Japanese Local Knowledge

[johnasan74]

Hello, have a look at Amami Oshima, just north of Okinawa, and much smaller, Divers Cove is a English run dive shop that offers boat and beach diving, plus they can arrange your accommodation and provide free airport transfers.
Diving in Amami is awesome for underwater photography lots of fish life and lots of coral the dive sites are not over dived as Amami gets a fraction of tourist that the bigger island get JAL fly’s to Amami from most airports (including from Okinawa) within Japan and Skymark airlines offers competitive budget flights from Kagoshima to Amami, check out scubajapan.com for more info.

Amami’s whale season is between March to April, turtles come ashore to lay eggs around June and they hatch about 2 months later and dolphins are buzzing around most of the time!

If you like to dive sites that are not over dived, over crowed and full of live then Amami is for you!

 

[Baracuda Smile]

Hello, have a look at Amami Oshima, just north of Okinawa, and much smaller, Divers Cove is a English run dive shop that offers boat and beach diving, plus they can arrange your accommodation and provide free airport transfers.
Diving in Amami is awesome for underwater photography lots of fish life and lots of coral the dive sites are not over dived as Amami gets a fraction of tourist that the bigger island get JAL fly’s to Amami from most airports (including from Okinawa) within Japan and Skymark airlines offers competitive budget flights from Kagoshima to Amami, check out scubajapan.com for more info.

Amami’s whale season is between March to April, turtles come ashore to lay eggs around June and they hatch about 2 months later and dolphins are buzzing around most of the time!

If you like to dive sites that are not over dived, over crowed and full of live then Amami is for you!

Thank you for sharing Johnasan74! I am working to complete all the underwater dive maps for the Ryuku's (Okinawan) islands nearly 400 sites all total. I am working on the final islands to the east and north of Okinawa. I have published all my work at: www.hotdive.com No log in is required.

1. Under the main page click on map
2. Change the country to Japan
3. The Google map will change to Japan
4. Use Google zoom controls to zoom into Okinawa
5. You will see dive flags for dive area's
6. You will see icons to represent dive sites i.e. shark, cave, coral, fish, wall, wreck
7. Change the map to hybrid (top right corner of the google map) to see the reef edges and detailed roads leading to the site.
8. LAT/LONG for entry/exit point is listed
9. Underwater dive maps are listed under photographs
10. The 6 decompression chambers on Okinawa are listed with phone numbers, LAT/LONG and address.
11. Over 42 English speaking dive shops are listed with address, phone number, website, LAT/LONG, logo, and e-mail.
12. In order to post, or add a dive site, you must make a FREE account.
13. If you make an account, you can use the message boards, write articles, upload pictures ect.
14. Please be my friend same user name as Baracuda_Smile same as SB.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

Diving in Okinawa, is getting better with sittings of more large creatures this early spring, and the last of the Humpback Whales returning to Alaska. We have also several sittings of flamboyant cuttle fish, and mimic octopus. The water is warming up and the trade winds are switching and coming from the south. By the end of summer the water will be between 84F and 86F.

 

[SinoScuba]

Would be very pleased to receive information on ice diving in Hokkaido in the winter (obviously it would not be in the summer). I would require an English or Chinese-speaking guide (I am already an ice diving instructor). Thanks very much.

 

[wapati8]

Anyone familiar with diving sites on the Southern Chiba Peninsula?

I was able to find the following dive shops/centers from the Japanese language PADI and Naui sites. Does anyone have any experience with them?


1. Katsuura Diving Service
a.
b. 0470-76-3531

2. Namegawa Diving Service
a.http://www.namegawa-ds.com/
b. 0470-76-3480

3. 伊戸ダイビングサービス BOMMIE
a.http://www1a.biglobe.ne.jp/bommie/
b. 0470-29-1470

4. Nishikawana Ocean Park - Tateyama Diving Center
a.http://nop.chips.jp/
b. 0470-29-1411

 

[nori1841]

3. 伊戸ダイビングサービス BOMMIE
Ito is a good site because an accommodation is good for diver. I dove there last Sunday and many divers were enjoying boat dives. So you need reservations in holiday. Because shallow viz is usually bad and strong current so you have to grab a rope to come down and up. Free under water maps are ready for customers to bring them in the water. You can always see big groupers, rays,schools and sometimes sharks. Navigation is easy because guide ropes are set in bottom and mid from west to east but you should dive with a shop DM at the first dive to avoid an accident. Lunch can be reserved beforehand thru DS.

 

[Jonnyspecial]

For the only year-round English diving services in Kagoshima since 2006, please check out Grand Bleu Diving. We also provide services in Japanese and French.

grandbleu

Thank you!

 

[brew77]

Well, it'll take me a little over 4 hours to get down there. It's do able for a long weekend. Haven't been to Kagoshima since 2000 or so.

 

[louxwe]

Anyone know where to park to shore dive Seragaki?

 

[Alfawolfje]

Anyone familiar with diving sites on the Southern Chiba Peninsula?

I was able to find the following dive shops/centers from the Japanese language PADI and Naui sites. Does anyone have any experience with them?


1. Katsuura Diving Service
a.
b. 0470-76-3531

2. Namegawa Diving Service
a.http://www.namegawa-ds.com/
b. 0470-76-3480

3. 伊戸ダイビングサービス BOMMIE
a.http://www1a.biglobe.ne.jp/bommie/
b. 0470-29-1470

4. Nishikawana Ocean Park - Tateyama Diving Center
a.http://nop.chips.jp/
b. 0470-29-1411

I am trying to do as much diving as possible in Izu and Chiba and will be posting here regularly (I hope). Looking for dive buddies so drop me a message! I am familiar with Tago, Kumomi, Osezaki (all west Izu) and IOP plus Atami (Izu east coast).