amw5g
Contributor
My wife and I spent 4 nights in Ishigaki, diving with Umicoza. We had a great time, and were impressed by the team's patience and flexibility. Each day had a range of skill levels and snorkelers, as well as many different languages spoken. Umicoza handled them all. The boats were well cared for, and the shop facilities more than adequate. Lunches were provided at the shop, and my pescatarian wife didn't have any major problems getting fed. Tea, water, and fruit candy provided on all dives.
We were the only divers going out for third dives, so we generally had the place to ourselves in the afternoon. We also brought our own gear, so I can't comment on how the rental gear fared. Nitrox was available, and we used it although no one else did. This was our first time diving with steel tanks, so it took a dive for us to get adequately weighted. It was odd, but refreshingly Japanese, to find we could leave equipment on the boat without fear of someone walking off with it. And the crew took care of migrating stuff from boat to boat, depending on what vessel we used.
Seas were flat, with no current and great visbility at around 83F-85F temps. One of us easily gets seasick, and that never occurred on this trip. We went to Ishigaki for the mantas, but found that after one dive with them (where we saw, I think, 2 separate rays), we were happier exploring the other dive spots. It was entertaining to see different topology than we are used to; although damage from recent typhoons had made a big mess of several places. Each DM had eyes for different species, and we even got treated to some squid fishing during the surface intervals. Dive profiles were generally in the 30'-60' range, with lots to see around 20'. This meant the DMs would meander back up to a place we could explore for the safety stop- no hanging around in the blue staring at the computers. Manta Scramble was the exception.
Umicoza suggested Joy-ya as one of their partner accommodations in Kabira Bay. It's a modern ryokan, with some fantastic cooks running the place. My wife couldn't get over the amazingly fresh fruit at breakfast, and the array of beautiful fish at dinner in various formd. Joy-ya also have facilities for washing & drying of dive gear, but we didn't use it.
I will say that we saw much more coral touching and sitting in Ishigaki than in some other places (e.g., So Fla, Maldives, Philippines, Caribbean). I don't know if that was a function of the divers' training, the divers' culture, the dive operators, or what. But it was sad to see, especially at Manta Scramble. We talked to one of our DMs about it, and he said that some of the other operators encouraged it, even though Umicoza's owner had tried to persuade his peers otherwise.
Lastly, we were spending another week in Hokkaido and Tokyo after leaving Ishigaki. We didn't want to lug all the dive gear around, so the Umicoza staff helped us ship it to our final Japan destination. More specifically, they assisted rush drying everything after our final dive, they drove us to the post office, and they filled out all the paperwork for us in Kanji. We just had to hand over the cash to the postal worker. That took an incalculable amount of stress off of us. Oh, and they shuttled us to the airport on our way out.
Would definitely like to return, and would definitely stick with Umicoza, if we did. No reason to stay anywhere other than Joy-ya, as well. We agreed that if we visited again, we'd leave more time for topside activities, probably with a rental car. We didn't really do anything on land, and regretted it when speaking to other divers who'd been all over the island.
Please let me know if I can answer any questions.
We were the only divers going out for third dives, so we generally had the place to ourselves in the afternoon. We also brought our own gear, so I can't comment on how the rental gear fared. Nitrox was available, and we used it although no one else did. This was our first time diving with steel tanks, so it took a dive for us to get adequately weighted. It was odd, but refreshingly Japanese, to find we could leave equipment on the boat without fear of someone walking off with it. And the crew took care of migrating stuff from boat to boat, depending on what vessel we used.
Seas were flat, with no current and great visbility at around 83F-85F temps. One of us easily gets seasick, and that never occurred on this trip. We went to Ishigaki for the mantas, but found that after one dive with them (where we saw, I think, 2 separate rays), we were happier exploring the other dive spots. It was entertaining to see different topology than we are used to; although damage from recent typhoons had made a big mess of several places. Each DM had eyes for different species, and we even got treated to some squid fishing during the surface intervals. Dive profiles were generally in the 30'-60' range, with lots to see around 20'. This meant the DMs would meander back up to a place we could explore for the safety stop- no hanging around in the blue staring at the computers. Manta Scramble was the exception.
Umicoza suggested Joy-ya as one of their partner accommodations in Kabira Bay. It's a modern ryokan, with some fantastic cooks running the place. My wife couldn't get over the amazingly fresh fruit at breakfast, and the array of beautiful fish at dinner in various formd. Joy-ya also have facilities for washing & drying of dive gear, but we didn't use it.
I will say that we saw much more coral touching and sitting in Ishigaki than in some other places (e.g., So Fla, Maldives, Philippines, Caribbean). I don't know if that was a function of the divers' training, the divers' culture, the dive operators, or what. But it was sad to see, especially at Manta Scramble. We talked to one of our DMs about it, and he said that some of the other operators encouraged it, even though Umicoza's owner had tried to persuade his peers otherwise.
Lastly, we were spending another week in Hokkaido and Tokyo after leaving Ishigaki. We didn't want to lug all the dive gear around, so the Umicoza staff helped us ship it to our final Japan destination. More specifically, they assisted rush drying everything after our final dive, they drove us to the post office, and they filled out all the paperwork for us in Kanji. We just had to hand over the cash to the postal worker. That took an incalculable amount of stress off of us. Oh, and they shuttled us to the airport on our way out.
Would definitely like to return, and would definitely stick with Umicoza, if we did. No reason to stay anywhere other than Joy-ya, as well. We agreed that if we visited again, we'd leave more time for topside activities, probably with a rental car. We didn't really do anything on land, and regretted it when speaking to other divers who'd been all over the island.
Please let me know if I can answer any questions.
