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YOU COULD BE FORGIVEN forthinking that Okinawa is the onlyplace in Japan to go diving. The

island-group renowned for its reefs andabundant marine life draws a certainnumber of international divers, butcould they be missing out on other high-quality Japanese locations?

The small town of Kushimoto inWakayama, on the mainland island ofHonshu, does draw divers – from allover Japan. Most foreign tourists havenever heard of it, but this “mainland

Pictured: Hashigui-Iwa rockformations.

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mecca” of diving is a popular alternativeto Okinawa for the Japanese, especiallywhen typhoons cause flights to thewestern islands to be cancelled.

So I jumped on the Bullet Train fromTokyo to Osaka before taking localtrains down to Kushimoto to see if weBrits might be missing out on anything.

On arrival I met Kumiko-san, myguide; Aki-san, my dive instructor; andMr Shimano, the owner of NankiSeaman’s Club, where I would be diving.All were keen to show me what

Kushimoto had to offer.The best time to dive

Kushimoto, I was told, is fromlate September to the end of November,when the visibility is at its best ataround 15-25m, and average watertemperature is a balmy 27°.

While conditions are also goodduring the summer months, July andAugust are when hordes of Japanesedivers head to the small town for theirsummer holidays, so it’s best to avoidthis peak period, particularly because,

Dodging typhoons,MELISSA HOBSONstill has to brave rough seas to findout what macro treats Wakayama hasto offer visitors to Japan

JAPAN’S MAINLAND MECCA

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anthias, Japanese spiny lobster and thebright red petals of a nudibranch egg-mass wafting gently in the current. From a distance we glimpsed a ray

darting past and caught the silhouette of a turtle surfacing way above us.Many of the organisms were clearly

regular sightings, as the crew knew exactly where to find them: they would fin purposefully towards a specific section of coral and, sure enough, therewould be a depressed spider-crab or a tinygoby hiding. Yet even the other instructors were

jealous that we had caught a rare glimpseof a small pink frogfish. It had been fairly calm at around 20m

so I’d almost forgotten how rough it wasat the surface. After being jerked up anddown by the descent line during oursafety-stop and battling the waves to getback on the boat (narrowly avoiding aladder to the face), I was overwhelmed bya wave of nausea. Thanks to typical Japanese efficiency, it

was just a few minutes before we revvedour engine and sped back to shore, thebreeze on my face immediately relievingmy seasickness. I was ready to relax back at the

Kushimoto Royal Hotel where I wasstaying, which has its own onsen – a publicbathing pool heated by natural springs. Once I had psyched myself up to enter

Above: Nudibranch andemperor shrimp.

Right: Nudibranch eggcasing.

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of the 25 or so dive-shops in the town,only a couple can currently cater forEnglish-speaking visitors. During the rest of the year, the water

temperature drops to around 15°C. Whilethe Japanese consider this far too cold,British divers willing to travel with theirown drysuits (Japanese sizing is verysmall!) could enjoy clear waters and goodconditions from December to April. Unfortunately, my own timing wasn’t

ideal. The week before I arrived, severaltyphoons had hit Kushimoto and all dives were cancelled for a couple of days.So I was understandably nervous aboutthe weather forecast. Thankfully, by the time I arrived it was

possible to dive again, and the visibilitywas improving. However, anothertyphoon was brewing, due to headstraight for Taiwan, and there was notelling whether it might deviate from thatpath and hit us instead. All we could do was keep a close eye on

the forecast and hope for the best.

ALIGHT RAIN BEGAN TO PATTER onthe windscreen as we drove down to

the dive-school. Within five minutes itwas a total downpour. As we huddledinside waiting for more news on theweather, it didn’t look promising. While we waited, I admired the

underwater photography framed aroundthe dive-shop, all taken by students ofAki-san and Mr Shimano. After a sly glance at my, admittedly,

basic camera, Aki-san was kind enough to lend me his Olympus Pen – accordingto him, most Japanese underwaterphotographers preferred the Olympusbrand. After lots of dusting, wiping and

polishing (the Japanese are particularlyneat and clean – definitely no spit in lieuof defog!), we were ready for a tutorial. I was anxious that I’d find the camera

difficult to use or that I might break it,but it took only about 30 seconds to showme all the settings and, after a quick play,the Olympus Pen was mine for the week – if the rain eased off enough for us totake the boat out. Eventually the deluge began to ease and

we got the all-clear. The weather was toobad to visit the open ocean so we werediving Bizen, closer inland. We could barely see the sky through the

sheets of rain slamming down, and thesea was a thick, inky grey. The boat was thrown around so much

by the huge waves that we dropped downthe descent-line straight away to avoidbeing swept away in storm-tossed seas. Given the grey sky, rolling waves and

hammering rain, I was surprised by howclear the water was just a few metresdown. Yes, it was darker than the azure

Caribbean in which I’d been diving a fewweeks before, but we had crystal visibilityof about 15m. Landing on the seabed, we saw what

looked like an expansive lunar landscape,with huge boulders as far as the eye couldsee. There was plenty of life around therocky outcrops – longhorn cowfish,yellowtail parrotfish, lionfish, a hugepufferfish, a shoal of bright pink andorange sea goldies and an enormousstrawberry grouper. Aki-san summoned me over to where a

sailfin goby sat by a burrow, waving itsdark, dotted fin from side to side. Behindit, just out of sight, was the almost-totallyblind shrimp with which it has a

symbiotic relationship, the goby sharingits home in return for warning ofapproaching predators. A special sighting was a tiny juvenile

emperor angelfish, its navy body andcircular white markings almostunrecognisable from the blue and yellowstripes it would develop as an adult.

WITH SO MUCH TO SEE we stayeddown as long as we could, but it

seemed like no time at all before it wastime to ascend.After a quick lunch we returned to

nearby dive-site Sumisaki, which wassimilarly crammed with life: long-nosehawkfish, Japanese butterflyfish, sunburst

Clockwise from above:Pair of harlequin shrimpwith starfish; strawberrygrouper; long-nosehawkfish; nudibranch.

Above, clockwise fromtop left: Lauridromiadehaani crab; pink frogfish;depressed spider-crab (thatis the name, it’s not adiagnosis); juvenile emperorangelfish.

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(it’s customary to bathe completelynaked!), I eased my tired limbs into thesoothing mineral water and enjoyed thespectacular view over the Hashigui-Iwarock formations along the coastline.

THE NEXT DAY WE WERE TO revisitthe same areas as the day before,

because it was still too rough to ventureout to the open ocean. Yet, thanks to theexpert knowledge of Mr Shimano’s team,our dives were packed with differentsightings. Back at Bizen we found what looked,

at first glance, like a piece of purple coral.On closer inspection I saw peeping outfrom underneath the eyes and pincers of a Lauridromia dehaani crab, which carriescoral on its back for camouflage.Nearby, we found a Calvactaea tumida

crab about the size of a quail’s egg, withskin disturbingly close to the colour ofhuman flesh and bulging, orange eyes.There was also an emperor shrimpclambering across the back of a large rednudibranch. We swam past a small midnight

snapper with pretty black and whitemarkings and long fins trailing in thewater before spotting a black combtoothblenny sticking its head out of a hole,seemingly bemused as to why five hugelumbering divers were all peering at it. A cleaning station was swarming with

fish of all shapes and sizes, but it was thetransparent, pin-size emperor shrimpcleaning each of them in turn that heldour attention until the end of the dive. Back at Sumisaki we found a large

nudibranch the colour of autumn leaves,with white dots thickly outlined in blackand egg ribbons spiralling out from it. However, most of the group missed it,

preoccupied as they were with a dragonmoray posing for pictures metres away. �

An arresting pair of harlequin shrimpwith vivid blobs of colour on their shellswere guarding a starfish snack. They wereclearly regularly sighted here, becauseAki-san knew exactly where to find them. The same applied to the tiny squat

shrimp he picked out easily from thebackground of its sea-anemone home.Again the dive seemed to fly by too

quickly, and just as we were beginning toascend another bright orange dragonmoray popped its head out to snap itsjaws at us. Good Wrasse World was our next dive-

site. Here we found fewer crabs andshrimp but a wider variety of fish: a painted sweetlips, a tiny juvenile golden damselfish flitting about andseveral red firefish gobies with distinctivelong dorsal fins.Moving onto a patch of sand, we saw

a handful of tiny gobies with yellow facesswimming near the seabed. As soon as we got too close they darted

back into their burrows, faces poking outslightly to try to work out who we wereand what was going on. Back on the boat the drizzle had begun

again with a vengeance and, above therolling ship, the sky was a murky grey. Although not usually affected by

seasickness, the swell was too much, and I suddenly had to run to the edge of theboat to vomit. Knowing the Japanese

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Above: Dragon moray.

Right: Nachi Waterfall.

Below: View fromthe onsan baths.

FACTFILEGETTING THERE8 Finnair flies daily

to Osaka via its hub in Helsinki,www.finnair.com

DIVING8Kushimoto Dive Station, www. kushimoto.com. Nanki Seamans Club,nankiseamansclub.com. Kushimoto DivingAssociation, www.divekushimoto.com

ACCOMMODATION8Kushimoto Royal Hotel,www.daiwaresort.jp

WHEN TO GO8 Late September to the end of November.

CURRENCY8Japanese yen

PRICES8Return flights to Osaka from £695.Room for two at Kushimoto Royal from 8550yen (£67). Two boat dives from 15,000Japanese yen (£120)

VISITOR INFORMATION8en.visitwakayama.jp

propensity for cleanliness, I wasmortified. Thankfully the nausea passed as

quickly as it had arrived, and within a fewminutes we were back on shore to warmup in the hot showers.

OVER A LUNCH OF BENTO BOXESand miso soup, we discussed the

approaching typhoon. I’d been reallyunlucky with the timing of my trip;although Japan is affected by typhoons inJuly, August and September it was rare tohave this many approaching one afteranother in such a short space of time. The forecast for my last few days was

only getting worse. Disappointingly, aftera jam-packed couple of days of enjoyablemacro experiences, the approachingstorms left us no option but to cut shortmy dives for the week.On the plus side, we didn’t have to

worry about an early start the next day.Kumiko-san, Aki-san andMr Shimano took me toa local izakaya tavern

for sushi and sake before moving onto akaraoke bar to sing our hearts out over a bottle of bourbon until the early hours. OK, we were slightly fragile the next

morning but there was so much to seeabove ground that we were sure to makethe most of our final days. The great thing about diving from the

mainland is that there is so much to doduring your no-fly time. Kushimoto isjust a short drive from the spectaculartemples at the Kumano Kodo – apilgrimage walk paired with therenowned Camino de Santiago in Spain –and one of the best known waterfalls inthe country, Nachi. What’s more, tourist hotspots Osaka,

Kyoto and Tokyo are only a few hoursaway by train.Japan is such a fascinating country

with so much to experience above sealevel that it was hard to be disappointedeven amid the persistent typhoons. My first snapshot of this lesser-knowndive destination only made me want toreturn to Kushimoto for more.

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