Akajima - Day 3, Dives 3 & 4

Up relatively early, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and started the classic wetsuit struggle. Our first dive site of the date was called Zamami, a shallow warm water sand reef.

My guide for the day today was named Honda, and she did an excellent job of explaining the dives in English and writing out interesting fish names in English on her eraser board underwater throughout the dive. She took an incredible photo of a beautiful orange leaf fish hiding in a rich piece of coral.

(Photo from http://bit.ly/13K5VZR)

Shortly after descent, I saw a blue and white sea snake! It was the first time I had seen a sea snake under water and was slightly surprised as I noticed it just before putting my arm in its general vicinity. Most if not all sea snakes I have ever read about are highly toxic, so I was not eager for a run in with this one.

The diversity of the coral in this reef was very surprising. Coral reefs around the world are generally considered in decline, but the ones around Akajima seem to be healthy if not thriving.

Two of the highlights of the day for me where to seeing all the colourful little cleaner wrasse and their cleaning stations as well as a well concealed little goby. I love watching wrasse clean the parasites from fish as they cruise by.

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

My dives are nearly back-to-back today. You have to take a break in between dives and watch your nitrogen levels in your body before you can proceed to the next dive. Our boat took us back to the harbour where the staff swapped out tanks and the divers had some fun jumping from that top level and sides of the boat. What a welcome cool down on a more than 40° day!

The second dive was slightly deeper, but an incredibly rich coral garden. It was called a Agari Ushi which in Japanese means up cow. I have no further explanation...

Here I was pleased to see an endemic hermit crab living in a leafy frond. I saw wrasse in all stages of growth and of all colours. We saw three kinds of little groupers and a child angelfish. Not to mention an incredible array of coral, anemones and fronds of sorts.

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

There were so many brightly coloured yet tiny what looked like angelfish it was hard to know where to look.

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

They seem to be a very popular site for clownfish living in a variety of anemone. We found Nemo everywhere.

With the dives complete, I again headed back for a much-needed shower and cool down. Having located the general store the day before during my walk, I knew exactly where I needed to go to rent a bike and explore the connected islands.The bike rental was cheap, but I certainly got an old rust bucket! So I named him Ol' Rusty. (Yes, that is sweat just running down my face.) I guess it's pretty hard to maintain a bicycle in 90% humidity adjacent to the ocean. However, it got the job done.  

 

Foolishly, I had decided to set out and what must've been nearly the hottest part of the day. My weather app said it was 36 C feels like 46 C and I had just hopped on a bike for a long ride up and down island hills. Needless to say I purchased a large quantity of water before setting out.

I survived though and the ride was beautiful. I only really had one destination in mind. On Geruma, the island connected by bridge, there is a heritage house called Takara House. Well I didn't really learn anything because the brochure and all the signs were in kanji, I did get a chance to get out of the sun for a little bit and cool down. 

 

What's more, I met the old man that curates the heritage house. After a conversation of nodding, pointing and not understanding what was going on, he played an antique guitar, a shamisen, for just me! He was camera shy so, yes, I took covert creeper photos and video instead, gaijin style (Japanese slang for foreigner).

After playing a few songs for me, he showed me around the small heritage house again miming the functions of the various rooms. Before I left, he offered to take a photo of me with my iPod. What a friendly gentleman!

Back on the bike, I set off for the bridge to the adjacent island Fukaji. 

 

There wasn't much across the bridge besides a small sea airport And great views of open ocean dotted by tiny islands.

 

 

I wound my way back over the bridges, up and down the hills to the main bridge connecting with Aka. I have honestly never been so hot or sweaty in my life. Too much information? Too bad. :P 

 

The bridge afforded some more beautiful vistas of the whole town on Aka and the scenery surrounding it. 

 

 

Treating myself to a much deserved ice cream and returning the bike, I headed back to the hotel for dinner and to meet with Carissa and Judy from the Marine House Seasir (my dive resort) to head down to the beach later that night for stargazing and beer drinking.

 

Our way to the beach that night, we stopped by the small general store to pick up a couple drinks. We wandered in the pitch dark down to the beach to check out the stars. Again, being isolated on a tiny island in the middle of an ocean the stargazing was understandably quite amazing. Although the Big Dipper was clearly upside down in the wrong part of the sky.

Stating that I had not yet seen one of the famous Kerama deer, Judy decided to take me to the main beach with the deer often come out at night. That was the trick! The deer are nocturnal! It wasn't the deer that we spotted first wandering the streets…

 

It was the hermit crabs! They were everywhere crawling underfoot. It was kind of freaky but also delightful at the same time to watch them skittering about. 

It was a little bit of a hunt for the deer. You know you can never find something when you are looking for it. Judy assured me that the deer came out to the beach all the time in the dark and I assured her that we wouldn't see them simply because I really, really wanted to.

Not giving up, we walked a little ways into the town to an empty lot. Sure enough, there was a small group of deer! They were quite a bit larger than I thought they would be. They were about the same size as a Whitetail deer if not slightly smaller. I don't know why I expected them to be smaller. Probably because the island is smaller and you would think you did see large deer more easily throughout the day.

 

(Photo of deer in the daytime courtesy Judy Chen)

Calling it a night we all headed back to the resort. 



Thanks Judy and Carissa for showing me a glimpse of Aka at night!

Tomorrow I catch the ferry fairly early in the morning and head off to my one day in Okinawa.