River Diving in the Morning, Ocean Diving in the Afternoon
We had another beautiful sunny day today, with great weather for diving!
In the morning, we went river diving with our guests who joined us yesterday.
In the afternoon, we headed out for a boat dive in Kushimoto with a guest who loves nudibranchs.
On the way to the river diving spot, I heard about a dream from the daughter of a family visiting us from Hawaii.
She hopes to open a dive shop in Hawaii for Japanese divers someday.
I immediately felt a connection because her dream is very similar to the goal I am working toward now!
We are both working toward similar goals, one in Japan and one in Hawaii.
I hope we can both make our dreams come true. Good luck!!
Back to the diving!
For our morning river dive, the water temperature was 20°C and visibility was around 10m.
There has not been much rain recently, so there was more mud than usual and the visibility was a little lower.
However, shortly after starting the dive, we found an Japanese Giant Salamander!
At first, we took turns observing it between the rocks.
Then suddenly… it came right out from behind the rocks!
As you might expect from its name, this Japanese Giant Salamander was huge! Today’s individual was over 1m long.
Even better, it stayed still for us, almost as if it was saying, “Take my photo!”
It is not often that we get such a good look at the entire body. Our guests were very lucky today!
After successfully seeing the Japanese Giant Salamander during our morning river dive, we returned to Kushimoto for an afternoon boat fun dive.
Since it was Sunday afternoon, we had a one-on-one nudibranch dive!
And it seemed like our good luck from the morning followed us into the ocean.
We found so many nudibranchs!
It had been a while since I had done a dive focused entirely on nudibranchs, so I had a great time too.
We found 15 different species just around the first reef after entering the water, with even more individual nudibranchs.
We ended up spending 40 minutes around just one rock!
Many of them are still very small, which can make photography challenging.
But with the microscope mode on the TG camera, their small size is no problem.
Today, we saw several Gastropteridae species, including Sagaminopteron psychedelicum and Siphopteron nigromarginatum.
We continued finding more nudibranchs, and before we knew it, our dive had lasted one hour.
Time always seems to fly when you are nudibranch diving!
This summer has been fantastic for anyone who loves nudibranchs.
It was a great day enjoying the nature of both Kushimoto and the Koza River, diving in the river in the morning and the ocean in the afternoon.
We had many guests visit us this weekend, including those who traveled a long way to dive with us.
Thank you very much to everyone who joined us!
Possibly due to the typhoon heading toward Okinawa, we have also received more inquiries from international guests over the past two days.
From macro diving with plenty to see, including nudibranchs and juvenile fish from southern waters, to river diving in search of the rare Japanese Giant Salamander , there is so much to enjoy at this time of year.
Please come and enjoy diving with us during this great season!
We currently have availability for both fun diving and trial diving in the first half of September.
Please feel free to contact us to check availability.
See you next time!
Today’s Sea Conditions
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Weather: Sunny
Air temperature: 26–32°C
Water temperature: 28.2°C (Kushimoto) 20.2℃(Koza river)
Visibility: 15m (Kushimoto) 10m( Koza river)
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Recommended Exposure Protection
- 5mm wetsuit
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Announcements
◾️ Diving Tour
•Shiretoko Drift Ice Diving Tour 2027, Hokkaido | Join On-Site in Shiretoko
◾️Event information
•Drysuit Diving in Kushimoto | Free Drysuit Rental Campaign 2026 -
•Nudibranch Safari in Kushimoto | Seasonal Macro Diving Event
- 5mm wetsuit
