{"id":77271,"date":"2021-02-10T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=77271"},"modified":"2021-02-26T21:00:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T12:00:26","slug":"diving-kushimoto-wakayama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/diving-kushimoto-wakayama\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to Scuba Diving in Kushimoto and Other Top Sights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I remember watching a \u2018making-of\u2019 episode of a nature documentary a few years back, where divers plunged into icy cold waters wearing drysuits \u2014 a form of underwater overall designed to keep out not only the water but the temperature too. I felt cold just watching them and vowed never to dive in winter myself.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you can well imagine my dismay as I rolled up to the Nanki Seamans Club<\/strong> on the south coast of Wakayama Prefecture<\/strong> just five days out from Christmas<\/a>, with an hour of scuba diving on the schedule. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love diving, and though pure laziness has ensured I have yet to acquire my license, it wouldn\u2019t be my first time submerged in the deep, so to speak. But I have a staunch aversion to frigid oceans and feared that\u2019s what I\u2019d be up against in Kushimoto<\/strong> (\u4e32\u672c\u753a).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In saying that, when it comes to diving in Japan, Wakayama Prefecture is among the best<\/strong> locales in the country. And if you\u2019re going to dive in Wakayama, Kushimoto is arguably the<\/em> place to do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cape
The rocky coastline of Kushimoto is one of the top places to go diving in Japan. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It was a brisk morning as we unloaded from the car, a breakfast buffet still swirling in my distended stomach, but the water buffeting Kushimoto\u2019s rocky coastline was a brilliant shade of blue, gleaming in the winter sunshine. It looked inviting, as water tends to on this stretch of the Pacific Coast, but I knew better than to trust my eyes where temperature was involved.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction to Scuba Diving at Nanki Seamans Club<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was greeted by my kindly, bilingual diving instructor for the day, Hirotaka, who assured me that the drysuits provided by the Nanki Seamans Club <\/a><\/strong>were more than adequate for the waters of the Kii Peninsula this time of year. In fact, he informed me, the water temperature was around 21 degrees Celsius. I\u2019ll believe it when I feel it,<\/em> I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, by the time we trudged down toward the beach (the point from which we\u2019d start the dive), kitted up in enough diving gear to feel like an astronaut on a planet with quadruple the force of gravity, I felt I had mentally prepared myself for whatever the water deigned to throw at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a brief re-orientation on which signals to use: thumbs-up means \u201cI need to go to the surface… now\u201d; counterintuitively, it’s not the signal for \u201cI\u2019m all good.\u201d Then Hirotaka gave me a quick reminder of how to use the equipment, what the plan of action was, and what kind of aquatic creatures we might encounter. Formalities over, into the ocean, we plunged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diving in Kushimoto: Into the Deep<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As it happens, the water wasn\u2019t cold at all; my dry suit effectively provided an impenetrable barrier to all external stimuli. So much for my melodrama. It was, however, stunning and a great introduction to diving in this part of Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man
The Kushimoto waters were warm \u2013 much to my delight! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We glided effortlessly through waters bereft of other divers but, surprisingly, this close to shore, teeming with fish<\/strong>. We swam over corals home to bright blue sea slugs, grumpy-looking crabs, and prickly sea urchins. Lionfish with ostentatious manes hid in underwater hovels. Clownfish and neon damsels glowed against the dull sediments below. It was a full and vibrant underwater world hiding in plain sight. And to think I was having second thoughts about diving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n