Scuba Diving in Okinawa
1:51 PMHow can I talk about Okinawa without mentioning the best outdoor activity . . . SCUBA DIVING!
Some background context: I have never scuba dive in my entire life. The first time I did anything close to scuba diving was snorkeling and that was like a year ago at Turks and Caicos. To be quite honest, I was worried for a few reasons: (1) when I went snorkeling, the ocean water often gets into my goggles and the salt water stung my eyes; (2) back in the day when I still studied science as one of my elective courses, I learned that if a person dive too deep too fast, bubbles will form in the brain, and you can die…; and (3) the oxygen tank is heavier than me, and it may crush me.
But here I am in Okinawa, on vacation mode, what’s going to happen? So yes, I decided to go scuba diving, for the first time with a company called Sealovers. The Sealovers Company offers English instructors and pairs one instructor to two newbie divers. We had a group of 4, so we had 2 instructors. What’s really good about this company is that they also help us took pictures for free! So I still have snippets of this amazing experience on my SD card! For more information, you can visit this website.
Originally, we were going to the Blue Cave in Okinawa. The Blue Cave is located near Cape Maeda in Onna Village. It is a natural cave rising up from the ocean that divers can enter. The cave acquired its name from the blue tone created inside and it is a popular sightseeing spot for a lot of visitors to Okinawa. The sun’s ray reflected from the bottom limestone cave creates the distinct blue colour. However, I did not get to go to this Blue Cave because a typhoon was approaching creating strong tidal waves dangerous for all divers. As an alternate, we explored the coral reefs of Okinawa and it was AMAZING.
Off we go to the coral reefs then. Look at those weights tied around our waist! each one is about 5 lb and I had a total of three!
First shot in the big blue!! I’m still alive, but my eyes poof-ed up like a gold fish. Funny thing is, the tank would have made me sink. However, because the diver vest is actually pumped with air initially, so I floated on water, before submerging into the ocean.
And then we fed a lot of fish in the coral reef. They were kind vicious. Within minutes, all the bread that I had in my hand was gone. Thank goodness I had gloves, imagine how it would have felt when a school of fish dive towards your hand and nibble for bread.
And then I found Nemo!! Though, he kind of look grumpy. Maybe because we scared him off with the camera and the flash. Sorry!
And we also found poop at the bottom of the ocean. Just kidding, it’s a living sea cucumber! Neat right?
Thank you Sealovers for this amazing adventure at the bottom of the ocean. I guess I will have to go back to see the Blue Cave in the future.
And to address my worries above: I mean, if you are going with instructors, they do know what they are doing, and safety is their top priority! Or why else would they change the location in the first thing as the typhoon is approaching? No need to be worried at all!
Scuba diving at Okinawa was fun. The two instructors we had were hilarious and knew what they were doing. Diving first thing in the morning definitely killed off the scorching heat when the temperature was already at 35 degrees celsius! I would definitely do it again, and I highly recommend that all of you to try it at least once in your life time! #yolo
xoxo,
D
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