Japan Guide
Okinawa
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Diving
With scores of dive sites around Okinawa-Hontō – and many more around the outer islands – one of the best reasons for visiting Okinawa is to go diving. There are plenty of dive shops, but only at a few will you find instructors who speak English. A useful website is 
www.divejapan.com , which includes links to operators, articles, dive-site maps and photo galleries.
Plenty of sites suitable for beginners lie within close reach of Okinawa-Hontō. Among the best sites are Sunabe seawall, where you'll find great soft corals, and Onna point, known for its hard corals and fish life. The Kerama Islands offer fantastic hard corals, more reef fish than you could count in a week and lots of big fan corals: head to Zamami-jima, a particularly laid-back spot from which to organize a dive with the instructors at Joy Joy
Experienced divers will want to take off for the islands further south, which provide some unsurpassed locations. Note that here you must speak Japanese if you wish to get detailed instruction. There are over fifty different dive spots to choose from around Miyako-jima, with cave dives being particularly popular: start off by hooking up with Good Fellas Club ( 
0980/73-5483, 
fellas@cosmos.ne.jp) or Sugar Cane ( 0980/72-6259), where Matsumoto Fujio speaks some English.
Dotted around the Yaeyama Islands are 360 species of corals and sea anemones, including the rare Ao (blue) and Hama coral reefs off Shirahonoumi on Ishigaki-jima. Among the thousand-odd species of fish you can expect to swim with are barracuda, butterfly fish, redfin fusiliers, spadefish and manta rays in the waters between Iriomote-jima and Kohama-jima. Try Aqua Marine Ishigaki ( 0980/83-1558) in Ishigaki City or Diving School Umicoza ( 0980/88-2434, www.umicoza.com/english ) in Kabira. On Iriomote, both youth hostels can put you in touch with local diving operations, or contact Miyamoto Yasu at Enysea ( 098/085-6568, www.enysea.com ), who speaks good English.
For the ultimate dive experience consider lugging your gear out to Yonaguni-jima to see sea turtles and hammerhead sharks and to explore the enigmatic rocks that some claim are the remains of a sunken civilization.