Hi, decided to post this in the hope it might help anyone else thinking of venturing to the far flung island of Yonaguni in Okinawa, which is the west most point of Japan and less than 200km from Taiwan.
Well, our group of 3 (myself and two Japanese friends) set off from Tokyo on Tue (Jan 2nd) having sent our dive bags down a week earlier, through the national Japanese postal service. Cost was 3700 yen for all my gear, a large bag weighing 25kg or so.
Route to Yonaguni is Tokyo > Naha > Ishigaki > Yonaguni or Tokyo > Naha > Yonaguni depending on the day you fly. We took the former and arrived on the island at 5pm in a little propeller driven plane seating around 30.
We were met at the airport by a car from the Minshuku, and 10 minutes later we were at our base in Kubura. The whole island can probably be driven round inside an hour. We then had a short wander up to our dive shop,
http://www.yonaguniyds.com/
The weather was overcast and mainly wet.
We completed the paperwork ready to start diving the next day. We stopped off at the local shop and purchased some delicious fresh sashimi (less than an hour old!), had dinner & a few drinks before turning in for the night.
Day 1: We did our checkout dive at Kubura Valley, a pleasant enough spot with a few hard/soft corals and a smattering of tropical fish. Visibility was an awesome 40m or more, which remained the same throughout our entire trip.
After lunch we went to Atkasugi and did a drift dive in blue water, in the hope of seeing the hammerheads that school here at this time of year. Sure enough, we saw a big school (30 or more) as they swum past in the opposite direction, seemingly oblivious to the ripping current. Very cool!
After more delicous sashimi, beer and awamori we retired for the night.
Day 2:
First dive was at the Pyramids, the unique selling point of Yonaguni and what draws in the visitors. They are a series of underwater "structures", close to the cliff featuring very smooth planar surfaces and sharp angles. There is a lot of debate as to whether these constitute a sunken ancient city or are simply natural rock features. I can't say for sure, only way to to check them out for yourself!
Definitely worth the visit for these alone.
Dive 2 was at Irisaki, and another drift dive and once again we got lucky and saw a bunch of hammerheads.
Dive 3 was "A secret place" which is a series of undercuts, swimthroughs and small caverns which was pretty interesting. On a sunny day, I can imagine it would be possible to take some stunning shots from the cave, looking back out into the blue and framing any diver subjects beautifully. Alas, it was not a sunny day
Found a cute clownfish there.
Day 3
First dive was at a location I didn't catch the name, it was ok but unremarkable - similar to a poor man's "A secret place" of the previous day. I did find this nice pink fish though
Dives 2 and 3 were in blue water, drifting trying to catch more hammerheads. We had bad luck and missed them on each dive, although all the other dive groups managed to clock them on every dive, including some fairly close encounters!
We had some fun snorkelling in the bay after dinner, and even trying our hand at hand spear fishing, after getting the ok from the local fisherman and shops. Predictably enough the fish remained safe, although we grabbed a few lobsters and let them go again. We also saw a baby turtle on a previous snorkelling expedition, which had it's head stuck under a rock when it saw us, leaving the shell and limbs sticking out.... very cute
We returned the the shop and got our final batch of sashimi, which is the best I have ever tasted. I would love to share the name of it, but apparently it's local to those islands and has no English name.... anyway it was delicious.
This was almost the end of our trip, we were due to fly the next day but it was cancelled due to high winds and we hung around another day. My suggestion to start diving again was vetoed, so we had a tour of Yonaguni. There isn't much to see, some nice scenery and walks, and a few strange tiny little horses.
In summary, here are some conclusions which I hope will be of use for anyone thining of going.
Pros
40m+ visibility, wonderful
25 degrees water temperature in January
Hammerheads!
The underwater ruins
http://www.yonaguniyds.com/ - good and professional shop as I saw it
Local sashimi & fish caught fresh every day
The local chilli sauce
Cons
Remote location
Limited above water attractions
Minshuku was pretty average
Not recommended for begineer divers - with the strong currents and blue water ascents/descents I would suggest it's more suitable for people with 50+ dives.
Very limited English spoken there (this is just a con for me, I realise it may not apply to many!)
For me, the pros far outwieghed the limited cons and I would recommend Yonaguni to anyone thinking of going!
Well, our group of 3 (myself and two Japanese friends) set off from Tokyo on Tue (Jan 2nd) having sent our dive bags down a week earlier, through the national Japanese postal service. Cost was 3700 yen for all my gear, a large bag weighing 25kg or so.
Route to Yonaguni is Tokyo > Naha > Ishigaki > Yonaguni or Tokyo > Naha > Yonaguni depending on the day you fly. We took the former and arrived on the island at 5pm in a little propeller driven plane seating around 30.
We were met at the airport by a car from the Minshuku, and 10 minutes later we were at our base in Kubura. The whole island can probably be driven round inside an hour. We then had a short wander up to our dive shop,
http://www.yonaguniyds.com/
The weather was overcast and mainly wet.
We completed the paperwork ready to start diving the next day. We stopped off at the local shop and purchased some delicious fresh sashimi (less than an hour old!), had dinner & a few drinks before turning in for the night.
Day 1: We did our checkout dive at Kubura Valley, a pleasant enough spot with a few hard/soft corals and a smattering of tropical fish. Visibility was an awesome 40m or more, which remained the same throughout our entire trip.
After lunch we went to Atkasugi and did a drift dive in blue water, in the hope of seeing the hammerheads that school here at this time of year. Sure enough, we saw a big school (30 or more) as they swum past in the opposite direction, seemingly oblivious to the ripping current. Very cool!
After more delicous sashimi, beer and awamori we retired for the night.
Day 2:
First dive was at the Pyramids, the unique selling point of Yonaguni and what draws in the visitors. They are a series of underwater "structures", close to the cliff featuring very smooth planar surfaces and sharp angles. There is a lot of debate as to whether these constitute a sunken ancient city or are simply natural rock features. I can't say for sure, only way to to check them out for yourself!
Definitely worth the visit for these alone.
Dive 2 was at Irisaki, and another drift dive and once again we got lucky and saw a bunch of hammerheads.
Dive 3 was "A secret place" which is a series of undercuts, swimthroughs and small caverns which was pretty interesting. On a sunny day, I can imagine it would be possible to take some stunning shots from the cave, looking back out into the blue and framing any diver subjects beautifully. Alas, it was not a sunny day
Found a cute clownfish there.
Day 3
First dive was at a location I didn't catch the name, it was ok but unremarkable - similar to a poor man's "A secret place" of the previous day. I did find this nice pink fish though
Dives 2 and 3 were in blue water, drifting trying to catch more hammerheads. We had bad luck and missed them on each dive, although all the other dive groups managed to clock them on every dive, including some fairly close encounters!
We had some fun snorkelling in the bay after dinner, and even trying our hand at hand spear fishing, after getting the ok from the local fisherman and shops. Predictably enough the fish remained safe, although we grabbed a few lobsters and let them go again. We also saw a baby turtle on a previous snorkelling expedition, which had it's head stuck under a rock when it saw us, leaving the shell and limbs sticking out.... very cute
We returned the the shop and got our final batch of sashimi, which is the best I have ever tasted. I would love to share the name of it, but apparently it's local to those islands and has no English name.... anyway it was delicious.
This was almost the end of our trip, we were due to fly the next day but it was cancelled due to high winds and we hung around another day. My suggestion to start diving again was vetoed, so we had a tour of Yonaguni. There isn't much to see, some nice scenery and walks, and a few strange tiny little horses.
In summary, here are some conclusions which I hope will be of use for anyone thining of going.
Pros
40m+ visibility, wonderful
25 degrees water temperature in January
Hammerheads!
The underwater ruins
http://www.yonaguniyds.com/ - good and professional shop as I saw it
Local sashimi & fish caught fresh every day
The local chilli sauce
Cons
Remote location
Limited above water attractions
Minshuku was pretty average
Not recommended for begineer divers - with the strong currents and blue water ascents/descents I would suggest it's more suitable for people with 50+ dives.
Very limited English spoken there (this is just a con for me, I realise it may not apply to many!)
For me, the pros far outwieghed the limited cons and I would recommend Yonaguni to anyone thinking of going!
