Japanese Local Knowledge

[bill22]

We've made a couple of trips to Ita Beach south of Cape Ose on the west coast of the Izu pennisula. From Yokosuka we spent around 1600 yen on tolls. 700 yen for parking. I believe in the summer they charge 300 yen per diver. In the winter it's only parking. Only other costs will be gas which will vary depending on what you're driving. The drive (if you don't get lost) is between 3-4 hours from Yokosuka (south of Yokohama) We went right off the beach. There is a fairly substantial pier there and a local dive shop that runs dives and classes from there. We head down to the south end and enter the water there. We try to avoid getting in anyones way.

The entry is over rocks, but we only have to make our way about 20-30 feet before we're in the water. It drops off fairly quickly. Pretty nice fish life, lots of morays. I've even seen dragon morays both time I've been there. It drops down to over a 100 feet. Rocks, corals... vis has been good both times that I've been there, 50ft+. Water temp the end of September was mid 70's. Water temp last weekend was mid 50's.

Don't ask me how to get there. The first time that I went one of our Japanese club members was driving. The second time I was able to find my way back with a combination of GPS and memory. The GPS got us in the general area and I was able to get us the rest of the way from memory. I think my friend set his GPS when he was there. If anyone is interested let me know, and I'll see if I can get the coordinates from him.

 

[bill22]

Another great spot is Hayama on the Miura Pennisula about 50 kilometers south of Tokyo. I wouldn't consider it an entry for beginners, but for experienced divers who are used to shore entries here in Japan (rocks, wading, swimming, to get to dive site), it's a really nice dive.

I'll attach a few photos, that should give people an idea of what they'll see and what the condtions are.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

I read your post about diving in Okinawa and am wondering if you could help me out. I am trying to decide on a trip to Sapporo for snowboarding or Okinawa for diving with special hopes to run into either mantas in Ishigaki or hammerheads in Yonaguni. My dates are from March 13-17. I was told that that time is pretty windy around those islands and so the chances are rare to see either of those. Do you know anything about this? Thanks.

You can snow board in better places in the USA, come to Okinawa, Japan. I saw two stingrays yesterday. In March I saw a large eagle ray. Feb - March is the prefered time to go to Yanguni to see the hammer heads. There is only one place in the world to see Yanguni, you can snow board any where that has snow. Reasons to dive Okinawa, vs going snow boarding.

10. Snowbording you must where a snow suit
9. Okinawa you can where a bathing suit 80F 100 ft Vis
8. Snowboarding you can break your leg.
7. Diving Yanguni you can get high on excitement along with hundreds of hammerheads
6. Falling while snowbording you can snow down your pants
5. scuba diving in Okinawa well make you feel warm all over especially if you pee up side down.
4. Snowbording gives you a thrill of soaring down a mountain
3. Yanaguni gives you a thrill of soaring past the oldest civilized buildings on the face of the planet. Currents are so strong it is recomended not to dive with a snorkle as the current might rip your mask off your face.
2. Hot chocolate in a smokey beerstube
1. Tropical umbrella drinks on a white sand beach watching the waves crash in during sunset.

The choise is yours wether you enter the water or not.

"From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free."
- Jacques Yves Cousteau -

 

[YetiUSMC]

I got certified on an island just East of Iwakuni, Oishima, at Katazoe Beach. It is about an hour drive from the bridge on the western end that joins it to the main land of Japan. The beach is actually a spa/resort that is very friendly to divers. There are restrooms and fresh water lines. There is a good sized gazebo on the beach where we staged our gear and found it was all untouched when we returned from our dives. I understand that if you do not arrive early in the summer months, you will pay for parking. No dive shops, as for food, we stopped at the local 7 and holdings and picked up some grub for the day. As for the dive, it was cold, about 62 C in May. Sandy bottom that has sparce kelp. Two types of jellyfish that were very abundant, one looks like a breast implant for lack of better description. The other has brown stripes and pulls quite a long trail of tentacles. This guy was nasty as our instructor happened to get one tentacles across the face. Once you got deeper, they were no longer an issue. Vis was decent on one of the days, about 20 feet. There is a small rock at about 15 ft depth, maybe 50-60 meters from the beach. Cross over the wall and your depth will go down to 40 ft, good vis here as well. We did not go much deeper, as it was our open water course. Many fish were spotted, an octopus and large snails. We did witness one fishing boat come screaming through the are near our dive buoy, we were all on the beach at the time, but just somthing to look out for. I will definately go back here just to check other areas along the beach. If you look on Google Earth, Katazoe Beach is located 33 degrees 54' 01.07 North, 132 degrees 21' 55.50 East. My version has the beach very fuzzy, hope yours is better.

 

[YetiUSMC]

Fukuoka
For those of you that don't know, Fukuoka is the most northern province on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu - it's where I live. Just to the north of Fukuoka city. jutting out into Hakata bay, there is a penisular that expands into a small island: Shikano-shima (shima or jima is the Japanese for island). This is my local dive site. It's a beach dive from a small stony beach with an easy entry/exit point that is protected by a large outcropping of rock. The site has no facilities, no water or shop, so you have to take everything you need with you. However, it's free, and it's tolerated by the local fishermen (something quite unusual in Japan). It does get used by a lot of the dive shops from Fukuoka, and is where many people do their basic O/W training.
From the entry point there is a fixed chain on the floor which runs out for about 75 meters to an underwater bouy at a depth of 5 meters. This is Point 1 and it is mainly next to this point that the instructors teach their students. The sea bed is covered with rocks with occasional patches of heavy, gritty sand - with quite a lot of sea-weed and sea-urchins - this helps a lot to teach the value of good bouyancy skills! Around Point1 - anything from 100 meters to about 350 meter - are several other points that are also marked with bouys. These points provide a great opportunity for navigation practice. These tend to be larger rock formations that reach from the sea bed up to the surface (or just below) the average depths here tend to be between 10 and 12 meters. These formations provide interesting walls to swim around - with lots of small crevises and overhangs to explore. There is a good variety of fish and nudi's all over the site. I've seen Lionfish, Groupers, Scorpionfish, Squid, Octopus, Fugu as well as many smaller fish in abundance. If the sea is calm the visibility can be very good - up to 25/30 meters maybe more: if the sea is a bit rougher the visibility can drop to around 5 meters. Water temperatures range from around 10C in the winter to about 26C in the summer (last weekend it was 24C). There is never a current that I have noticed, although
While this is not really a dive that I would travel especially to do (we have Okinawa for that ) - it's a great dive if you live locally or happen to be in Fukuoka. If anyone is in the area and wants to go - let me know, and I'll show you around!

Yamaguchi
Yamaguchi is the most southern province on the main island of Honshu. On the northern coastline there is another small island called Omi-shima. I've only been there once as it's about 200 km from where I live. On the northern side of the island is a small bay with a rocky volcanic headland on the right side of the bay. The main dive area is around this area - starting out from the beach. This site has some facilities. There is an air-fill station on site as well as rental showers, and a couple of small shops and a snack bar. There are also a few rental beach chalets - so it's possible to stay if you want to. The one time that I went the visibilty wasn't so good - about 7 or 8 meters, and there were a lot of jellyfish in the shallower water. Swimming out from the beach the sea bed gradually drops away - it's mainly sand with sea grasses at first. When you have gone far enough - about 150 meters - the rocks begin. They are very jumbled and provide many channels, small swim thru's etc. There is also supposed to be a small cavern somewhere - but we didn't find it the time I went! The sea bed is at about 20/22 meters at the bottom - but occasionally you are forced to swim over large rocks that will take you up to 15 or 10 meters. It's very much a maze so it's necessary to have good navigational skills if you don't have a guide (we didn't - except for my Japanese instructor friend who'd been there twice before) The types of fish etc were similar to that in Fukuoka - in fact the whole dive was quite similar - except it's much bigger and a lot deeper. It's advisable to have a torch with you for the swim-thru's. All in all I enjoyed the dive - it's not that difficult a dive - but it's not for the complete beginner. Again, I probably wouldn't come from Tokyo to do it - but occasionally it's a change for us to go somewhere a little more challenging than Shikano-shima.

For now I'm going to leave my site descriptions like this. I have been to Okinawa several times, but I'll leave that to people that live there to tell you about. If they miss out any of my favorite Okinawan sites - I'll add them in later!

I am interested in diving the Fukuoka, Shikano-shima spot. Could you tell me a little bt more about it's location so I can try to map it on Google Earth? Is it on the North end, South end, etc. Sounds like an interesting site that would not require a real long road trip to get to! Thanks!

 

[Kim]

I am interested in diving the Fukuoka, Shikano-shima spot. Could you tell me a little bt more about it's location so I can try to map it on Google Earth? Is it on the North end, South end, etc. Sounds like an interesting site that would not require a real long road trip to get to! Thanks!

If you look at a map of Fukuoka you should easily see a small island across the bay to the north at the end of a very narrow penisular - that's Shika-no-shima. as you reach the end of th last very narrow bit of road (only sea on the left, and a wider beach and sea on the right) you "arrive" at the island itself. There's one road that goes completely around the coast of the whole island - you need to turn right onto it to get onto the east side of the island. The site is a couple of kilometers along that road. At the weekend you should see cars parked and people on the small beach diving. (You need to look over the sea wall to see them.
I've never done it but I'll try to get a screen shot from Google Earth and post it for you.
Here:s a shot of the site itself:

This is taken at around high tide - the arrow line describes the entry. Theres a chain/rope you can follow down to a bouy at 5 meters.

I'll see if I can get some Google Earth images for you.....

 

[Kim]

Here you go.......

You need to check wind direction before you can dive here. If it's from the North to the East it's generally not possible to dive.

 

[hiromike95]

If you can 't go all the way to Okinawa or the Izu Islands, then Wakayama (Shirahama) in Southern Honshu (Southernmost point on Honshu) and Kochi (Kashiwajima) on Shikoku Island may be more accessible. I haven't been to Wakayama yet, but Kochi offers table corals and a fair selection of small reef fish and lion fish. Diving is good along whole south/southwest side of Shikoku.

I live in Kyoto now and hope to visit Shirahama, soon.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

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.

Yonaguni Island, Okinawa, Japan

Ippon-Ishi is out of the port to the right. I dove to 95 feet for 34 minutes and saw a sea turtle. The water temp was 81F, and we dove with yoke steel 80's. With a 3mm wetsuit I used 3lbs of weight.

Noridai is also out of the port to the right. I dove to 86 feet for 34 minutes. No major sitings on this dive other than coral reefs, and white sand bottom.

North Airport is out of the port to the immediate left. I dove for 61 feet for 33 minutes. I saw a 5 foot white tip shark that was hovering on the bottom at about 90 feet.

Rokujo is out of the harbor to the right. I dove for 57 feet for 36 minutes. I saw a 2 inch cuttle fish under a wreck.

SaWes Coral Garden is out of the harbor to the right. I dove for 78 feet for 33 minutes. I saw a large Grouper.

Rainbow Bridge is out of the harbor to the right. I dove for 71 feet for 40 minutes. I saw 2 sea turtles.

Umabanna-Hanareiwa is out of the harbor to the right. I dove for 74 feet for 32 minutes. I saw a morey eel.

Dannu Drop is out of the port to the right. It is near the west end of the runway. I dove for 72 feet for 33 minutes. I saw a morey eel and a large unicorn fish.

Iromote Island, Okinawa, Japan

Kamukawa Wan (Bay) Nakanose is on the southern tip of Iromote, also refered to as Manta Bay in English. I dove to 52 feet for 42 minutes. I dove with two large Manta Rays. I spent the entire dive filming both video and still photography of the manta rays.

Ochimizuzaki Wan, Butterfly Fish Point is on the southern tip of Iromote. I dove to 74 feet for 38 minutes. I saw millions of Pyramid Buterfly Fish (Hemitaurichthys, polyepis) on the point.

South Canyon is out of the port to the left on the southern tip of Iromote. I dove to 55 feet for 40 minutes. I dove through a maze of caves. The caves had white sand bottom, and light filtering through rocks from above. A very pretty dive.

Aritori Wan (Bay) Fukaba is off the southern tip of Iromote. I dove to 86 feet for 45 minutes. The hard coral are thick and go off in every direction.

Sukukaiyama Wan (Bay) Azami is off the southern tip of Iromote. I dove to 78 feet for 31 minutes. No special fish seen other than colorful hard corals. We had moderate currents on this dive

Yonasoni Wan (Bay) Typhoon (Hurricane) Chapple is off the south west tip of Iromote. I dove to 46 feet for 49 minutes. Typhoon Chapple is a maze of swim throughs and light streaming through the cracks.

Sakayama North Corner is the bay close to port. I dove to 84 feet for 47 minutes. We have about 100 foot visibility but not special sightings of fish.

Hanagoi No Ne is close to the port. I dove to 92 feet for 44 minutes. The visibility had decreased do to an impending typoon. The waves had increased, and it was difficult to take photo's with ambiant light.

Sotobahare Island, South Minami is close to EnySea port. I dove to 68 feet for 41 minutes. The hard corals are the best I have ever seen, achres and achres of hard corals. The rose coral is as big a coffee table. The corals are dense and it was difficult to get good photographic angles of the corals.

Come dive the Okinawan Waters for world class diving!

 

[Baracuda Smile]

Since all 4 branches of the Military dive on Okinawa, and we have dive shops sponsored by US Marine Corps Tsunami Gear, US Airforce Kadena Marina, and US Army Torii Beach Dive Locker, I thought I would share with the rest of the Active, Reserve, National Guard, and Retired some of the many dive sites we have on Okinawa. This list is combination of sites that I have dove, sites listed in Diving Point Map by Okinawa Marine Publications, A Divers Guide by John Chandler, Dive Sites map by Kadena Marina, and Dive Tables Okinawa, Japan by MCCS Marine Corps, SaWes Dive shop Yonaguni, Enysea Dive Shop Iromote, and my personal experiance.

Dive Sites of Okinawa
By Barracuda Smile 2008
From South to North
P Indicates Pacific Side
* Indicates Boat Dive

1. Suicide Cliffs P
2. Channel Crevasses/Ookaigan/John Man Beach
3. Misume *
4. Southern Links
5. Yamashirokaigan #1
6. Yamashirokaigan #2
7. Gushikawjouato****a
8. Rukan East Drop Off *
9. Kamiyama Minamiezuke Oki Deep *
10. Kamiyamajima *
11. Nagannutou *
12. Kuefutou *
13. Ojima Island P
14. Hansen Beach
15. Convention Center South
16. Convention Center North
17. Water Treatment Plant Point #1
18. Water Treatment Plant Point #2
19. Monroe Point
20. Chatanoki *
21. Sunabe California Side/ Curry House
22. Sunabe Point #1 / Arc Divers
23. Seaside Palace
24. Junkyard
25. Runway Lights
26. Pipelines
27. Kadena Marina
28. Naval Kadena
29. Kadena Steps/Kadena Seawall
30. Mitzugama/ Kadena North
31. Mitzugama/ Kadena North Red Bouy Marker-Fish Boxes
32. Hija River
33. Devils Cove
34. Devils Cove Wreck
35. Devils Cove Atol
36. Motor Pool
37. Torri Beach
38. Yomitan Port Whale Shark *
39. Kourizampa *
40. 5 Old Lady Seaweed Beach
41. Tombs Yomitan
42. Rifle Range
43. Zanpa Misaki/ Cape Zanpa/ Bolo Point
44. Zanpa Misaki/ Cape Zanpa/ Bolo Point North
45. Meada Flats
46. Meada Misaki/Meada Point
47. Meada Caves
48. Malibu Beach
49. Green Beach
50. Onna Flats
51. Onna Point
52. Onna Trench
53. Apogama
54. Hoshu/Hoshukita/Horse Shoe Beach
55. Ahshukita/Toliet Bowl
56. ANA Hotel South
57. ANA Hotel Central
58. ANA Hotel North/Pier
59. Manza Dream Hole
60. Coral *
61. Seragaki Inner Reef
62. Seragaki Outer Reef
63. White Beach P
64. Tsuken Isand P *
65. 5 X-Mas tree Beach P
66. Ikei Big Time Resort P
67. Mama San P
68. Miyuki Beach P
69. Tengan Beach P
70. Tengan Peir P
71. Kin Blue P
72. Kin Red P
73. Oura Wan Bay P
74. Gesashi Loran Site P
75. Tombs
76. Diamond Beach
77. Kise
78. Kyoda
79. Three Rocks
80. Saki Motobu/ Gorilla Chop
81. Eagle Pipes
82. Serakogyosho Island
83. Pumkin *
84. The Labyrinth *
85. Camel
86. Cable *
87. Yoshjinone *
88. Cabetsu Batake *
89. Shinzato *
90. Sakiyama *
91. USS Emmons located 1km North off of Kouri Island *
92. Okuma South
93. Okuma North
94. Shippishi Drop *
95. Shippishi North *
96. W-Rock *
97. Coral Garden
98. Juhyou No Mori
99. Yona Tunnel
100. Sate
101. Futagamiiwa *
102. Hedo Misaki Dome *
103. Misaki Canyon/Hedo Gulch
104. Misaki ****a/ Hedo Beach
105. Hedo Three Pools
106. Pinnacles North *
107. Pinnacles South *
108. Shibishi Island *
109. Outer Buoy P *
110. Light House P *
111. Keramas Pipeline *
112. Keramas Gishippu *
113. Keramas Kuroshima / Twin Rocks *
114. Keramas Zamami *
115. Keramas Ariga *
116. Keramas Maeshima *
117. Keramas Mae Jima/ White River *
118. Keramas Manta Point *
119. Keramas Two Rocks *
120. Keramas Turtle Inlet *
121. Keramas Sharks Bay/Three Rocks *
122. Keramas Turtle Sand Bay *
123. Keramas South Tokashiki Wreck *
124. Ie Shima/ IE island Ohoba *
125. Ie Shima/ IE island Waaji *
126. Ie Shima/ IE island Double Arches *
127. Ie Shima/ IE island Patch Reef *
128. Ie Shima/ IE island Minna Jimma *
129. Yonaguni Ippon-Ishi *
130. Yonaguni Noridai *
131. Yonaguni North Airport *
132. Yonaguni Rokujo *
133. Yonaguni SaWes Coral Garden *
134. Yonaguni Rainbow Bridge *
135. Yonaguni Umabanna-Hanareiwa *
136. Yonaguni Dannu Drop *
137. Iromote, Kamukawa Wan, Nakanose *
138. Iromote, Ochimizuzaki, Butterfly Fish Point *
139. Iromote, South Canyon *
140. Iromote, Aritori Wan, Fukaba *
141. Iromote, Sukukaiyama Wan, Azami *
142. Iromote, Yonasoni Wan, Typhoon Chapel/ Hurricane Chapel*
143. Iromote, Sakai Yama Island, North Corner*
144. Iromote, Hanagoi No Ne*
145. Sotobahare Island South Minami*