Diving in Japan is #$%% frustrating...

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

I am sorry to response so late. I have spent holidays in Maldive and dive with German and U.K. divers there.

Well, I guess diving shop denied just because language problem and safety reason. A lot of Japanese divemasters can not speak foreign language, so it is difficult to make briefing before diving. However,I as a guest, have dove with so many divers from foreign countries in Okinawa area.



I am so glad if you know that Japanese divers welcome you.
Happy diving in Japan.

Well actually I got my Japanese friend to phone up so they didn't even know that it wasn't a Japanese who wasn't diving with them. But anyway I am sure I will find some good people to dive with. Thanks!

 

[Geoff_H]

I've dived with a dozen or more dive shops around Japan, and didn't have anything like the problems you've had Antarctic-Adventurer. Most dives have been 45 minutes to an hour, depending on depth/nitrogen loading and conditions (temperature, current etc)... although I have seen poorly skilled divers here, I've also seen them everywhere else I have dived too.

Could be a Kansai specific problem I guess, I have never dived in that region - I think I have about 200 dives in Japanese waters - mostly Kanto and Kyushu/Okinawa as well as two a couple of trips out to Ogasawara (technically Kanto I believe!!)

 

[Jonnyspecial]

Sorry, replying to this string a bit after the fact:

I've been living in and diving in Japan for 12 years - I started diving after getting here.
I've gone from OW to 2Star Instructor [CMAS], with a lot of diving - fun and work-related - in Japan or with Japanese tourists when I was travelling in Asia-Pacific or where ever.

I'm very fluent in Japanese, have permanent residency here, and my wife is Japanese, so I clearly don't have a racist bone in my body. Really, I don't!!! :->

As a result, I read all the previous posts on this topic with interest.

I have found Japanese to be both very risk-adverse and very groupist - as a result, one finds them in closer groups, close to the guide, and behind the curve when it comes to developments that _might_ [or should! :->] be considered risky, like nitrox, tech, cave, deco, etc.

Risk-adverse means a greater use of guides and greater dependence on the guide than I've found diving in other Asian countries or Canada. Perhaps this is why AA found some shops offered shorter dives, the thinking being "why dive to the dive table's margins?"

To be clear, I've never experience a shop that preferred a 40 minute dive for the reasons AA explained. I'm just suggesting another take on the subject.

When you have a group in which the members are gathered too closely together, coral gets bumped or stepped on, heads get bumped with tanks, masks get finned off, and so on.
That I _have_ experienced/observed [I had my mask finned off in Palau when diving with a large group of Japanese...] when diving as a tourist.

As a result, I've found it best to get off the boat first to put a bit of space between myself and the group and hang a bit off to either side, or enter last, again hanging off to either side. Entering with the group is not the best thing.

So I share AA's frustration with a bad dive experience.

I've also found a generation gap - a lot of the ol'timers still set up their gear like it was 20,30 years ago, with gauges dangling, cigarettes in their mouths until putting on their fins on the transom/beach, and a little less ecoawareness than is currently the norm.
Conversely, I've found younger divers to be "on par" with current norms.

Concerning commercial supply of air, I think I prefer knowing that the person filling my tanks passed a standardized set exam in order to pump what is going into my body.

Finally, as an instructor and while guiding, I feel I've helped my clients, of any nationality, to learn good eco-friendly dive practices, and I hope that when I'm travelling as a tourist, my hopefully ecofriendly actions speak louder than words.

Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[Jonnyspecial]

One more point, this about dive times:

During the couple of years I was instructing/diving in Tanegashima, Kagoshima Pref [where the rocket launch center is located] we often dove at Urata Beach, one of the top 88 in Japan.
It is a beautiful, sheltered bay with 100s of varieties of flora/fauna after a white sand entry, and relatively shallow - 6-9m in most parts - so our dive times were often 80-90 minutes.
An amazing place to dive long, relaxed dives.

At one point, AA wrote: "If you stay within your limits and are not very deep for long you can easily spend over an hour underwater and be within ND limits."

I suggest you hit the books and review your dive tables - you'll never have enough air [on a single tank, certainly] to last long enough to exceed NDL on shallow dives.

Anyway, if anyone dives with me, they get as long in the water as they want as long as they have enough air, they won't exceed NDLs, and their training meets conditions which are, in turn, acceptable.

Cheers

 

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

One more point, this about dive times:


At one point, AA wrote: "If you stay within your limits and are not very deep for long you can easily spend over an hour underwater and be within ND limits."

I suggest you hit the books and review your dive tables - you'll never have enough air [on a single tank, certainly] to last long enough to exceed NDL on shallow dives.

Hi Jonny,

thanks for your reply. Good to hear another's take on diving here.

One thing though, you picked me up for something I said and then said the same exact thing! Perhaps you misread my statement. I said "and be WITHIN limits". I.e. I realise that you don't have enough air to exceed the limits on a shallow dive with a single tank. I can get around 100 minutes out of a 12 litre tank with a normal profile down to 25m with the final 30 minutes around 10m on a good day. But once you come shallower than 10m, naturally you have a long, long time down there

 

[Jonnyspecial]

AA,

Sorry for the misread.
I hope you get the great dives your looking for.:cool2: