It seems as though, during my previous article, I some how titled it, “Zoom Zoom Zoom.” I actually meant to use this title to describe my article on automobiles I have experienced here in Japan. I really screwed that concept up. However, over the past few days I have been extremely busy and honestly exhausted when it comes to having time to blog about my adventures.

A few days ago, we all got together and went and spent some time at Okuma, a beautiful resort and retreat center, open only to military staff. I was a bit concerned with the quality of the joint when we first arrived, because it was all tucked away behind some old school village. However, once unpacked, we immediately journeyed to the beach where I spent the majority of my day and evening. Felicia and I swam for about a hour or so until dinner was ready and we left. After we finished our meal, Jon and I went back and swam that evening. The water was much calmer and extremely cool. I believe the temperature of the water had dropped a few degrees since my original visit to the beach. The water was as clear as tap water and clean of all debris. We swam for about a hour or so and then revisited the cabin and we all toasted marshmellows etc.

The next morning, Flea and I rented jet-skis and cruised across the water at 90kph. Before I rode the personal water-craft, I spent some time climbing on a few cliffs at the end of the beach. The cliffs were extremely high and I was able to see all sorts of marine life. I saw a sea snake, schools of fish and enormous crab! Once I was burning up beyond belief I found myself heading towards the water to take a swim. The jet-skis were very large, Fleas was a 770cc and mine was a 1100+cc 4-cylinder turbocharged water craft. I was able to fly across the water at 90kph without any issues.

Driving back from Okuma to Kadena was pretty interesting. We made a stop off at MacDonalds in the Naha area and grabbed a bite to eat. I ordered a Teriyaki Burger, Fries and Qoo to drink. The burger was oustanding! I must inform everyone that Japanese MacDonalds is 10000x better than ours in the USA. It isn’t cooked the same, dished out the same or prepped the same here. It is all so very delicous. After the quick lunch we were back on the open road. The island of Okinawa is only 62miles long and 15 miles wide at its widest point. However, the drive from Okuma to Kadena is only around 50km, it took us freaking forever because of traffic.

During the drive we noticed a few tunnels and Shannon agreed to drive through them so I could snap a few photographs. We also drove by thousands of tombs. In Japan, they do not have enough space for individuals to bury the dead. Therefore, they all must be incinerated and laid to rest within a tomb or something. They are enormous, mostly limestone or marble looking and probably hold generations upon generations of families.

Yesterday afternoon I visited the Kadena Dive Services center and received two tanks of air and some weight. While I was there I met a guy named Marvin who is an avid diver here on Okinawa and he agreed to take me diving when he and his buddies go out during the week and weekend. I got his phone number and told him I would call him whenever I was able to dive. However, yesterday I dove off Seawall off Kadena Airforce Base. I had to wade out quite a bit into the water before I was able to actually begin my dive.

I didn’t have a digital camera with me that could be used underwater, so I picked up a film camera housing and used a film camera. I dove to about twenty eight feet and noticed a statue of some sort of goddess. I swam around the statue to get my bearings for the open sea and then began my adventure through the reef. I was amazed to actually see coral! I have never really seen live, active, moving, and brightly colored coral before. I managed to snap around 27 photographs of the environment around me, however, my film got messed up when unloading the camera, so I lost it all. However, I promise to retake some photographs for everyone to see.

While I was diving I skimmed what I thought was a piece of coral.. My right fin skimmed the surface of the coral slightly and I kicked upwards to get away from the coral, not to damage anything. However, to my suprise, the coral looking object was an octopus or squid. It immediately lunged upward around a foot and kicked off in front of me. My immediate reaction was to paddle backwards and get away from the thing. From everthing I had researched before diving here, some of the most dangerous elements I am going to run into are: whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, barricuda, clown fish, jelly fish, octapus, squid and variants of the aforementioned marine creatures.

I have plans to dive at the following locations:

1. Megalith at Yonaguni, ancient ruins, temples dated older than the pyramids in ancient egyptian history.  It is a two day charter and includes three dives a day and range from thirty for forty minutes.  The ruins have extremely high currents that are so strong they prevent any coral from growing on the ruins.  It is recommended for novice to expert divers only.  I’m definately going to go!
2. Maeda Point in Okinawa,  allows me to be a weekend warrior and check out the dive site just from walking down the beach and jumping in.  It drops from three feet at the beach to over 200 feet over one single bluff.
3. Kadena Steps in Kadena, Okinawa, is pretty much where I went on my first dive.  It was definately interesting but nothing too exciting here.
4. Devil’s Cove, attracts divers with its sunken fishing boat, bottom-dwelling creatures like sponges and urchins, varieties of coral, anemonies, damsels, angelfish and the occasional cuttlefish.
5. Sunabe Seawall, is one of Okinawa’s top five dive spots.  Where I was yesterday..  The literature says something like, “One of Okinawa’s top 5 spots for diving, limestone rocks lead into cracks crevasses and cliffs with visibility ranging from fifty feet.  home to various anemone and clownfish.  You may spot cuttlefish, octopus, shrimp, crab, or squid.  I can vouch for the octopus!
6. Channel Crevasses is a location my cousin’s husband’s boss is going to take me to.  Visibility reaches 150ft and it strings into caves and crannies.  This location will allow me to see sea turtles and lobster.  However the tidal changes here are supposed to have some wicked rip current.
7. Onna point is where I am diving tomorrow.  It has one of the largest coral colonies and widest array of oceanic creatures.  Crab, wrasses, clownfish, sergeants stonefish and octopus are always in this area.  It is rated a 4/5 for difficulty and 5/5 for risk.  Onna point is always on the local news about divers getting in jams and dieing etc.  I am not fearful of this but I will definately be careful..
8. Toilet bowl and horseshoe beach are two locations I’m trying to find someone to go with me.  I am going to contact Marvin to see if we can go there.  For publicly known spots, it is the worst of the worst in difficulty.  It is extremely difficult to get to and has sharks, barracuda, tangs and jellyfish.  I’m going to really shoot to dive this location for the photos.

I am willing to dive just about anywhere, any time.  I am going to go pickup a light tonight and go on a seawall night dive I think.  I think that a night dive on the seawall would be super thrilling.  I just got back from lunch, commissary and the place where we had to get passes to get on and off the military bases.  I am going to hang out, eat some ice cream and relax for a bit before I start up on my night on the town!