Diving OKINAWA - Ishigaki - Akajima - Japan - Underwater Video 4K - BLUE PARADISES (S03)

We leave Paris carrying my faithful Canon 1DX Mark II, my Nauticam housing and my Sigma Art 20 mm. The trip is arranged by Ultramarina, the dive travel agency that sends divers to every corner of the world. A long travel day begins. After 13 hours and 30 minutes in the air, we land in Taipei for a six-hour layover. Then we take off again for Naha, the capital of Okinawa, where we spend four days wandering through the narrow aisles of Makishi Public Market, tasting Blue Seal ice cream, discovering small izakayas and enjoying the island’s festival season. After that, we board another plane and, after barely an hour of flight over scattered islets, we step onto Ishigaki, the starting point of this new episode of Blue Paradises.

In Ishigaki, we dive with Eurodivers Japan, based at Club Med Kabira, just three minutes by boat from Manta City and very close to the famous Manta Scramble cleaning stations. The team is international, everyone is incredibly friendly, the boats are spacious and comfortable, the gear is modern, and the dive centre is warm and very well maintained. Down there, between 5 and 15 metres, reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) circle slowly above coral heads while cleaner fish do their work. We see mantas on almost two dives out of three; it never enough... The emotion and the magic are hard to describe – you simply have to see it. Banded sea snakes come up to breathe at the surface before slipping back down, tight schools of barracuda move along the ridge, and the anemones shelter a small crowd of clownfish: Amphiprion ocellaris, Amphiprion perideraion, Amphiprion sandaracinos, Amphiprion frenatus and Amphiprion clarkii, five of the species found in the Okinawa region. They dart out, hide again, then return right in front of the dome port as if defending their anemone. After three dives a day, we often end our afternoons facing the beautiful view over Kabira Bay from above: white sand, dark coral patches and subtle shades of blue create a lagoon that looks almost graphic.

The next chapter of the trip unfolds in Akajima, in the heart of the Kerama Islands, where the Seasir team welcomes us with a simple and perfect formula for divers: very comfortable full-board accommodation and three dives a day, paced by briefings on the boat’s deck. The crew is mostly Japanese, young, very enthusiastic, and we communicate in English without any problem. Every morning, the boat heads out into the legendary “Kerama Blue”, crystal-clear water where you can see the corals from the surface. More than fifty dive sites surround the island, the furthest only about fifteen minutes away by boat. Under the bow, white sandbanks alternate with drop-offs covered in gorgonians from around 7 metres, healthy table-coral gardens, clouds of damselfish and fusiliers, schools of bigeye trevally crossing the frame, sometimes joined by a whitetip reef shark or a leaf scorpionfish resting on a sponge. Green and hawksbill turtles seem to be part of the scenery, showing up on almost every dive. Around midday, after two dives, the engines are cut and we have lunch on board: a hot bento or a typical, delicious taco rice balanced on our knees, wetsuits drying in the sun. Then comes another dive, sometimes two, until the light fades and the Kerama blue turns deeper and more intense. What struck us most in Akajima was the richness of the marine life and, above all, the variety of corals and underwater landscapes. We loved the sunsets on the beach, which we shared with the deer that come down to bathe at the water’s edge.

In my opinion, Okinawa and its islands are still underrated and have so much to offer. Twenty or so dives were nowhere near enough. We’re already planning to go back.