I just got back from an Okinawan diving vaction. I left on 17 Jul 08 and flew to Ishigaki, (We stayed in a hotel near the ferry port) but we flew into a typhoon. That afternoon we went to Taketomi where we went searching for star sand. The typhoons in Japan are no problem as all of the buildings in Japan are made of reinforced concrete. That night the typoon passed over us. After Ishigaki we flew to Yonaguni, Japan (on the 19th of Japan) the most western island in Japan just of the coast of Taiwan. I went to dive the ruins of Yonaguni, but due to the recent conditions of the typhoon, SaWes dive shop stated that the sea conditions and the currents were to strong to dive the monument. Instead we dove just outside the port for 3 dives a day for 3 days. We stayed in the penthouse suite of the Irfume hotel on the north side of the Yonaguni. The penthouse had a Japanese bar and the bedrooms in the back. The port is on the north side of the runway. The dive boat the Shota II was a very nice dive boat with an upper deck and entry either giant stride or rolling back entry. On the back of Shota II there are two ladders to climb out on the stern. The visibility was about 20m or 60 feet. Features are the white sand bottom and numberous sea turtles. We also saw a 5' white tip shark.
On the 23rd we flew to back to Ishigaki, and then took the ferry to Iromote Island. The dive shop (Enysea) picked us up at the ferry port and took us to our bed and breakfest (Ihara Guest House). My wife and I thoughly enjoyed the guest house. The diving on Iromote was oustanding with 100' visibility. The first day I dove with 2 large manta rays, that came so close that I could of touched them. Other dives were awsome as well. The dive boat was LaRena and it can hold twenty divers. We had ten divers so it was comfortable. The water temps were 82F to 84F so I did not wear a wet suit. The hard corals were beutiful, and adbundant. The colors of the hard corals are dazzeling. There were many fish, and many caves to explore. The host of our guest house fixed us fresh lobster on the first night and constantly worked to make menu's according to our tastes. Neither my wife nor I speak but a couple of words of Japanese, and we found it easy to change flights, catch cabs, ferrys, and eat with out many language barriers. I feel I would have more problem speaking Spanish in Mexico than speaking Japanese in Japan. The Japanese (divers, hosts, and diveshops) were eager to engage us with there knowledge of English. Okinawa is truely a world class diving location.
I have been told that there is a Marine outpost on Yonaguni, can anyone confirm this?
