Akajima - Day 2, Dives 1 & 2

First two dives today!! There are over 30 dive sites around Akajima which is not hard to perceive as it is an island perched in a chain of many small uninhabited or day-visit islands.

The boat was great! Clean, fast and well set up. The Seasir boat held about 20 people in a few different dive groups.

Let's talk about gear a little. Dear god Japanese people are tiny and have no bum! I was sweating profusely from getting in the wetsuit, which they had to specially acquire for me. It is 40C here and the dive gear includes a 5 mil wetsuit, dive boots, gloves, rash guard, mask, snorkel, and of course short strap-on flippers. I was sweating underwater and stupidly buoyant. The dive guide had to give me his weights just to keep me from rocketing to the surface. I swear I actually have good buoyancy control and I'm not a total idiot!

They expect a lot more knowledge from their divers than the American dive companies I am familiar with. I had to assemble, check, clean and pack up my own equipment. Good thing I brought and reviewed my PADI guide because, as was painfully apparent, it had been a while since we covered that in dive class. Again, I swear I'm not a total idiot!

Anyways, the dives themselves were great! My guide for day one was Yoshi. He did a great job of ensuring I understood the dive plans and was ready to go. On the first dive, we went to a shallow reef just teeming with life.

Everything was tiny but very bright. I saw a black lion fish cruising around, a blue and maroon round sea star, an enormous eel, garden eels, sea horses, clown fish in an anemone, and very yellow parrot fish.

(Photo courtesy of Shinji http://bit.ly/19ulvAp)

Then our dive guide super murdered an invasive thorny sea star. Awesome. They just wreak havoc on healthy reefs unless they are swiftly and violently dealt with. For more information on why crown of thorns sea stars are so destructive and deserve to be smashed to pieces with rocks and for the original source of this image, please visit The National Parks of the Pacific Islands website.

The day was broken down to one dive in the morning, a break around lunch, and another dive in the afternoon. After a quick shower and what must have looked like squeezing my pasty white ass out of a toothpaste tube, I grabbed a quick shower and went to a seaside cafe for lunch.

(My view from the cafe)

It was cheap, delicious and I ate ALL THE SHRIMPIES!! Just $10 for all that.

I quickly jogged back to my room to start the oh so uncomfortable getting in a wet wetsuit dance. Back on the boat for the second dive of the day. The boat raced around to a cove sandwiched between two slightly more hilly islands. Yoshi explained that it was a hot spot for turtles and if we were lucky, maybe a ray.

As promised, I saw two tiny turtles, a massive eel, and had a spotted eagle ray fly over my head!

(Photo courtesy of Shinji http://bit.ly/19ulvAp)

(Photo from http://factsanddetails.com/world.php?itemid=1280)

The guide pointed out some weird seahorse/bug-like creature on a coral today. I'd never seen anything like it.  I saw five different kinds of sea cucumbers, two nudibranchs, and four different fish living in different anemones. It was so teeming with fish, it was like Molokini on steroids. 

(Photo courtesy of Shinji http://bit.ly/19ulvAp)

After the second dive and a more thorough shower, I decided to explore the town and walk to the centre of the bridge for daylight photos of the island. Besides a few dive resorts, a handful of restaurants, a couple tiny bars, a post office and all the marine facilities you'd expect, there isn't too much else to the town of Aka. After the hectic streets of Tokyo and Kyoto, it was just perfect. 

I guess I set out a little bit too early for dinner though because the cafés were closed and the bars weren't open yet. It gave me lots of time to aimlessly meander and check out the small town.  A little while later on I did find a bar that was open. I went in thinking that they would at least be other people in the tiny bar and suspected I might be the only foreign person. I did not suspect I would be the only person...  

After a friendly if not somewhat awkward chat with the bar owner and a tasty meal of pork belly with vegetables on rice, I went back to the hotel again to cool down and get some rest in anticipation of my early dive next day.

 

I did make a quick trip up to the roof of the resort to check out the stars though. They were beautiful! The Milky Way was nearly crystal-clear. I wish I had a telescopic camera to take a good photo...

 

While up on the roof, I met an incredibly friendly member of the resort staff. Carissa offered to take me to a local beach the next evening that was a good place to see stars!