Fun Diving and River Diving in Kushimoto
The second half of Golden Week is now underway, and once again the west wind started getting stronger in the afternoon today…
This year’s Golden Week has really been a battle against the weather (^^;)
Fortunately, today’s schedule worked perfectly. We started with a morning boat fun dive in the Kushimoto area, followed by river diving in the afternoon, so the strong wind did not affect us too much.
Today’s guests were two divers who develop and operate the diver-focused app and social platform “Diving Partner.”
It’s an app with useful features such as dive logging and creating your own marine life collection using the photos you take underwater. It sounds like they are continuing to add more updates and functions in the future as well.
If you are looking for a convenient way to manage your dive logs and marine life records, definitely check it out. Since it was developed by divers themselves, it includes many features divers truly want to use.
During the first boat dive of the morning, we visited Pink squat lobster due to a guest request.
Scientific name is currently being confirmed.
Today, it was surprisingly cooperative and came far out into the open for us.
Nearby, we also found Aliaporcellana kikuchii and Galathea orientalis.
Scientific names are currently being confirmed.
The area was full of marine life, and both guests were enjoying underwater photography very much.
At the very end of the dive, we also managed to find Mexichromis aurora, which we could not find yesterday!
Scientific name is currently being confirmed.
And this time, there were actually two individuals together♪
Hopefully we will continue seeing many Mexichromis aurora again this season.
I would have loved to introduce more of Kushimoto’s underwater world, but today’s main target was the Japanese giant salamander, so we headed to the river after the boat dive.
Due to the heavy rain two days ago, we were worried about the river conditions and water level, but thankfully the situation recovered enough for us to dive safely.
At the very beginning of the dive, we suddenly found a Japanese giant salamander fully out in the open. Unfortunately, it quickly disappeared into hiding, and we missed a huge opportunity…
But at the very end of the dive, we finally got to see the entire body again!
Every Japanese giant salamander dive has its own drama.
Last time, we found one right at the end of the dive. This time, not only did we get a full-body view at the end, but the salamander stayed near us for more than 20 minutes. It was an amazing encounter.
Heavy rain is expected again tonight, so hopefully this individual can safely make it through the rising water conditions.
Weekdays after Golden Week are actually one of the best times to enjoy both sea diving and river diving in a single day.
If you would like to experience both the ocean and river during your trip to Japan, feel free to contact us anytime.
Once the rainy season begins, river diving conditions may become difficult for a while (^^;)
Tomorrow, the Kushimoto area will officially be closed due to strong west winds once again…
We will head over to the sheltered area of Sue for fun diving instead.
See you tomorrow!
Today’s Conditions
- Weather: Sunny with occasional clouds
- Air Temperature: 17–22°C
- Water Temperature: 20.8°C (Kushimoto) / 14.9°C (Koza river)
- Visibility: 10 m (Kushimoto) / 10 m (Koza river)
Recommended Exposure Protection
- Neoprene drysuit with thick inner layer
or - Shell drysuit with Wizzle or NORD undergarments
-
Announcements
◾️Event Information
• Tide Pool Barred-chin blenny Photo Tour confirmed!
◾️Media
• We are one of the guide shops responsible for posting seasonal ocean updates from Kushimoto on “海旬”.
• Instagram is regularly updated!
• Our YouTube channel is now available!
• A video of Japanese Giant Salamander was featured by diving_partner on their platform.
