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I’ve been so busy in the office this week that it seems like so long ago that I was scuba diving in sunny Okinawa. In fact, it was only last week. TGI Friday! Now I can blog and share my lovely photos with everyone.

Firstly, I must thank Miho and her friends Taka and Yoshi for organising the trip. It was simply wonderful to see this corner of Japan, in fact, this corner of the world. It was a two and a half hour flight from Tokyo, almost reaching Taiwan. As soon as we exited Naha airport in Okinawa, it reminded me of Hong Kong or Bangkok, with the humidity and near 30C heat suddenly hitting my body. That is what I call “holiday weather”

The main purpose of our trip to the island of Okinawa was scuba diving. Miho’s a diving professional but this trip was my first scuba dive experience. She got us a nice package which included undercamera water rental. It was just a taster experience but I really enjoyed it. My lack of Japanese language skills was no problem underwater because you can’t talk! My ears seemed to hold up pretty well too as we went below depths of 10m on the 2nd and 3rd dives.

We were very lucky to see 5 turtles at the first dive site.

And even more surprising to see whitetip reef sharks at the third dive site.

Of course we saw lots of fish that I don’t know the name of. Here’s a nemo look-a-like at least.

I did find it quite funny how when I was on the sea floor I lost balance and fell on my back due to the heavy oxygen tank on my back and large flippers disabling my ability to re-foot. I just lay there like an upturned turtle. My instructor quickly flipped me over thankfully. It just shows how out of place humans are in the sea.

All I can say is that scuba diving was very enjoyable. It was literally like stepping into a new world for me. I highly recommend anyone who hasn’t tried it to try it. You don’t even need to know how to swim just to do the taster course. I’ve already sketched onto my imaginary to-do list to get a scuba diving licence. Perhaps next year in Thailand.

The weather was simply perfect. So lucky we were. This is us on the boat back to Naha. L to R: Me, Yoshi, Miho, Taka

The rest of the trip we explored the main island of Okinawa. Lots of sake after the scuba dive and experienced traditional Okinawan music - which I stangely find quite nice to listen to. On Saturday we drove around to check out the beautiful scenery before visiting a beach and aquarium in the evening. On Sunday, before flying back to Tokyo, we checked out a castle and sake celler/cave.

I would have to saw Okinawa falls into the top 10 most beautiful places I’ve visited. It’s too difficult to choose any as the most beautiful but I have a top 10 list and Okinawa is one of them.

On Flickr: Scuba dive photos and the rest of Okinawa

Update: Uploaded some vids on YouTube:
Traditional Okinawa music:

A beach in Okinawa:

Giant whale sharks feeding at Okinawa aquarium: