Did you know that Tokyo measures from one end to the other more than 1.000km?!
You don’t believe me?
But it is true! There are several islands in the south of Tokyo which you can reach by ferry leaving Tokyo center and are taking from 3 up to 25hours (!) – which is the southest point of Tokyo.
http://www.hachijo.info/
And one of those islands is Hachijo – which is famous for diving and marine sports. It features a special warm stream which is called Kuroshio (Black Current) which bring a lot of marine life with it.
Another nice feature is that you can visit this island by plane, just taking 45min from Tokyo!
Perfect to spend a long weekend there for diving…
Together with my dive buddy Yuko we joint the local dive shop called Bientos which is run by a nice young team hunting for the big ones.
As soon we arrived we were brought to the next harbor where we took our 3 dives daily to dive points close by.
The water wasn’t as warm as expected as the black current was gone after a recent typhoon.
So our body and soul was constantly refreshed by 23 down to 17degC cold water – brrrrr.
Nevertheless Hachijo offers you a huge variety on fish and other marine life.
From macro like nudibranches, blennies or Yuzen - the generic fish of Hachijo (Butterfly Fish)
Over many colorful groupers or swarms 
Until the bigger species like turtles
& finally the rare Thresher Shark – famous for his long tail
We were really lucky to get a glimpse on this big fellow for such long time. Normally they are very shy, but this one was observing us and kept hovering around our heads. Spectacular!
In the evening we all had dinner together and took the chance to try all the nice local food. Beside the usual Japanese Izakaya food Hachijo is famous for a very special fish. Not the type makes it special – the way the make it and especially the way it smells. The name speaks for itself – Kusaya … Stink Fish!!!
This fish is kept in kind of gravy made of its on guts and kept until is half rotten. The air-dry (kill some flies ;-) and serve it – voila!
The smell was unbelievable – you can be lucky that this picture doesn’t smell:
After hours of eating and drinking, laughing and crying (from the smell of the fish) and meeting so many nice people – we had to freeze this enjoyable moment for eternity – say CHEEEEESE
Tokyo Divers
This fish is kept in kind of gravy made of its on guts and kept until is half rotten. The air-dry (kill some flies ;-) and serve it – voila!
The smell was unbelievable – you can be lucky that this picture doesn’t smell:
After hours of eating and drinking, laughing and crying (from the smell of the fish) and meeting so many nice people – we had to freeze this enjoyable moment for eternity – say CHEEEEESETokyo Divers
