Scuba diving is very popular in okinawa, but very expensive compared to, say, South-East Asia — you’ll usually be looking at around ¥12,000 for a day’s diving off a boat plus an additional ¥5,000+ if you need gear rental. For a 3-day certification course you’ll need to fork out a cool ¥70,000 or so. To top it off many shops don’t accept credit cards, so you’ll need to carry a thick wad of yen to pay for it all. The language barrier can also be an issue, with most shops only set up to cater to Japanese-speaking tourists, although Reef Encounters in Chatan on okinawa Island and Umicōza on Ishigaki are welcome exceptions.

If all this doesn’t put you off, there is some world-class diving to look forward to: particular highlights include the manta rays of Miyako and Ishigaki and the hammerhead sharks and underwater ruins of Yonaguni. The waters are generally divable all year, although water temperature fluctuates between 22°C in the winter to around 29°C in summer. Most Japanese divers wear a 5mm full-body wetsuit, and dive shops usually provide aluminum tanks with American-style fittings.

It should also be noted that a lot of the diving on okinawa can be done from the shore (i.e. boats are not required). In that case, you can get full gear rental and tanks for around ¥5,000, or if you just need tanks then it will only be around ¥700 per tank.