Today was my first-ever three-dive day. And I can feel it. I had a great time but I think I need to get to sleep. It’s really hard work, from setting up your gear, putting a wetsuit on, creeping to the edge of the boat, then all the swimming underwater. And you only use your legs to swim while scuba diving. Your arms are folded across your chest. I do use my arms to ascend or descend, but maybe when I”m a better scuba diver, I won’t need to do that.
In the morning, my bag was packed, my swimsuit was set out, and my breakfast was ready to go. Except it turned out to be not as filling as I hoped. I stopped by Family Mart for, you guessed it: another egg salad sandwich and a banana. Some Canadian guys in my group and I were joking about how many egg salad sandwiches we’ve eaten here. They are premade and available everywhere. They are on this heavenly terrible-for-you soft white bread. With so many sweet snacks here, it’s nice to have something savory.
The scuba school van was waiting for me at my hotel and then we picked up a few more people who were also headed to the dive shop. A 24-year-old from Florida and a young man from Taiwan.
I met my instructor/guide Tyler and got set up with gear and a wetsuit, then walked around the corner to the boat.
There were perhaps 15 divers on board with 5 staff. Nice ratio. I’d signed up for a refresher dive and the folks in my group were all beginners like me, so Tyler said we could go slow with everything.
The weather here is 75 and balmy. Really nice.
We rode for about 20 minutes out of Naha to a spot at the begining of the Kerama Islands, near a sort of isle/sandbar. The diving was fantastic. The water was clear and there were lots of strange corals and creatures I have never seen before. And it sounds scary, but I saw two snakes. There was a very bright blue and black striped snake and another that was sort of tan. They were not interested a bit in the divers.
Dive two was further away and it was also excellent. Completely different profile under the water. Tyler was really excited to show us a certain animal, that I’d never heard of. I think it’s a sort of slug called a nudi. I’ll expand on this later.
We were served hot bento boxes for lunch (chicken and rice with sides) and it was good. I’d also brought some snacks and now I know I need to bring even more food. It’s hard work to dive.
We drove somewhere else closer to a bigger island and did a third dive with a mostly sandy bottom, but I did see a moray eel get mad at a fish and chase it away from its rock pile home. We were swimming into the current and it was just too much. All of us were low on air so we turned around. The boat has hot showers, which is a real luxury.
We packed up and headed back to Naha, It took about an hour and I started to fall asleep.
When I got back to town I ate some ramen and did some shopping.
I’m taking the day off tomorrow from touring and diving and really I’m just going to hang out and relax. There’s not that much to see in Naha and I’d need a car to go to any other pretty spots. Naha is industrial, gritty, and a little seedy and I don’t think I need to see a lot more of it than I have. The buildings are unattractive cement construction that badly need a powerwash. I still have Saturday to explore if I want to. If you notice the picture of a building I can see from my hotel that says they have dancing Monkey Girls, I think that says a lot about Naha.
Oh, note the pictures of a book I saw right as I walked into a bookstore last evening. First of all, let me say the Japanese love stationery supplies, and the first floor was all office and school supply stuff. Beautiful greeting cards and art supplies too. And there were 6 more floors of books above the first floor. Wow. These people are readers! But the book I took some pictures of was when my dad would have been here, compared with today. It was really interesting. He took pictures of cherry trees and deserted bays, but never took a picture of the lively downtown where I’m staying now. Maybe they weren’t given leave to such a rowdy place. I apologize for the copyright violation on the pictures from the book. I just can’t buy anything while I’m here. I have no room to spare in my carry-on suitcase and backpack.
