WAKAYAMA: DIVING THE LAND OF WATER AND FIRE

Colourful corals meet bizarre cold water critters at the northernmost tropical reef in the world

2020-06-17 - By Andrew Marriott

There is a place where you can dive amidst gardens of colourful soft corals in the morning, and then hike ancient pilgrimage routes amongst towering millennia-old trees after lunch. After breakfast, you can swim with giant groupers and turtles, and then after lunch, visit towering waterfalls while wrapping it all up with dinner with monks in their monastery high in the mountains. The only thing as stunning as the geography of the land is the seascape that begins right at the shoreline. This profoundly spiritual place is also far off most international tourists’ radar, so there is a sense of peace and tranquility. All this can be found just over an hour’s drive from a major international airport.

No, this is not Bali. This is Wakayama; this is Japan.

WHITE SANDS, DIVE SHOPS, AND NOT A FOREIGN TOURIST TO BE FOUND

Wakayama Prefecture is located just south of Osaka, with the principal city being about 30 minutes from Kansai International Airport (KIX). I had the privilege of doing a land shoot in Wakayama for ASIAN Geographic in December 2018, and we focused on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites that are abundant in the area.

I was blown away by what I saw and experienced, but there was one thing that left me feeling like I was missing something. As we drove around the coastline, I noticed how clean it was and the clarity of the water, but I saw something else: dive shops, a lot of dive shops. I’ve been diving for 20 years and in the dive media business for a pretty good chunk of that, but I had never heard of diving in this part of Japan. Okinawa, sure, but on the main island of Honshu, this far north? Never.

After that trip, in one of our post-production discussions, I asked about the diving, and the local tourism department thought that was something they might like to promote. Lucky for me, I was asked to do a follow-up story, and this time diving was to be a part of it. So after arriving in Osaka, we headed to Kushimoto, which is about two hours south of the airport. This is a place of rugged coastlines, interspersed with some stunning beaches. Orange torii gates sit in the water in front of islands, and you get the feeling you are in a storybook version of Japan. This is an older Japan, more traditional. As we hit the water for our first dive, I also found that it was an undiscovered diver’s paradise.

This profoundly spiritual place is also far off most international tourists’ radar, so there is a sense of peace and tranquility

BIG FISH AND DRAMATIC SEASCAPES

The first thing I noticed when I rolled off the boat was that the water was warmer than I expected it to be, but it is still not board shorts temperature by any stretch. The latitude here is very close to San Francisco, but the Kuroshio Current brings warm water up from the equator. In the summer, temperatures hover around 26°C, and in the winter it drops to 15°C. If you hopped in San Francisco Bay in the summer, 15°C would be the warmest you could hope for!

Our first dives we went looking for the giant groupers that make their home in this area.

The bottom in the area we explored was covered in big, dramatic rocks; it reminded me a lot of Lake Tahoe in California. Mixed in these rocks were some beautiful patches of vividly coloured soft coral. I saw dozens of reasonably large groupers, often in groups. Most of these were in the metre-long range. My guide was disappointed we didn’t see any of the big ones, but that was probably my fault as I kept fixating on cool things with my camera. I think we only did about a quarter of the planned dive area!

That afternoon we went back out in a torrential downpour – it was the peak of the rainy season – and went looking for pretty colours. I had mentioned how barren the rocks were in the morning, and I think the guide wanted to balance things out. Wow, did he ever succeed!

The second dive took place around an underwater hill, and we went all the way around. The entire area is full of drop-offs, boulders, swim-throughs, and plenty of marine life. There was one place that captured my attention, and that was an impressive cliff and overhang that stuck out into the current. Turning my lights on the colours just exploded. Pink, red, orange, and yellow soft corals were abundant, and schools of anthias, fusiliers, damselfish, and even a couple of turtles kept us company. The scene was much more reminiscent of a dive in the Philippines or Micronesia, than that of the rugged west coast of North America (which is what had expected).

The whole place is a fascinating blend of the colourful life from the tropical seas and the bizarre creatures of the cold northern waters. It turns out that this is the northernmost tropical reef in the world, at least according to the dive operators there. Huge cold water lobsters that numbered well over 100 sat next to nudibranchs and whip coral shrimp that I regularly find in places like Saipan. In one moment I felt like I was in northern California and the next in the Philippines. The experience is almost surreal, and there is nowhere else like it.

EXCITING SWIM-THROUGHS AND TOWERING SEAMOUNTS

The next day we moved down the coast to Susami, and after spending a night listening to the waves break on the beach while staying in a traditional Japanese guesthouse, I was ready to roll. I was surprised when we pulled into a small fishing port. Here was a nicely equipped dive shop, but there was not a dive boat to be seen. Imagine my surprise when we loaded up and boarded one of the small commercial fishing boats.

Usually, commercial fishing and diving are the antitheses of each other, so the journalist side of me kicked into overdrive as I talked to the dive operators and the fishermen. It turns out they have an incredible arrangement I have never seen anywhere else. The fishing boats make more money when they take out divers, but diving is pretty seasonal and mostly on weekends. The rest of the time the boats go out and fish. I know what commercial fishing does to a dive site, so I was pretty skeptical when we jumped in.

As I descended to the rocky bottom, set up my camera, and then looked around, I was surprised to find the area teeming with fish,

and not just little stuff! Big schools of anchovies flashed in the shallows, while bigger jacks and even a few tuna came in and hunted them.

Down lower were the usual collection of pretty reef fish, damselfish and coral groupers. It was an impressive display of life that was further accentuated by the dozens of big lobsters out walking around.

The focus of this dive was a series of giant rocks and long swim-throughs. I was impressed as the boulders had nice patches of colourful soft coral on them, which made the tunnels more than just barren stretches of stone. In the dark areas, I found my old friends the glassfish and sweepers, constant companions on many a wreck dive. Between dives, I asked the boat crew if they fished in the area. They looked at me like I had just grown a second head – of course they don’t fish here! The fishermen intentionally don’t fish the dive sites, and they have expanded into undeclared protected areas. Seeing commercial fishermen protecting dive sites rich in big fish was a mind-blowing experience. They got a good laugh at my expense as we headed out into the open water towards a seamount that towers up out of the deep.

There are a series of seamounts off the coast of Wakayama, and they make fantastic dive sites.

The area also has a six-metre difference in water level between high and low tide, so some areas are prone to strong tidal currents. This worked against us, as we were forced to dive what they considered a lesser site.

Their definition of lesser is very different than mine. This seamount was awesome. The visibility was a very solid 25 metres, the water blue, the current manageable, and the number of big fish was incredible. On the seamount itself, soft corals grew in dense patches, while the bottom contour was almost violent in how dramatic it was. You can tell this is a place where the Earth is still in constant motion.

Above the mount, there were swarms of anthias feeding in the current. Don’t misunderstand me, this was not Raja Ampat, but it was very good. There were a couple of schools of one-metre-plus sized groupers that hovered over the rocks. Further out in the deep blue, the tuna and jacks fed. The yellowfin tuna

It turns out that this is the northernmost tropical reef in the world, at least according to the dive operators there

were the most impressive as they shot through the water like silver coloured missiles.

Climbing back into a high-sided fishing boat in pretty heavy surf was a little interesting, but when I got on deck, I was just totally blown away. The guide told me to come back and we’d spend some time out on the serious seamounts way out. They told me we’d find tiger sharks, hammerheads, and even bigger schools of tuna. Well, count me in, I can’t wait for next time!

WAY MORE THAN DIVING

Unfortunately, I had to wrap up my diving and do a land shoot for the next five days. However, the combination of the land and water is what makes this place so unique. We went to the home of soy sauce, had beers on a perfect white sand beach, went white-water rafting on a wooden raft that you had to stand up in, and saw some stunning waterfalls.

All these activities paled in comparison to the UNESCO World Heritage sites. I was privileged to shoot a festival where massive torches are carried down ancient stone steps from a temple in the clouds down to the foot of the tallest waterfall in Japan. We followed that up with night walks in a 1,000-year-old cemetery high in the mountains where an ancient monk has meditated for the last 800 years. That night I went to sleep listening to the bells of the temples, and I awoke to the morning chants of the monks.

When I described this area as reminding me of Bali, I meant it. In both cases, the diving is excellent, if a little different. The land activities and cultural activities are very similar, and the feeling of an ancient way of life permeates. There is one big difference – the crowds. Wakayama is quiet and still very local; there are no busloads of tourists swamping the sites. I went in peak season, and I ran into only a few foreigners; the rest of the tourists were older Japanese coming on weekend trips from Osaka and Kyoto (which is only two hours away by train). I have also been there in the middle of winter and had the entire place to myself. There are still undiscovered paradises in the world; I just never expected to find one in the middle of Japan.