I planned a weekend trip to Tanegashima with some friends. The main goal for this trip was to do some scuba diving down on this island below Kagoshima. But we planned to have some other fun too!
Sunset from where we stayed.
We took the Princess Wakasa Ferry over which is a slower option, but also cheaper. We had to leave bright and early from Hitoyoshi to catch the 8:30 ferry, and fitting 5 people plus their luggage for a fun weekend in my little white plate Nissan March was a squeeze, but it worked out just fine.
Yumiko, CJ, Rebeca and Amanda at the Tanegashima branch of Land Earth
Right when we got there CJ the owner of the Land Earth company that I have done a few rafting trips with picked us up from the ferry and brought us to the Tanegashima branch they have down there, so we could join them for some sea kayaking.
Sunset View. Held true to its name!
Our accommodations were provided by the company we were scuba diving with. The house was called Sunset View and it was fantastic. Fits 1-8 people comfortably, is set up with a kitchen and ready barbeque which we totally took advantage of. It’s only 1man a night (about 100$) So split between each person it was a fantastically cheap and comfortable option.
Getting ready for the bbq
Yum. While kayaking we did some snorkeling and CJ came up with these shells that you bbq. Tanegashima is famous for them and they're quite expensive to buy. Quite the rare treat we got to try.
CJ helped us do some shopping after kayaking and then stuck around and helped us barbeque. Quite the nice relaxing evening watching the sunset and then fireworks at night because there was a festival going on in town.
Alex, Amanda, CJ, Mary, Rebeca, and myself
Getting ready to dive.
Sunday morning the owner and Michael (one of the English speaking employees) at Sea-Mail (diveshop) came to pick us up and get us ready for our dive. We were only able to do one discover dive, but it was still a lot of fun. Good chance for me and Mary to play with our cameras before Okinawa, and a good experience for the folks who hadn’t been diving yet. Unfortunately there was a typhoon headed our way which was kicking up waves and silt in the water so it wasn’t the clearest diving ever and there was a bit of current where we were. Just our luck of course.
woo, go Mary
Alex and Michael in the lead. Michael is originally from Britain, but was working at a dive shop in Thailand where he met his wife who is originally from Tanegashima.
Came up at the end of the dive. Very deceiving weather. It looks so pretty, but the typhoon was a comin
The coming typhoon also made it so the companies were cancelling ferries because of the high waves. They had already cancelled the Wakasa ferry for that day so we had to upgrade our tickets to the Rocket (same company faster ferry) It was only 1300yen extra, so not too bad and it was only 1.5 hours instead of 3.5. It’s unfortunate we had to cut our trip short but we were just glad we were able to get back to Kagoshima and get home so we didn’t have to miss any work or other appointments.
It was a great weekend and I would love the chance to get down there again and do some diving when the weather is better.
