I spent three diving seasons in Okinawa, all of them on the main island.
At the very end of this season, I finally had the chance to set foot on the heart of Okinawa's Yaeyama Islands — Ishigaki Island!
Ishigaki Island actually shares deep ties with Taiwan. During the Japanese colonial period, a "Yaeyama Development Plan" was launched to recruit Taiwanese people to cultivate the then-undeveloped Yaeyama Islands. Even after World War II ended, many Taiwanese chose to remain on Ishigaki. Because of these geographical and historical connections, Ishigaki Island looks remarkably similar to the rural countryside of Taiwan. Apart from the Japanese characters on the street signs, it barely feels like Japan at all.
This time I spent five days and four nights on Ishigaki Island, with three days dedicated to diving.
According to the local dive guides here, the best dive sites on Ishigaki (and also the closer ones) are all accessed from the northern bay of Kabira. The more scenic sites in the south — such as Kuroshima and Iriomote Island — were out of reach this time due to the short schedule. However, when the north wind blows and northerly swells pick up, Kabira Bay, which faces north, cannot launch boats; you'd have to depart from a southern port instead. So when making reservations, keep this in mind: safety comes first, and there's no guarantee a dive shop can take you to a specific site! Most of the time, the departure port is only confirmed the day before. Luckily, all three of my diving days launched from Kabira Bay!
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Kabira Bay[/caption]
On the first day, I started diving at 1
p.m. We boarded a boat called Napoleon, captained by a man I found wonderfully eccentric — Osamu-san.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="3024"]
The 360° ocean-view restroom on board[/caption]
It was actually a north-wind day, but Osamu-san judged that heading out was still feasible. Our first dive was the one every diver coming to Ishigaki looks forward to most — マンタシティーポイント, Manta Point! The journey to the dive site was genuinely challenging. The boat ride was about 20 minutes, and because the boat was small, even moderate swells sent it rocking violently. By the time I had my gear on, I was already on the verge of throwing up, and after surfacing I just lay sprawled on the stern unable to move.
On Ishigaki Island, dive guides wear many hats — just like on Okinawa boat dives — handling tasks like dropping anchor and setting up the dive ladder (so please, fellow divers, don't give the instructors a hard time!). Before we got in the water, our guide Jerry made sure to explain the rules at Manta Point:
- When descending, everyone — regardless of whether you're an instructor or a highly experienced diver — must hold onto the bow line.
- Once you reach the cleaning station, you must stay in place. No roaming around, and absolutely no chasing the manta rays.
Then I watched Osamu-san strap on his gear and jump in with us. That's right — there was no one left on board! 😂
(I'd actually heard stories about Osamu-san before. As the most senior captain and veteran instructor in Kabira Bay, his mooring spot in the bay is always the best. When dropping anchor, other boats need two or more anchors — he only uses one. And if he jumps in to dive along with guests and the anchor happens to slip and the boat drifts, he'll have one of the younger skippers ferry him out to his boat once everyone surfaces, then he'll simply drive it back himself. Absolutely legendary.)
The moment I rolled into the water, I couldn't help letting out a gasp — the visibility was absolutely insane. With the big swells above, I estimated at least 30 m, and according to Jerry it could be even better on calmer days.
After Osamu-san led us around for a while, we stopped at a reef platform (not the cleaning station though), and he signaled us to stay put — we could hold onto the reef if needed. There was a current underwater, though I didn't grip the rocks myself. While waiting for the manta rays, I spotted a Blacktip Reef Shark and a very young sea turtle. I was beginning to feel a touch disappointed, wondering if the manta rays might not show at all — but then, just 15 minutes into the dive, four of them came sweeping in at once! Watching them beat their wings through the water was truly mesmerizing.
Since it wasn't the cleaning station, the manta rays didn't linger, and once they glided away Osamu-san led us back. We reached a reef platform at around 7–8 m, and Osamu-san signaled us to stop again before swimming off. I assumed he was going to scout a bit further for more manta rays — but about three minutes later, he came back towing his boat, walking it along like someone strolling a small dog, and re-anchored it right next to where we were waiting. Ha!
After he brought the boat over, we were immediately treated to a second group of manta rays, this time flying much closer to us. I was completely transfixed.
After the dive, the plan was to head back to Manta Point for the second tank — but the swells were just too rough, so we relocated to a calmer site closer to the bay: Yonehara Outer Reef.
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Safety stop at 5 m[/caption]
The remaining six dives over the next two days were all done at Yonehara as well due to wind and swell conditions — but I found every one of them well worth it!
The daily schedule roughly went like this: depart at 8
a.m., complete two dives, return to Kabira Bay around 11 a.m., swap out the scuba tank, have lunch, then head out for a third dive.Yonehara is a hard coral reef at about 15 m depth. At low tide the top of the reef sits less than 1 m below the surface; it extends downward to more than 20 m. The reef is flanked by vast fields of staghorn coral, and the surrounding area is teeming with grouper. The water at Yonehara is clear and current-free — diving there is genuinely relaxing.
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Osamu-san leading the dive[/caption]
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Shallow reef zone[/caption]
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A canyon through the coral reef[/caption]
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Sunlight streaming down — simply beautiful[/caption]
During one of the six Yonehara dives, our boat motored over to a nearby site called Yonehara W Reef (W.R.). Slipping into the water gave me a jolt, because near the rocks there were cluster after cluster of marine debris. It was a genuinely heartbreaking sight. Reducing plastic use can no longer be something we plan to do in the future — it has to be something we do right now.
No matter how diligently you recycle, this waste still exists. If it isn't buried on land, it ends up in the ocean.
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Just a fraction of the alarming number of plastic bottles[/caption]
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Reducing plastic use is urgent![/caption]
But once you duck into the caverns, the caves formed by interlocking boulders are truly spectacular. With the sunlight breaking through at just the right moment, it felt like a time tunnel you never wanted to leave.
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The time tunnel[/caption]
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The time tunnel[/caption]
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Lots of lobster lurking behind this tunnel[/caption]
On several dives, Osamu-san personally guided me underwater. Knowing I was an instructor who loved photography, he would always seek out little critters for me to shoot. He's a character — wonderfully quirky. Mid-dive, he'd suddenly drop to his knees on the sandy bottom and stare into the distance, as if meditating. On the very last dive, near the end, he knew the other guests were beginners, so he sent the other two guides ahead to bring them back to the surface. I assumed he was about to take me off to find some special little creature and got quite excited — but instead he led me deeper and deeper, down to about 20 m. I was still trying to figure out what was going on when he rolled onto his side on the sandy slope (like a carefree drunken monk), lay there for a moment, then framed his hands into a rectangle with thumbs and index fingers and made a couple of forward-pushing gestures at me. At first I thought he was firing finger-hearts at me, but it instantly dawned on me that he liked the composition and was telling me to take a photo. 😂😂 Ha! I wasn't really feeling it, but I dutifully shot a few puzzling frames from the angle he suggested:
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Osamu-san's artistic vision[/caption]
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He told me to shoot the sun[/caption]
The rest of the time I spent in the shallows, chasing tricky little fish to photograph. Japanese dive shops generally set a fixed surfacing time — usually 40 to 45 minutes — but because I was acquainted with the shop, and because Captain Osamu-san is just different from most Japanese dive operators and doesn't stand on too much ceremony, several of my dives ran to 50 or even 60-plus minutes before I surfaced.
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Spent a long time bonding with this blenny[/caption]
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An adorable Yaeyama blenny[/caption]
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Striped nudibranch[/caption]
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Short-arm shrimp[/caption]
Compared to Okinawa's main island, I actually prefer Ishigaki Island's more laid-back, rustic feel. The underwater scenery is outstanding too — coral, visibility, sea turtles, caverns: it has everything. Personally, I think it makes for a wonderfully easygoing Japan diving trip that's well worth the journey.
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Great for striking some artsy underwater shots[/caption]
There are many ways to travel between Taiwan and Ishigaki Island. Setting aside cruise options, you can fly via Okinawa and then take a connecting flight to Ishigaki, or fly directly.
Currently the only direct flight from Taiwan to Ishigaki is operated by China Airlines. The flight time is under one hour — genuinely close! Standard fares are roughly NT$10,000 round trip.
This time I bought my Okinawa–Ishigaki round-trip ticket on short notice, already being in Okinawa. That flight is also about one hour (yes, roughly the same as flying from Taiwan to Ishigaki directly). I flew on Solaseed Air (an ANA subsidiary), which includes a free 20 kg checked-baggage allowance; the fare was around ¥15,000 — just for your reference.
Related links:
- Cave Diving, Sharks, and Beautiful Coral Reefs — Uncovering the Hidden Okinawa Dive Sites at Cape Manzamo
- Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Use Diving to Travel the World!
- Okinawa Diving Is More Than Just the Blue Cave! 5 Okinawa Diving Secrets You Need to Know
- The Most Complete Okinawa Diving Guide Ever — Stop Saying Diving in Japan Is Too Difficult!
- Author: Erica's Pixnet Blog
- Author's fan page: 小島日常-islandvibes studio
