Dive Sites in Japan

[sinners]

Hi!

I travel to Japan on business regular and the last time I went, I managed to spend a weekend at Atami in Japan.

It was a great dive, but the waters were cold compared to the waters I am used to in Singapore and Malaysia.

I have been told Mikimoto [not sure the spelling] is good to, but i need to be a more experience diver to dive there, is that true?

Also, the last time I dive with Tokyo Scuba, and they were nice and good, but i am also looking for an alternative dive centre, anyone to recommend and also site like Atami elsewhere.

Cheers!
Alrick

[AliKat]

If you can manage it, consider a side trip to Okianwa or Ishagaki or Yonoguni for some diving.

[Jonathan]

Sometimes I have a beer with Patric and friends (but not since I have moved out of Roppongi :( ) but have not really dived with them.

Still not made it to Mikimoto but I am told it is for more advanced divers - but for Japan I'm afraid that is not saying a lot!

Next time you're in Tokyo give me a shout and we will see what can be arranged - there is plenty of nice diving on the Izu Penisular and not just Atami, but it is crowded at this time of year and I tend to take a few months off!! Was diving last month in a 3mm full - no problem! Water temp is around 20 now but heating up fast now the above surface temp is pushing 30 on a regular basis.

Jonathan

[sinners]

I was there last month. Did 4 dives over a weekend at Atami.
It was good, but I was looking to go to other sites, if time permits.

The water was 19 to 21 degrees, to me that is cold...i wore an 3mm with a vest inside and hood. My dive master was Geoff.

Give me your email [mine is alrick.dorett@tequila.com.sg], and when i am there, i'll give you a shout!

I would probably be there in late Aug or early September.

Cheers!
Alrick

[sinners]

AliKat once bubbled...
If you can manage it, consider a side trip to Okianwa or Ishagaki or Yonoguni for some diving.

Is Okinawa far from Tokyo? How long is the train ride?

Cheers!

[Jonathan]

a plane ride....

TJO on the board just got back and gave me a video - grrrrr!

Next year!! I keep saying that but I will make it...

Jonathan

[TJO]

sorry Jonathan...

The capital in Okinawa Naha is 2.5 hours away from Tokyo. I think there are some direct flights from East Asia as well. If you go there and have more than a few days you should go out to the smaller islands. Diving is top class. Estimate USD 40/boat dive (which is cheap compared to Izu).

Yonaguni is far away and offers the most exciting diving.

[sinners]

Thank you for the info.

Know any dive operators there I can hook up with?

Cheers!
Alrick



TJO once bubbled...
sorry Jonathan...

The capital in Okinawa Naha is 2.5 hours away from Tokyo. I think there are some direct flights from East Asia as well. If you go there and have more than a few days you should go out to the smaller islands. Diving is top class. Estimate USD 40/boat dive (which is cheap compared to Izu).

Yonaguni is far away and offers the most exciting diving.

[sunfish]

Jonathan once bubbled...
Sometimes I have a beer with Patric and friends (but not since I have moved out of Roppongi :( ) but have not really dived with them.

Still not made it to Mikimoto but I am told it is for more advanced divers - but for Japan I'm afraid that is not saying a lot!

Jonathan

I resent that remark, Jonathan! ;)

It's MikOmoto, not MikImoto, BTW. If you've done a drift dive or two and are NAUI AOW or thereabouts, you should have little if any problems there. The most spectacular stuff to be found there are the hammerheads, but their peak season is in spring and fall. You'll be a bit early if you are here in August, and you'll just see a more lively version of Atami with better vis :)

I heard that the main island of Okinawa isn't all that, but a boat ride of an hour or so will take you to Kerama, which is home to placidly beautiful coral reefs and colorful fish.

[sinners]

Thank you, so does anyone know a scuba club/school that can take from tokyo?

Cheers!
Alrick




sunfish once bubbled...


I resent that remark, Jonathan! ;)

It's MikOmoto, not MikImoto, BTW. If you've done a drift dive or two and are NAUI AOW or thereabouts, you should have little if any problems there. The most spectacular stuff to be found there are the hammerheads, but their peak season is in spring and fall. You'll be a bit early if you are here in August, and you'll just see a more lively version of Atami with better vis :)

I heard that the main island of Okinawa isn't all that, but a boat ride of an hour or so will take you to Kerama, which is home to placidly beautiful coral reefs and colorful fish.

[crazed_dolphin]

I went diving in Osezaki on Izu a couple of weeks ago. I dived in a 3 mil shorty. I was a bit cold since I've mostly dived in Malaysia, Thailand and Micronesia but I did ok. I got to see some lionfish, moray eels(several varieties), clownfish and etc. It was a lot better than I thought. I'm part of a military dive club near Tokyo and I can get free tanks of air. With a new baby I'm a bit busy but if I can find time I'd be glad to get someone interested in diving air and go diving.

[sinners]

Thank you, that is very kind.
I will take you up on the offer, really soon. I will be in Japan by end of aug or early sep.

My email is alrick.dorett@tequila.com.sg

please email me, so I can keep your contact and call/email you when I am coming/there.

Cheers!




crazed_dolphin once bubbled...
I went diving in Osezaki on Izu a couple of weeks ago. I dived in a 3 mil shorty. I was a bit cold since I've mostly dived in Malaysia, Thailand and Micronesia but I did ok. I got to see some lionfish, moray eels(several varieties), clownfish and etc. It was a lot better than I thought. I'm part of a military dive club near Tokyo and I can get free tanks of air. With a new baby I'm a bit busy but if I can find time I'd be glad to get someone interested in diving air and go diving.

[crazed_dolphin]

Anyone know how to get to Izu from Ebina in Kanagawa? LOL

[Jonathan]

I went diving in Osezaki on Izu a couple of weeks ago

In a PM to Sinners I told him not to go to Ozekzaki this time of year - did you find a spot on the beach or was it covered in o/w students.....

Sunfish - welcome back! Long time no hear.... It's a bit like the difference between British Divers and divers that dive in Britain - the former do it on holiday once a year. This time a year the beaches are full of people doing their o/w to go on holiday - those of you that actually dive all year round are good but I am sure you will agree the others hauled in by the lurkers in Shinjuku are another matter....

Hey TJO - free air! When we going beach diving.....

A slight aside - the viz won't be so great in Okinawa thisweekend. Batten down the hatches folks and ganbarimasu...

Jonathan

[sinners]

Thank you all for the information you have given me on the sites, but does anyone know which operator I should use or has anyone got any recommendations?

Cheers!
Alrick

[Jonathan]

Izu I am not aware of any English speaking operators that have their own boats - mainly because the boats are owned by Japanese fishermen.

You are better off teaming up with a club or instructor that speaks English. You already know Patric, then there is Matt (marscuba) and Toyo that I know of in Tokyo. Toyo is your man for technical stuff - if he's around.

Or you team up with a foreigner that speaks the lingo, like TJO on the board here, or a local that speaks English - when you going to come say hi Sunfish?

Jonathan

[crazed_dolphin]

Jonathan once bubbled...


In a PM to Sinners I told him not to go to Ozekzaki this time of year - did you find a spot on the beach or was it covered in o/w students.....

Jonathan,

The OW students Osezaki stay at the beach right on the main strip next to the parking lot and the dive shops. If you go deeper past Manbo the last dive shop there is a shrine. Go past the shrine for about 10 minutes there is an excellent site. To get to the water you have to walk over about 40 metres of rocks but the place is not crowded. Besides my group of 6 there was perhaps no more than 10 others near this spot.

[sunfish]

Open water certification in Osezaki? Impressive, but it's my u nderstanding that the best diving to be done there are boat dives...and Jonathan's right about the boats, they're mostly chartered fishing boats. Some of the fishermen are commercial divers themselves and can be quite helpful.

[aihfl]

No one's posted here in a while, but I'll go ahead and put up a reply in case it can still help someone.

I haven't been diving in Okinawa since 1997, but the names of two dive operations that keep coming up are Fathoms and Reef Encounters. I've never used either, but from my correspondence with both the owner of Fathoms and local divers on Okinawa, my gut tells me that Fathoms is a tourist trap. Boat dives through Reef Encounters are reportedly Y9000pp, gear included (Fathoms is Y12,500pp). They can also arrange trips to outlying islands. Here are the URLs of both dive operations:

http://www.fathoms.net
http://www.reefencounters.org

[AliKat]

Fathoms was still around when I left in March, but I have heard that Rich Ruth was leaving the island. I never paid that much for one of his boat trips. They were 6-7,000 yen. But then, I had all my own gear too.

[japan-diver]

I have used Reef Encounters for a variety of dives and they are the only shop to use actual dive boats, not chartered fishing boats. They also arrange dives to the southern islands, went to Yonaguni with them last year and had an awesome time.

www.reefencounters.org

[nori1841]

Generally speaking, may be late post

There are few English speaking staffs in local diving centre and diving shop conducting a tour.
I know no one so far.

A Good way to enjoy dive in Japan is to have Japanese and English speaking acquaintance.
There are many Japanese working in the base but it is difficult to obtain proper one's under temp stay.
I mean interpreter is needed.

IZU peninsula

-East shore : car and train are available, JR and Izu-kyu(Izu-express), you can be picked up at the nearist station of a dive site or could be at convienient one.

-West shore : car is recommended

Average Fee : Yen 20,000 , 2 tanks boart dive with rental weights, DM, shower and so on......

Yen 13,000 : shore dive with the same
T's and C's.

Buddy dive is not allowed in many sites except Okinawa pref. (Do not ask me why)

Water Temp. 14 to 25C (winter to summer) so 5mm suit recommended

Others : Zushi, Manazuru

all above areas , clearness is not so good but good coral and fish could be found

Okinawa : Air plane ( from Haneda to respective islands in case of Kantoh area )

has WW level wonderful underwater views compaired to Red Sea, Saipan,Guam........

isolated islands are very good as well

Fee : cheaper than mainland

2 boat : 14,000
2 shore : 10,000

I think a fee is expensive using diving centre

[ericb]

Hey crazed_dolphin you wouldn't be talking about the Bubble Club would you? I was in Yokosuka on the Independence from 93 - 95, some of the best diving out there.

[KadenaJim]

Thank you for the info.

Know any dive operators there I can hook up with?

Cheers!
Alrick
KadenaJim here. There are several excellent scuba lockers here run by the Air Force, Army and Marines. Okinawa diving ranges from easy entry with lots of soft coral and cuddle fish to small hikes over volcanic rock and drops into water that goes from a shelf at 30 feet to drop offs of over 800. Lots of banded sea snakes, lionfish, eels, stonefish and all of the "finding Nemo" cast of characters. Turtles are a regular.
A favorite for local divers is a 1 1/2 hour boat trip to the Kerama Islands. All the military shops are PADI orentied, with TORY (army) also running a NAUI program. There are aslo many Okinawa dive shops run by the locals (more expensive and language can be an issue).

[nori1841]

updating average diving charges

Mainland no guided

A tank : Y2,000
Weights : Y500
Facilities : Y1000
Parking : Y700

Okinawa no guided

A tank : Y1,000 ( or 500)
Weights : Y250
Facilities : Y500
Parking : -

Okinawa guided tour by LDS includes two tanks,weights & facilities

Boart : Y10,000-16,000
Shore : Y9,000

Military rate : cheaper than standard Japanese services

Military club : no info

Isolated Islands : world class , great sites

[Jonathan]

I take it those are US Mil shore diving prices...

[jagfish]

I was just diving for a few weeks in Okinawa
If you hav all your equipment like we did, we were only paying for air (500 Yen) and doing shore dives on the Sunabe wall.

The dive locker in Kadena has really cheap equipent rental and 1 dollar tanks if you can get in with a contact...

JAg

[japan-diver]

Okinawa Diving Prices for Non-military:

Tanks: Y500
Weights/belt: Y350

Guided Dives:
2 tanks boat: Y9000
2 tanks shore: Y6000
full kit rental for guided dives: Y2000

bilingual divemasters/instructors available.

PM for contact details.

[KadenaJim]

Okinawa Diving Prices for Non-military:

Tanks: Y500
Weights/belt: Y350

Guided Dives:
2 tanks boat: Y9000
2 tanks shore: Y6000
full kit rental for guided dives: Y2000

bilingual divemasters/instructors available.

PM for contact details.

Kadena Marina runs a boat year-round on the weekend (weather permitting). Cost is 65.00 american, tank rental is 2.00 per tank. It is unlimited bottom tme, meaning whatever order you get in the water, we don't leave till you surface..then we go to the next spot. If you are not associated with the military or DoD, you need a sponser to sign you up. You must have a current cert card. Tsunami gear (Marine dive shop) also runs occasional boats once the season gets started well.

[Rickg]

crazed_dolphin,

Go to the following URL. It is great but just a word of warning. You have to have the exact name of the train station to get it to work correctly. I use this site all the time when I travel to Tokyo.

http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/

Rickg

[Rickg]

I have used both Fathoms and Reef Encounters within the past year. Fathoms was 6,500 yen for a 2-tank dive using a chartered fishing boat (nice boat roomy, comfortable boat) and Reef Encounter was 9,000 yen using a very nice boat. Both shops took good care of me. Reef Encounters limited us to 50 minutes bottom time maximum per dive and Fathoms gave us more leeway.

I have no complaints about either and would recommend both.

Rickg

[jagfish]

After spending 3 weeks in Okinawa, my personal experience was that Fathoms does not have a good local reputation. This stemmed from the tank hydro forging incident and I understand also resulted in the owner of the dive company being kicked out of PADI and shunned from NAUI as well, which is why that individual only personally certifies in IDEA, or some other organization (as I understad the situation). There is a link on the actual news story floating around somewhere, I've seen it posted once or twice. If someone has it, can they post it again.

I've heard that Fathoms can lead some intersting trips like the cave domes up north, but in my mind, why take a chance with an operator that has a history of conscious diver desception endangerment when there are other alternatives...(assuming the news story and local talk is true).

JAG