24 seconds per Koi
Anyone who sets foot on the All Japan knows it; From here there is no turning back. The quality you see here is truly dazzling. From a few centimeters to a meter and more, all varieties and a few more that are simply so unique that they cannot be qualified. Really every barrel would steal the show at a koi show in the Netherlands, but here you just have to walk past it because there are simply too many to look at properly in such a weekend. I will therefore return to the first sentence of this paragraph; there is certainly a way back, but it just leads to Tokyo again because you don’t get bored.
You have seen everything, but your experience does not go beyond a postcard
Taking into account that you would like to watch every Koi in the show that with a day and a half, actually lasts about 12 hours, you theoretically have exactly 24 seconds per fish. An unachievable card and an overdose when you set yourself the goal of wanting to see everything. That’s like a holiday where you want to visit all the sights in a few days. You have seen everything, but your experience does not go beyond a postcard. Of course I first went looking for the Grand Champion and then worked hard with that camera or at least; ‘but first, let me take a selfie!’
Especially when you consider that socializing is also a goal in itself. Because when men like Wada, Sekiguchi, Ueno, Nogami, Dainichi and Narita literally come to have a chat or personally hand over a present, I like to put my lens cover on. Bas mentioned it in an earlier blog; it is bizarre to experience how much the initiative of KoiQuestion is embraced. You would think that those men have better things to do, they also have limited time of course and for the time being we mainly only reach the Dutch market on the website, although Facebook of course also gives a lot of international echo. Breeders are lived during such a show, worried about their fish of course; Sometimes they turn out to be just like people ;-). We are slightly reminded by them and other attendees from various countries that an English edition of our website would be very welcome.
Then we hear each other contemplating whether a certain Koi would be good enough
There you are with your good behavior. With the camera at the ready to capture all those champions. We don’t allow ourselves time to have lunch in the afternoon, we are too busy marveling at and devouring those countless patterns, colors and bodies. Although it is very difficult not to give in to the temptation of Tully’s Coffee that really surpasses Starbucks in the opinion of my papillae. You do your thing, but you still think about it like; “We’re just really here, we’re just going through this together and no one can take that away from us”. The two Kohaku who took the medal also impressed me the most, or was that the Momotaro Showa of 103 centimeters. Less shoulders, but so elegant, really beautiful. 
Through the lens it is much better to look at a Koi. It’s a completely different experience than just walking by and seeing if you see something beautiful. You start to see, respect and admire things more and better. Then we hear each other contemplating whether a certain Koi would be good enough and we immediately dare to reflect; “Not good enough? This is the All Japan” and then laugh it off. Well, we will always remain critical haha. The All Japan is the pinnacle for a true Koi lover. There is not much more than Koi – except for a handful of stands. That comes across as much less social and even boring to us Westerners, but on the other hand, I can’t imagine that you have time for other things during such a show. That’s why we prefer to spend about 240 seconds per Koi so that we have an excuse to come back in the future.
