Hello all
I have been living in Japan for the last 14 years. I have been a diver since 1987. I was completely happy to be an AOW diver and never considered furthering my diver education. I never thought that in Japan there were diving schools or services for people whose first language is English. During my time here I would go diving outside Japan every time I had a vacation or a business trip. I always thought of Japan at a place where people work all the time. I never thought that there would be any good dives around here.
One day I was searching around on the net and I stummbled across an "English speaking diving group" website. I was really happy about that! I thought, ok I will go for my Rescue Diver course. After that I once again I thought this is enough. But later I started to think what about going for my Divemaster and other Pro certifications. The group that had instructed me on my Rescue course were more of a NAUI organization, whereas I was more interested in going forward as a PADI diver. This in no way means that one organization is better than the other, it was just my preference.
Now I had to find a place that would be able to train me and help me to achieve my diving goals. After about 2 weeks I found Mar Scuba. I contacted them and talked to the owner, Matt, and agreed to take the DM course from him. He seemed very friendly and seemed like he would be some one that I could really get along with. That was really important to me and helped me to make my decision.
After I finished my DM course I wanted to take the next logical step towards my Instructor qualification. At that time Mar Scuba was not offering the course. I told Matt that I wanted to keep training and further my diver education. At that point Matt was on a mission! He worked very hard to contact a Japanese PADI Course Director who could also speak English. Matt worked out a way that Mar Scuba could offer an AI and OWSI course in English in Japan! It had never been done before!
During the AI course we all gathered together at one of the other Mar Scuba members apartment for the class work. Matt had arrived earlier and set up a projector and screen for us to use for presentations. He also brought snack and sodas for everyone.
As the course progressed Matt took the time to explain everything to us and made sure that no corners were cut. By the end of the course we all felt confident and ready for the pool and OW sessions and presentations.
The following weekend we went to the pool location and spent the day going over our pool presentations and demonstrations.
During the course Matt would tell some of the other members that were playing the role of students to pretend that they were having a problem. This let the AI candidate learn to correctly evaluate the students areas for improvement. It was very helpful to me as a candidate.
After the pool sessions, Matt did an evaluation of our performance. He told us what we did well and what we needed to do to improve our scores.
The next day we went out to the ocean to do our OW presentations and skills. Each of us went through our teaching briefing and then we swam out and did our underwater sessions. After that we all went to a Japanese style resturant. During our time there we took our final exams. Every one passed the course!
At the end of October, we all started our OWSI course. This course was very intense. We fine tuned the skills that we learned the AI course. During this course the PADI Course Director was looking at our performance and giving us tips. Matt was teaching the course's book work portion while the Course Director was watching. The Course Director would also teach us certain parts of the book work part.
After we finished the book portion we again arranged for all of us to go to the pool and the ocean for the confined water and open water sections of the course. Unfortunately I got really ill with a foot infection and I could not attend the confined water and open water portions with the rest of my classmates. Everyone passed their confined water and open water portions with flying colors. I still needed to complete those parts. At this time, Matt once again helped me out by helping to re-arrange my last tasks. Finally at the end of November I was able to complete my OWSI course and pass everything. Now I am hoping to take my IE in March in Okinawa.
Mar Scuba did such an excellent job on preparing these courses and doing all the logistics. The Mar Scuba crew is commited to making sure that you get the best diver education AND customer care in English. The courses that I have taken with Mar Scuba have been hard but they stick by you and make you feel comfortable and help you to achieve your goals.
Regards
JD
