Dive center Izu

[Sollelis]

I planning to stay a week in Japan in the beginning of November,hoping to do a lot of diving in IOP.

I have mailed five different dive centers so far and none of them have bothered replying

Does anyone have a dive center they could recommend I try contacting next, I'm looking for some one that would have a customer for six-eight days?

 

[japan-diver]

You may be having a problem with few of the dive ops in Izu speak English and that may be why you are not getting an answer. There are a few foreign run dive services from the Tokyo area such as Discovery Divers Tokyo and Mar Scuba to name a few but they also have real jobs so generally only dive on the weekends. If you would like to hop a short flight to Okinawa we can set you up with some great reefs and wrecks for week- we dive daily and in Nov you can enjoy some very warm water down our way.

 

[wapati8]

I don't have a lot of experience setting up diving trips to Izu as yet but I want to start going. I live in Tokyo and if you put together a weekend trip in November and I am around I would like to go.

 

[wapati8]

The weekend of Sunday August 12th I went down to Futoh on the Izu peninsula. We dove with a dive shop called Diving Instructors in Futoh. they had a special going... two dives for 8,800 yen per person and they provided a modest lunch and dive guide. A fluent speaking Japanese friend made the reservations on the phone. My basic spoken Japanese was good enough when I got there. Beware there is a 100% cancellation fee. Diving Instructors took us down to Kawabama point diving center. They loaded all of our gear up in their van. We walked a couple hundred meters from their dive shop down to the ocean and when we got there our gear bags were laid out on the boat ramp. At the top of the boat ramp several hundred tanks of air were lined up and we picked one out and set up our gear. Some dive centers on the Izu Peninsula have a cement ramp or stairs with a cable or rope to hold on to for shore entry. That's how Kawabama point is at Futoh. In the busy season people literally are lined up to enter the water. I experienced this at Kawabama point. Everyone had their masks and fins on and were holding on to a rope and side stepping slowly down a cement ramp. It was a bright clear day with flat seas. I asked my guide if it was ok if I put my mask and fins on in the water. He said sure. So ignoring just shy of 100 dirty looks we walked past the line. We put a little air in our BCs, sat down in the water and put on our masks and fins, rolled over and leisurely swam off. We saw beautiful lion fish, lots and lots of eels, squid eggs, many many different kinds of fish and some lobster on that trip. We had maybe 10-15 meters of visibility and the water was about 30 celcius. It was a great experience, just a lot more than I would have paid for a couple shore dives outside of Japan. I will say the dives were "fun dives" and felt very much like discover scuba diving dives.

The dive center had very nice clean bathrooms and showers and some great natural hot spring baths to soak in. At Futoh the natural hot spring baths are in large boats (which have been converted to bath tubs) that overlook an ocean side cliff. Many of the dive centers have picnic tables to set up your gear and have food at. Some have restaurants and some have swimming pools. One of the friends diving with me was an instructor from New Zealand but that didn't matter. The dive center didn't want us going in the water our first time there without a guide. Izu Ocean Park wouldn't even let us make a reservation there because we didn't have our own dive guide and there were not any available. Diving Instructors is in a traditional style Japanese house. They will rent you a tatami room with futon to sleep on for about 4,000 yen a night. They offer all levels of PADI instruction there in Japanese. They don't speak english well at all and they were a little concerned we wouldn't be able to communicate. Luckily my basic Japanese was sufficient for the diving. They even sat with us after the dives and showed us in a guide book all the fish we had seen.

My experience trying to just rent tanks in eastern Izu to go buddy diving was so frustrating. My second dive trip in August was with Discovery Divers Tokyo and it was a very pleasant experience. Those two dives were boat dives in Atami and very enjoyable.

As many have said trying to go diving in Japan can be frustrating and expensive. If you don’t speak Japanese It can almost be impossible, and if you don’t have a diving buddy who speaks Japanese and knows the ins and outs of diving in Japan, you may just get frustrated and give up. I have some Japanese friends who are divers who only dive when they go on vacation outside of Japan, they are really surprised to learn that I am trying to go diving in Japan. So if you are new to Tokyo, or to diving, and or you don’t speak Japanese, but you would like to dive in the Tokyo area the best place to start is to join a diving group or club who are friendly to people who don’t speak Japanese.

Here are the ones who are active in Tokyo.

Welcome to Discovery Divers Tokyo
Mar Scuba - The Zen of Diving
About TED - Tokyo European Divers
DiveinTokyo ScubaDives PADIdivecenter SchoolandizuPeninsuladiveTour

I wouldn’t advise just heading down to a dive center without making arrangements beforehand. Be aware that you can’t just rent a tank and bop down to a dive site. You have to be familiar with the dive shops. If you have never dove there before and you are not going with a dive group they will make you go with one of their dive guides (if one is available). It doesn’t matter if you are an instructor and have a million logged dives, they won’t let you rent tanks or enter the ocean without their guide if you have not dove there before. If you don’t have a member of your group who can act as the guide and one is not available from a local dive shop you won’t get to go diving that day.

The advantage to going with one of the groups is that you will be with experienced divers who know the system and can act as your “guide” at the Japanese dive sites. The fishermen control the ocean here in east Izu. If you have all your own gear and somehow managed to bring down your own full tanks and you try to dive without going through one of the local dive shops... you might find yourself being harassed by local fishermen. I was told by an American friend who has a lot of experience diving in Japan that Japanese fishermen in Eastern Izu have been known to pelt divers with rocks whom the fishermen thought had entered the water without paying the requisite ocean usage fees and who did not have the approval of the local dive access point to enter the water.

If you speak a little Japanese and you are brave you can try your hand at buddy diving in Japan. As stated earlier to rent tanks and dive in any given location you must prove you have dove there before. Some sites issue membership cards which indicate you are familiar with their site. Once you have the card or are known to the shop owner you can rent tanks there. As mentioned you will have to pay an ocean access fee as well which goes to the fishermen's union. Most places rent tanks for about 2-3 thousand yen, and the facility fee+ocean access fee is around 2-3 thousand yen as well. So if you don’t need to rent gear and have an access card... two buddy dives from shore are going to cost you around 9,000 yen per person. Some dive shops run special deals that cost 8 to 10 thousand yen for two guided shore dives but usually you have to speak Japanese and gear rental is extra. Boat dives seem to run 15 to 30 thousand yen. Services vary but at that price you may get a guide and lunch. Gear rental is extra. The key is getting in with the dive centers that rent the tanks and collect the ocean access fee (the payment to the fishermen's union). Once they trust you diving gets a little cheaper and easier. At this point I am happy to pay to dive with the group. But I did go through a little effort to compile a list of dive centers and dive shops within driving distance of Tokyo.

Finding someone to go diving with, when the dive groups aren't in town, and making arrangements to go diving is not simple but it can be rewarding.

 

[busybugs]

Wapati8,
Thanks for such a detailed description of your trip! Although I have been based in Japan a long time, I have done very few dives in Japan. The most popular place I have been to is Osezaki which is probably has hectic as I.O.P. Osezaki has a marine use fee of 340. All of the shops/hotels have a day use fee (toilets, hot showers, gear washing basins) which varies from between 1,000 and 1,500. Of course, tank rentals are available as well (1700 ish). That being said, I totally agree with you the importance of going with a Japanese diver for your first visit at any of the popular sites.

You might want to give the west coast of Izu a try!

 

[wapati8]

I am going on an Overnight trip to Osezaki this weekend. I hope to get in 4 or 5 dives (including one night dive). We are staying at and diving with dive resort Manbo. I'll let you know how it goes.

---------- Post Merged at 12:43 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 12:41 PM ----------

I am trying to put together a list of dive centers and places to go that are reasonable options for a day trip or a weekend trip from Tokyo. I really like diving with Discovery Divers Tokyo but unfortunately my schedule doesn't always match up with their trip schedule.

 

[busybugs]

I look forward to hearing about your trip. After all the rain the last few days, I am sure the temperature has dropped significantly! Hopefully that will start to thin out the crowds. I am hoping to make one more day trip before the wetsuit season is finished. Thinking about going to Arari at the end of the month for a boat and beach dive. (Never done a boat dive in Japan but I hear that dives ten to be on the shortish side)

 

[japan-diver]

You all need to come visit Okinawa where tank rental for beach dives are easy!

 

[Mar Scuba]

Some dive centers on the Izu Peninsula have a cement ramp or stairs with a cable or rope to hold on to for shore entry. That's how Kawabama point is at Futoh. In the busy season people literally are lined up to enter the water. I experienced this at Kawabama point.

First of all, thanks for posting our details.

The dive site in Futo you are referring to is Yokobama, it has the same kanji as Yokohama.

There are very few dive sites in Izu that allow "buddy diving" without a guide, Osezaki is one of them, and the most popular.

In Hayama, there is open unrestricted access to the beach and you can bring your own tanks/gear and go for a dive there without hassle.

 

[busybugs]

Mar,
Thanks for the details. Is there a list of open sites in Izu?
Busybugs