Just back from spending Golden Week on the Ogasawara Islands (also called Bonin Islands), 1000km south of Tokyo and still considered part of Tokyo city. Here is a quick trip report and some pictures.
Our party of 8 departed on the Ogasawara Maru on Saturday at 10am, starting the 25 hour ferry ride from Takeshiba that is currently the only way to reach the the Islands. At 11am on Sunday we arrived on Chichijima and were met by by our dive shop (Urishiman @ http://www.urashiman.com/) and our accommodation owner (Pandanus).
After dropping our gear off and a quick bite of lunch we were off for a checkout dive in the afternoon. Everyones gear and "skills" had survived intact over the winter, and we were treated to some pretty fish, including this Japanese Pygmy Angelfish
Dinner was in Pandanus, which is a delightful house run an an oba chan in her 80's who cooked us big and tasty dinners every evening. During the course of the week we were to find out she (and her late husband) were the very first settlers on Ogasawara after Japan retook control, that her husband built the house we were staying in with his bare hands, and she showed us pictures of the boats he constructed in the same fashion.
Her original 13 day trip on a small boat to settle on the uninhabited island made us rethink our grumbles about the cramped and overcrowded ferry from Tokyo!
The next day dawned bright and sunny, as was the whole week. We were limited to 2 dives a day, but the boat cruised around the islands and the sun bathing, whale watching and dolphins more than made up for this. More pretty fish, including a "Wrought Iron Butterfly fish" or "Work of Art Butterfly fish" depending on who you believe
Next day we took off on a 2 hour ride to the Keita Islands, in search of tuna. After the bumpy ride followed one of the highlights of my diving so far - dropping in on some sharks, then inching our way through a wide fissure to "Tuna hole" - hard to describe but a hollowed out section of rock, 100ft across by 40 feet deep populated by a large school of tuna circling and circling.
We spent an entranced 20 minutes watching this, and getting to within a few feet of some big tuna - something I never considered likely. After we backed out, and saw more sharks
we hung at 5m on the safety stop and listened to the humpback whales singing their haunting songs not so far away.
A week's diving in the clear waters followed, and more sharks, dolphins and whales were seen - as well as countless lobsters, octopus's, parrotfish, groupers, more tuna and even a bull ray
Alas, all good things have to come to an end, and while our gear was drying off ont he final Saturday we rented some moped's and did a tour of the island. The highest peak is 317m and affords a wonderful view
When we came to leave, it seemed the whole island turned up to wave us off, and all the dive boats and various other craft flanked the ferry for half an hour or so as we steamed out, waving, playing music, shouting final farewells and then jumping en-masse into the deep blue ocean and carrying on waving from there (them, not us - sadly). We even saw a pair of whales surface, get some air and then wave us goodbye with their massive tails.
Our party of 8 departed on the Ogasawara Maru on Saturday at 10am, starting the 25 hour ferry ride from Takeshiba that is currently the only way to reach the the Islands. At 11am on Sunday we arrived on Chichijima and were met by by our dive shop (Urishiman @ http://www.urashiman.com/) and our accommodation owner (Pandanus).
After dropping our gear off and a quick bite of lunch we were off for a checkout dive in the afternoon. Everyones gear and "skills" had survived intact over the winter, and we were treated to some pretty fish, including this Japanese Pygmy Angelfish
Dinner was in Pandanus, which is a delightful house run an an oba chan in her 80's who cooked us big and tasty dinners every evening. During the course of the week we were to find out she (and her late husband) were the very first settlers on Ogasawara after Japan retook control, that her husband built the house we were staying in with his bare hands, and she showed us pictures of the boats he constructed in the same fashion.
Her original 13 day trip on a small boat to settle on the uninhabited island made us rethink our grumbles about the cramped and overcrowded ferry from Tokyo!
The next day dawned bright and sunny, as was the whole week. We were limited to 2 dives a day, but the boat cruised around the islands and the sun bathing, whale watching and dolphins more than made up for this. More pretty fish, including a "Wrought Iron Butterfly fish" or "Work of Art Butterfly fish" depending on who you believe
Next day we took off on a 2 hour ride to the Keita Islands, in search of tuna. After the bumpy ride followed one of the highlights of my diving so far - dropping in on some sharks, then inching our way through a wide fissure to "Tuna hole" - hard to describe but a hollowed out section of rock, 100ft across by 40 feet deep populated by a large school of tuna circling and circling.
We spent an entranced 20 minutes watching this, and getting to within a few feet of some big tuna - something I never considered likely. After we backed out, and saw more sharks
we hung at 5m on the safety stop and listened to the humpback whales singing their haunting songs not so far away.
A week's diving in the clear waters followed, and more sharks, dolphins and whales were seen - as well as countless lobsters, octopus's, parrotfish, groupers, more tuna and even a bull ray
Alas, all good things have to come to an end, and while our gear was drying off ont he final Saturday we rented some moped's and did a tour of the island. The highest peak is 317m and affords a wonderful view
When we came to leave, it seemed the whole island turned up to wave us off, and all the dive boats and various other craft flanked the ferry for half an hour or so as we steamed out, waving, playing music, shouting final farewells and then jumping en-masse into the deep blue ocean and carrying on waving from there (them, not us - sadly). We even saw a pair of whales surface, get some air and then wave us goodbye with their massive tails.
