quiet_diver
Guest
Myself and Kim and a friend went diving together this past Saturday. It's my second dive day in Japan - in about 8 years! Never had a connection or someone to dive with. I'm still rusty, so it was great to dive with Kim.
Apparently, there aren't many dive operations around Amakusa that have boats, so the boat diving was a real plus. If you want more details about the owner and shop, feel free to PM me. The area is close to Shimoda, on Amakusashima: it's right here (or close): http://tinyurl.com/angdr
The lionfish were gorgeous, as were the kurodai, a fairly large school, sheltering under a rock wisely keeping away from the fisher-folk. Fisher-people are dropped off in the morning, looking forlorn on the rocky outlying atolls (are they, technically, atolls?), to be picked up in the late afternoon--I heard that this 'tour' may cost more per-person than our dive boat (2 dives for 12,000Yen, weights and air incl. - the typical smaller Japanese steel tank size). We were diving in the China Sea, really about perfect weather for the lateness of the season, 22degC air and water temp. Maybe the diving was even better than some Okinawa dives, I heard that day. Perhaps the most exciting was our second boat dive, to a large wrecked ship that once hauled rocks. Lying at about 26m, it was teeming with so many fish around it sometimes you couldn't see anything - agi, russet-something fish, campachi, also lionfish, numerous others. The site isn't marked (there used to be an underwater buoy), but the Instructor/dive op owner knew its exact location - a neat trick. It was quite beautiful - both dives actually.
I haven't done any shore diving yet, though there are some good accessible sites. One small beach near where we launched from rents tanks (don't know the price there). There's a lot of tidal action, so it's important to study that and the currents - it was quite mild, for our dives, though returning on the open flat-bottomed skiff before lunch, our butts were liberally smashed by the wave chop. By 2pm when we went out again the sea was pretty calm. Mostly sunny blue sky too.
My last dive this season - glad to be diving again.
Apparently, there aren't many dive operations around Amakusa that have boats, so the boat diving was a real plus. If you want more details about the owner and shop, feel free to PM me. The area is close to Shimoda, on Amakusashima: it's right here (or close): http://tinyurl.com/angdr
The lionfish were gorgeous, as were the kurodai, a fairly large school, sheltering under a rock wisely keeping away from the fisher-folk. Fisher-people are dropped off in the morning, looking forlorn on the rocky outlying atolls (are they, technically, atolls?), to be picked up in the late afternoon--I heard that this 'tour' may cost more per-person than our dive boat (2 dives for 12,000Yen, weights and air incl. - the typical smaller Japanese steel tank size). We were diving in the China Sea, really about perfect weather for the lateness of the season, 22degC air and water temp. Maybe the diving was even better than some Okinawa dives, I heard that day. Perhaps the most exciting was our second boat dive, to a large wrecked ship that once hauled rocks. Lying at about 26m, it was teeming with so many fish around it sometimes you couldn't see anything - agi, russet-something fish, campachi, also lionfish, numerous others. The site isn't marked (there used to be an underwater buoy), but the Instructor/dive op owner knew its exact location - a neat trick. It was quite beautiful - both dives actually.
I haven't done any shore diving yet, though there are some good accessible sites. One small beach near where we launched from rents tanks (don't know the price there). There's a lot of tidal action, so it's important to study that and the currents - it was quite mild, for our dives, though returning on the open flat-bottomed skiff before lunch, our butts were liberally smashed by the wave chop. By 2pm when we went out again the sea was pretty calm. Mostly sunny blue sky too.
My last dive this season - glad to be diving again.
It's worth another look though but would require some proper planning to do properly.
