okinawa dive center
Dive Shop Bluefield

Hi everyone, it’s Miho here

Today me and Akira had guys from France, doing their first time diving (Discover Scuba Diving Program) and boat fun dives.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Kerama Islands

1. Kuroshima South (Kuroshima)
2. Toma (Zamami Island)
3. Tamana Farm (Gishippu Island)

Objective: Boat fun dives & Discover Scuba Dives
Weather: Mild North Wind
Air: 26C (79F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 30m (100ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece + hood

Juliene went diving with Akira exploring the crystal clear water in the Okinawa.
Other two guys tried diving for their first time with me.
We took it easy at the first dive site- we just snorkeled around so that they can get used to be in the water, breathing using snorkel, and they tried breathing using regulators by the boat, on the surface, using our long hose set up.
Then, after all the briefing and practices at the surface, we went down at Toma.
Luckily, we came across with Juliane and Akira in the water, so we took pictures together!

At Tamana Farm, we enjoyed swimming with green sea turtles as well!

Today, we had a couple of dives at Oyama (Ginowan) and Chatan Underwater Ruins (Sunabe) to observe how coral are having eggs this year.
We had Mr. Kensuke Yokoi – a videographer and a researcher of coral reef – as a lecturer, and invited many dive guides & instructors from other dive shops on the island.

We learned how to distinguish coral with eggs and how they are growing.
Mr. Yokoi taught us the estimate date when all the coral hatching eggs this year.
It seems coral reef in Sunabe are growing their eggs faster than Ginowan this year.

Hi there, it’s Miho

Today was Moke’s last day of diving in Okinawa.
Since it was only me and him, we explored Inanbishi in deep and wide area.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Okinawa West Coast

1. Inanbishi (Kadena)
2. Inanbishi (Kadena)

Objective: Boat fun dives
Weather: Mild North Wind
Air: 26C (79F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 15m (50ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece + hood

At first, we took off to the deeper end of Inanbishi to find the leaf fish and lots of sweepers.
For the last two times, the yello leaf fish was not at home (or hiding) but today he was there! On the way coming back, we checked out Oranghtan Crabs, Commensal Shrimps, and found a big Devil Scorpionfish! The first picture on the top is the scorpionfish. Just like its name, it looks very devil, doesn’t it?

Second dive, we took it easy in a shallow area.
Saw garden eels, shrimp gobies, and the jawfish.

That particular jawfish was there last winter, but has been missing a couple of month now, but it’s back again!
The way it peeks outside, goes back again in the hole, comes back up a little bit, and hides himself again …. is so cute!

The shallow area is now full of damselfish’s eggs as well.

Thank you Moke for coming out diving with us!
I enjoyed diving with you!

Hello everyone,

It’s Miho here.
We went diving the Kerama Islands as always. Today I had a team of Rick & Terry from United States, Jennifer from Ireland, and Moke from England.
Terry lives just around the corner from our dive shop, with Rick visiting him. Jennifer doing her Refresh Dive Program with me, Moke currently lives in Tokyo and works on his Dive Master Course with Discovery Divers Tokyo (DDT) with Jim Goddard. Very good diving club over there.

I love my job – I get to make friends with divers from all over the world!

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Kerama Islands

1. Kuroshima North (Kuroshima)
2. Kuromaezaki (zamami Island)
3. Tamana Farm (Gishippu Island)

Objective: Boat fun dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 30C (86F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 30m (100ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece + hood

We did not see any turtles at Kuromaezaki today, however, we saw many at Tamana Farm.
Some of them were just eating a piece of coral, in front of us, not caring about us at all.

See, I never miss turtles at Tamana Farm!

Day Trip to Kerama Islands
Refresh Diving Program

Hello there, it’s Miho here.

Today, me and Akira had many divers from United States.
Jim and Gail having their last day of diving, Terry and Richard enjoying diving together for the first time, and the ‘birtyday boy’ Johnathan and Emily!

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
The Kerama Islands

1. Chishi (Zamami Island)
2. Yurigahama (Zamami Island)
3. Kuroshima North (Kuroshima)

Objective: Boat fun dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 29C (84F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 30m (100ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Although it was a little cloudy and rainy, we enjoyed the blue cave at Chishi, and the beautiful coral reef at Yurigahama.
It was his first dive for a long time, me and Jonathan worked on reviewing the imrportant skills and brushing up his dive skills (See Refresh Dive Program).
After Zamami Island, we went back to Kuroshima for one more good dive! It’s always beautiful over there…. Since the current was picking up a bit, we did not go to the Twin Rocks – but all in all good dives with Morray eels, lots of anemone fish… Each time we came across with Emily and Naoki snorkeling, we waved at her!

After coming back to our dive shop, we celebrated Jonathan’s 26th birthday with a surprise cake!
We had good time logging our dive logs, eating cakes, and coffee!

Thank you Jonathan & Emily and Jim & Gail!
It was very nice diving with you guys – please come back again in Summer!

We had very good dives all around the Kuroshima Island today.
Kuroshima is my favorite! It was a very hot day with sun shining, wind from south as well.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Kerama Islands

1. Kuroshima East (Kuroshima)
2. Twin Rocks (Kuroshima )
3. Hija Bay (Kuroshima)

Objective: Boat fun dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 29C (84F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 30m (100ft.)
Suits: 3mm – 5mm one piece + hood

We enjoyed exploring our new dive site (Kuroshima East) with some caves.
And of course, Twin Rocks and Hija Bay are always our favorite!

Fairy Basselets, Purple Queens, and coutless damsel fish were hanging out on the hard/soft coral reef.
We did not forget to check out white tip reef shark’s nest and lion fish cave.

It so much fun to peek into the hard coral reef at Hija Bay for blenny, crabs, and scorpion fish.
Fire Dart Fish was Gail’s favorite!

Kerama Island Day Trip

Hello everyone, it’s Miho here

Today, me and Akira took the divers out to our local dive sites in Ginowan, Chatan, and Kadena – with our new boat!
The divers today were all guys!
Yuto came along to do some dive site research as well.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**

Okinawa West Coast

1. Oyama (Ginowan)
2. #0 Street (Chatan)
3. Fish House (Kadena)

Objective: Boat fun dives
Weather: Mild North Wind
Air: 26C (79F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 30m (100ft.)
Suits: 3mm – 5mm one piece + hood

The rainy season started, very sadly.
We enjoyed the beautiful, big coral reef at Oyama and Chatan.

The second dive site is our original, which Takashi found recently.
The third dive site – the visibility was not very good, I mean, it was very bad!!!
I’m sorry, Richard! But you will forgive us because we had some good dives at the crystal clear water in the Keramas later, right?

The photographer, Mr. Masaaki Harada was visiting Okinawa for his Underwater Photo Workshop @ Bluefield.
Here are some pictures by him – enjoy!

April – May is a good season with having both Winter stuff and Summer stuff in the water.

You can still find many kinds of Nudibranchs for good macro photos.
There are so many baby fish, which adds lots of color in the water to your wide angle photos.
There are so much to see!

Also, the wind shifts to South in this season, which makes the Okinawa’s sea calmer than winter.
That enables us to choose lots of dive sites located at North side of the islands – such as:
Kuroshima North
Twin Rocks
Chishi Blue Cave
Yurigahama
Maeda Blue Cave

Photos were taken at Okinawa West Coast and Kerama Islands.

Okinawa in May
Wind: Mostly South with some days mild North Wind
Air Temperature: between 23-28 C (73-82F)
Water Temperature: 24C (75 F)
Cloth: T-shirts / No sleeve Shirts
Wetsuits: 3mm / 5mm full suits

Hello everyone, it’s Miho here

Today, me and Akira took some good divers to the Keramas.
I had Steve and Harriet from Discovery Divers Tokyo.
We had mild north wind, but with the sun coming out, it turned to be a very nice day.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**

Kerama Islands

1. Kuroshima South (Kuroshima)
2. Toma West (Zamami Island)
3. Ariga Cable (Tokashiki Island)

Objective: Boat fun dives
Weather: Mild North Wind
Air: 26C (79F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 30m (100ft.)
Suits: 3mm – 5mm one piece + hood

We enjoyed watching many many fish at the Kuroshima South – there were thousands of damsel fish, sergeant fish, and fusiliers today. We swam out to the big Sea Fan place as well. At the end of the dive, we found a shark under a table coral.

Toma was nice as always, we swam around quite a bit – from Toma West to all the way around Toma. Enjoyed purple queens, blue chromis, many kinds of anemone fish.
The visibility at Ariga Cable was great!
Akira’s team had a drift dive over there.

Steve, Harriet, thank you for coming out diving with us! We enjoyed hanging out with you so much!
We are looking forward to seeing and diving with other members from your family as well!

Miho

Hi there,

We had another good day of diving today. It was Stephen and Harriet’s 2nd day of diving.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Whale Shark Dives and Okinawa West Coast

1. Inanbishi
2. Whale Shark Dive
3. Inanbishi

Objective: Boat fun dives
Weather: Mild North Wind
Air: 24C (75F)
Water: 24C (75F)
Visibility: 15m (50ft.)
Suits: 3mm – 5mm one piece + hood

Sea Creatures we saw today:
Jawfish, Shrimp Gobies, Sweepers, Green Sea Turtle, Anemone Fish, Cleaner Shrimps, many Damsel Fish

Particularly, we saw Scissortail Sergeant Fish and their eggs everywhere!
The above picture on the left is the very angry parent and the pircuture on the right is their eggs on a rock.
Very interesting! The underwater world is full of eggs and babies now.