my first dive!

I had no clue what to expect from my first dive, but it was fantastic! They completely suited me up from head to toe in scuba gear. Thankfully, the wetsuit fit –just barely - because I am definitely not Japanese sized. So I had a wetsuit, boots, gloves, the mask, flippers, weights, and the tank. Everything on felt so strange, and it definitely wasn’t my most attractive moment.

Techan (the guy giving me the lesson) doesn’t really speak English, so my first lesson was in broken Japanese. There are two main things he taught me: 1. When water gets in your mask push on the top and blow as hard as you can with your nose to expel the water, and 2. When your oxygen mask gets yanked out in the water blow really hard on it before breathing in again. Simple enough. And after making sure I could do both of those things, we jumped off of the side of the dock and into the water. Breathing from the tank felt like I was sucking air through a straw. And my mouth got surprisingly dry toward the end of my twenty minute dive.

Don’t worry, Techan made sure to hold my hand and watch me closely to make sure I had my balance (which is surprisingly difficult). If he left me he indicated to grab hold of a rock or pole while he pointed something out. Since we stayed at the dock I thought that I wouldn’t see any interesting sea life, but there was so much to see right there! Clownfish, seahorses, colorful shrimp, schools of small silver fish, and an occasional big fish (foot long). Well I can’t say that I had a favorite part to my dive, but I got to hold a seahorse!
Techan brought one over to me and placed it in my hands, and it grabbed onto my finger with its tail. Very strange creatures, but so fascinating! And to gather more fish, Techan pounded on a rock with a silver rod which attracted about twenty fishes. Afterwards he told me the pounding breaks off food particles that the fish feed on. Techan had me swirl my finger through sea anemones which would gently recoil and move away from my hand, and the clownfish would get in on the fun and follow our hands through the anemone. Overall I had such a great time even though we didn’t go anywhere. And just before the end of the dive, we picked up oysters from the sea floor to take up with us.

I had a slight inclination of the oyster’s contents, but it was confirmed when Techan shucked them open and had me dig for the contents inside of the oyster’s body. So I reached with my thumb and index finger slowly dipping them into the doughy texture of the first oyster and pulled out a perfectly shaped off-white colored pearl. So beautiful. I couldn’t believe that he not only let me have the pearl from the first oyster, but from the second one as well. And although the second has black raised areas of imperfection, it is equally as beautiful as the first. Both mean so much to me because I have a physical memory not only of my first dive, but of Shinkamigoto for as long as I don’t lose them. My plan is to make them into a necklace or into earrings.

I can’t imagine all the other amazing things that I will encounter. As the diving manual (in Japanese) reads, “If it is your first time scuba diving under the water, you will surely become hooked.” I have to agree. And I wish that I could translate more of this manual which I am supposed to have read, but it so difficult to translate. They are going to give me the English manual that one of the last JETs ordered so that I am able to read and study the basics of scuba diving. But for now the book has been helpful for practicing my Japanese.

Tonight I am off to go on a cruise around a bay with the members of Nice Buddy where we will eat lots of sushi and drink beer and watch the fireworks. I have to say that sushi is my favorite food here on the island!