I finally bit the bullet and committed to doing something I had been wanting to do for a really long time. Learn how to scuba dive! I asked if my friends wanted to come too but either had already learned, didn't have money or the spare paid leave. So, yet again I set off by myself to learn to scuba dive in Okinawa. I contacted Reef Encounters in Chatan and they organized my accommodation (at Hamby Resort). All I had to do is get there.
I flew down and spent the afternoon in Naha mainly going to the Shuri temple. You can see a distinct difference from the Japanese temples there, and a large influence from other parts of Asia. As you may know Okinawa was an independent country until it was invaded by a clan from southern Japan 400 years ago. Anyway the Shuri temple was beautiful. Afterward I went to find a karate dojo, the "home base" of the style I first learned. After walking for ages and going through the back streets, I asked a lovely Japanese lady if she knew of the place and luckily she did. I arrived at what looked like (and was) a house and entered. I entered and got completely stared at by all the kids, I asked the sensei if it was alright to watch, of which he said he was happy if I did and he went to explain that it was the kids class. After some watching he started asking some questions and I explained the karate I had done and so then we had a huge conversation about the differences in katas (formal routines/patterns) that I had learned in Australia among other things. Although I didn't recognize him at first, I started to realise that there was something familiar about him. He was one of the chief instructors! It was such a great experience. If only I had time to train with him. I stayed in Naha City that night as I got a flight hotel package. Cheap cheap cheap!
In the morning I caught the bus out the Chatan where Reef Encounters is situated. Otis, cool guy originally from Philadelphia, came to pick me up from near the bus stop and took me to the shop. He was my instructor for me Open Water. He is such an awesome teacher. I felt relaxed learning the whole time, even in the not so good situations of taking you mask off underwater, clearing or the problem I had most not being able to find my regulator (thing you breathe from)... which is a bit of a problem. Anyway back to the beginning.
At first we ran through the some of the basic and before I knew it we were heading to the beach gearing up. Sticking your face underwater while still breathing is one of the eeriest feelings. We went out on a fixed rope and did some skills underwater, then we had a little look around. That night I studied the book.
The following day was my first official dive. We went up to Maeda Point and dove off a boat. Otis and I were joined by Miho (Otis' wife), Frank (an American who now live in Tokyo) and two Japanese divers. The were all on a fun dive. Roll diving off the boat was fun except for the fact I smacked my head on the bottom of the boat when I came up. For safety my BC was inflated and for some reason I roll under the boat. We went to the Blue Cave which was so beautiful. The reflection off the water turns the cave blue. It is a really popular spot for divers and snorkelers as you can reach it without a boat. We were lucky that there were only a few people in the cave when we went. Our second dive was at Yamada Point. There was so much life. Moorish idols, bat fish, flute mouths, lion fish, pink anemone fish, blue/green chromis, five banded sergeant majors.. to mention a few. Obviously at this point Otis was teaching me the names of all the fish. more study that night.
The next day I did the next two dives at Sunabe Sea Wall (the place where I first donned scuba gear. Unlike when last time we went, it was rough. We managed to swim out but doing the skills underwater was really hard because of the surge and limited visibility. It's very hard to know if you are neutral in the water when you can't see the ground.. or anything else. We had to pull ourselves in with the rope as the surge was ripping now. I had no idea where the end of the rope/chain was so collected Otis up at the end. Whoops! Sorry Otis. The second dive was more rough, we had to pull ourselves in and out. I did some underwater navigation which was difficult again because I couldn't see much but I did it with a few compass sticking problems. Even though we had to pull ourselves in and out, it was really fun. When the surge was in our favour we flew along! So after completing the test I became a PADI Open Water Diver.
I had a few more days in Okinawa so wanted to dive a little more before leaving. Otis suggested I do my Advanced Open Water certificate. Even though I though it was a little sudden, he said I'd be fine and well I did that too.
Advanced was 6 dives including a skin dive, rescue skills, low visibility dive, deep dive, fish identification dive and a navigation dive.
Frank had decided to do his advanced too and we joined two American soldiers of which one had already started his advanced course. The other had already completed it. We did the skin dive, rescue skills and low visibility dive at Junk Point as it was a little sheltered. The sea was a bit rough from an outlying typhoon. The visibilty was terrible but we all got through the dives. The next day Frank and I went out with Otis and Orlando (a American military guy) to do the deep dive and navigation dive up at the Maeda Point area. For the deep dive we went to Manza dream hole. It's a vertical shaft that you swim down and come out at about 30m. The exit area was beautiful. At about the 36 m mark we did our narc test. My result...... SSSSLOOOOOWW! I don't mind having that effect. Other people want to take out their regulator!
The next dive was in the same area and was the fish identification dive. It's so hard to remember exact details about the fish, what colour, how many stripes or spots, whether the stripes were vertical or horizontal, etc, etc. Only when we got up, I was trying to ask Frank if he remembered what colour a fish was, he replied, "I don't know, I'm colour blind!" I must say I have it a bit easier, not that I can remember them. I did make nicknames up for the fish such as "SpongeBob", as the fish is square and very yellow!
The last dive of the course and the trip was navigation which made me a bit nervous. not my forte but it went well. The highlight of this dive was at the end when I was stuffing around swimming upside-down Orlando spotted two sea snakes under the boat. AWESOME!
We obviously saw other things on the dive but the snakes were a real highlight.
Otis worked out over the course of us diving together that it was easy to make me laugh and at that time water would go into my mask. Needless to say I got good at clearing my mask.
So after 10 dive I completed both the PADI Open water and NAUI Advanced open water certifications. I can say now that 2 of my greatest hobbies have been because of Okinawa... karate and diving!
As I have mentioned before in my blog, traveling by myself definitely has its advantages. I got to meet some awesome people while diving and at the hostel.
Because I have digital cameras I don't often get to take pictures out of the plane. this time I had a disposable. The pictures are of leaving Naha and the northern area of the main Okinawa Island.
Labels: Okinawa diving
The week after this Chris, Tim and I went out to a Halloween party in Kokura. Chris gets a special mention because he went as DORAEMON. So cute!
