get on the ‘Narita Express’ which takes us none stop into Tokyo main train station, this is around 55minutes.
At Tokyo Station we then catch the famous Bullet train to Nagaoka City, which is our base for the trip.
The times on the Bullet train can differ depending on what time we can manage to get them, they have express trains and trains that stop at a few more stations. We always try and get the express but depending on the time of day it is sometimes very busy. The times to Nagaoka is around 2 hours.
The European flights all land in Narita from 8am – 10am. We hope to be in Nagaoka no later than 2pm. We collect the car and have a quick look round. The first Koi Breeder will be 15/20minutes from the hotel, then pretty much 5minutes more to each one!

Where do we eat in the evenings?

Nagaoka City has changed a lot over the years, many new restaurants and bars have popped up all over the place. We will get back to the Hotel between 4pm and 5pm.
We go to a couple of places in the evening, mainly ones that have free WI-FI but places we know and have been for many years. You’re welcome to join us any time, but you can go and explore the City yourself and I am sure you will find many great places.
The evenings are a great time to catch up with what we have seen that day etc.

Is there a daily plan when in Japan?

A quick answer, No.
There are so many Koi Breeders in Niigata its very hard to actually plan anything for a day. Harvests are pretty much the only thing we can work around, along with the Koi shows they are set out in advance so we will know what days they are. When it comes to Koi Hunting it is not so easy. With the amount of breeders in the area we set out in the morning and will go to the first breeder. Then that breeder may give us some information on what another breeder is doing, maybe they are bringing in new Koi that morning, so lets go there! Koitrips.com have NO restrictions, we can go absolutely anywhere, there have been times we have seen a ‘Koi Truck’ with a container on the back splashing water out, we dont even know who it is but we will still follow and see what ‘goodies’ they might have.
In the October/November period some breeders are harvesting daily, twice daily and some even thrice daily! So we will repeat places regularly. We may be at a breeder who has a nice Kohaku, a Kohaku that fits the description of what a client wants, the breeder may have more coming in the next day, or the same day. So we can wait and see what he brings in before making the decision.
As we can go anywhere we want, it makes it difficult to plan a day around the mountains.

Hope this answers some of the questions.
On the next buying trip in a few weeks we will be getting insights/interviews with some of the customers coming out with Koitrips.com so we will post them on the site so you can see exactly what goes on.

If there is anything else you would like to know, email us at info@koitrips.com