The same can be said about photography too. My own photos of tropical fish and sunsets offer little that has not already been commercially exploited infinitely over and over again by those with far more ability (and expensive equipment) than myself. Ultimately, however, I've come to the conclusion that such comparisons are completely irrelevant to my life and the lives of those around me. Indeed, why in the world would ANYONE ask me what breathing underwater is like, or sit and look at my picture of a Lionfish when a National Geographic magazine will provide the same information and in a very entertaining way to match?
Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright, who is often credited as the father of modern theater drama was unique in his time for depictions of ordinary people doing ordinary things at a time when going to see a play meant watching kings, queens, noblemen and otherwise stately individuals struggling in moral dilemmas of good versus evil. Aaron Copland's tribute to the ordinary working schmo has been immortalized in Fanfare for the Common Man -- one of today's most recognizable orchestral pieces. Echoing this very same sentiment, just about everything today, from the TV sitcoms like Friends that revolve around normal, otherwise mundane citizens, to the phenomena of Blogging and vanity websites is a testament to the fact that, as commoners we tend to be interested in other common folk; to the point that we will often value their ideas, opinions and oeuvres as much as, if not more than those proceeding from expert or famous sources. If this were not true, I would truly have nothing more to say about scuba diving but "go read a book about it!"
"Absolutely not," many would protest (and rightfully so). "I want to hear YOUR story -- not someone else's." Certainly, such a sentiment makes a person feel good inside -- we all like to feel needed... But much more importantly, the point is that there's something infinitely more intimate about reading a friend's Blog entry about any given topic than picking up a magazine article about the same thing, no matter how well written it may be. We all like to be part of something, and I would have my hope in writing my Blog the same as those reading it -- the establishment of some sort of kinship or bond that almost makes us friends.
This said, we had a very exciting summer. We had some good times, made a number of scuba diving trips which I will get into a little later. Most of the photos are already up on Flickr, all you need to do is click on the link at the right of the page. Speaking of those links, I have removed the link to my 2007 calendars. If you didn't get one, that's alright -- the 2008 calendars are already in the planning stage and I hope to get those completed and ready for distribution by the end of this month. That's one thing I learned with last year's run -- many people loved them, they said that the photography was excellent, but they came out too late to be useful. Most people had already bought (or received as gifts) all the calendars they needed. I plan to remedy that this year. Watch for the public announcement on this page!
I suppose that the most logical place to pick up from my last Blog entry would be talking about mid-July. When school let out for the summer, our first trip was out to Chiba where we attended a week-long Christian surfing and English camp. Why attend that? Well, for starters our church members were invited to participate by the camp's organizers, with whom we have a good relationship. We support a ministry called Christian Surfers International. Specifically, it's a husband and wife team who have made it their goal to teach the local surfers about Jesus. They're really great people who are fun to be around and talk to. They, in cooperation with a local university club, put together this camp, which was mainly focused on the young, university crowd, but since they've been running this camp for several years now, and no one from our church has been able to attend, we decided to provide some representation, just to check things out, encourage people back in Kofu to participate in next year's event, and just to show our interest in their endeavors. In the end, it was a week well spent, we got to meet and interact with some interesting people, do a bit of surfing and body boarding, and even meet with an old friend who used to work with us in Kofu, but moved out to the coast to be with her boyfriend who's a pro-surfer. I'd certainly go and visit again -- the only obstacle being the long trip. It was a good five hours, which included driving through the center of Tokyo. I still don't know if that was the best decision, but the alternative was a long detour that would take us pretty far off-course. Who knows. It's also a constant battle to balance time and money, since one can save a LOT of time by taking the highways and toll roads, but that ends up costing a lot of money. It's impossible to have both, I suppose.
Shortly after our return from Chiba, our church decided to take a trip out to the opposite side of the country -- Niigata Prefecture, which is on the Sea of Japan. The reason being, a major earthquake had struck the region on July 16th, and we wanted to provide some support and earthquake relief in the form of volunteer manpower.
The most interesting thing about this, is that Bonnie and I just about experienced this calamity first-hand, as we were actually scheduled to be in the area when then the earthquake hit. On the (long) weekend of July 14th, 15th and 16th, we had made plans to drive out to Sado Island, a small island just off the coast of Niigata. We had already booked a scuba diving charter to do some boat diving, and were ready to go, except that Mother Nature had other plans. That also happened to be the same weekend as one of the largest typhoons Japan has seen in a long time swept across the islands. Okinawa had already been nailed hard, leaving destruction, overturned cars and even a few fatalities in its wake. As it came across Honshu it lost power and speed. It also changed direction so that Sado Island would be missed but its sheer size caused high winds and waves that put our trip in jeopardy. I wouldn't exactly want to spend all that time and money to go out to Sado Island only to have our dives canceled due to the weather. Luckily we didn't have to pay any kind of deposit and the diving company understood our reasons for cancellation. We are still looking forward to making a future trip out to Sado, hopefully when it will be nice enough to do some diving.
The weekend came and went, but Monday morning we felt a minor earthquake in Kofu. Not 30 minutes later I received a text message on my cell phone from a friend of mine. It said:
"Aren't you glad you didn't go to Sado in the end?"
To which I responded, "How come?"
He answered me quickly, "HUGE earthquake off coast of Niigata right near Sado."
So I clicked on to the USGS (United States Geological Survey) website for earthquakes, and sure enough, a big ol' magnitude 7 quake had shaken up EXACTLY the area where we would have been... Pretty much within a couple kilometers of the epicenter. At no point do I doubt that we would have been in any danger of not surviving this event, but it's a very good thing we didn't go. All ferry service to/from Sado was suspended and some of the roads/highways were shut down due to damage. Both Bonnie and I had to return to work on Tuesday, and we most certainly would have been stuck out there, having to call our employer to explain the situation.
The aftermath was both shocking but at the same time fortuitous in that there were only 11 fatalities. On the shocking end, however, hundreds were injured, over 900 buildings were destroyed and over 10,000 homes were left without power. Even more seriously, the nearby nuclear power reactor had been damaged, forcing them to shut it down indefinitely, and the city's waste incineration facility was put out of commission, causing the city and nearby towns to have to export their trash to other centers.
When we returned from our trip to Chiba, a couple weeks had already passed since the earthquake, but assistance and relief was needed as much as ever. Our church managed to assemble a small team of volunteers that were able to spare almost a week from their everyday lives to make the trip out to Niigata and participate in relief projects.
As a quick aside, since July, I have had numerous requests from family and friends to see some pictures from our trip to Niigata. Luckily, I had my camera with me at all times and managed to capture some excellent footage. I will see about putting up a slideshow or presentation of our trip. There's lots of pictures showing the earthquake's destruction as well as what we were doing to help the local residents.
Most of our work did not involve earthquake survivors directly. The city of Kashiwazaki was well provided for in that regard, with many shelters, first aid and food stations, as well as an entire portable SDF (Self-Defence Force) military and naval base having been errected almost overnight. Driving through the city, it was evident that we were in a disaster zone. Demolished and partly demolished buildings littered the streets, police and military presence was visible at almost every street corner, and civilian traffic was far outnumbered by support vehicles, heavy machinery, construction equipment, dump trucks and other commercial vehicles retrofitted or conscripted into earthquake support duties. One of the most important tasks actually involved climbing on top of residents' houses and waterproofing their roofs using blue plastic tarps, as many clay tile shingles were shaken down and broken by the force of the quake. We were still in the tail end of rainy season so this was one of the more critical jobs and one that had to be done with the most expediency. Other jobs involved removing rubble, rebuilding and helping move peoples' belongings. The most interesting thing was that I ended up becoming the designated dump truck driver, having rented a MASSIVE dump truck from the local industrial vehicle rental shop, and hauling loads of scrap metal to a recycle yard across town. I've never driven a truck so big, and even though I maneuvered it successfully without accident or incident, everyone, starting with me, were amazed that my class of driver's license was actually sufficient to operate something of that magnitude. I think many young boys dream of driving a dump truck when they get older, and believe me, this was one big Tonka Truck. The dumping part was fun too. At first, I wasn't quite sure how to do it but a helpful recycle yard worker was very friendly and patient with me.
"Put the truck in neutral and put on your parking brake. Now activate the PTO clutch with this switch here, and use this lever to dump your load. Then, put the truck into gear, release the brake and move forward slowly to clear out the rest from the bed. Finally, push the lever in the opposite direction, and turn off the PTO when the truck bed comes back down."
It really was quite easy... The more challenging bit was understanding the guy as he only spoke in Japanese. Nevertheless, it was a neat experience, and I can add "driving a 4-ton dump truck" to the list of cool things I've done in my life.
After our volunteer trip out to Niigata, we spent some time in Kofu, but not long before we started our scuba diving trips. It would be too long and boring to provide the gory details for each and every one, so the photos from all of them are up on Flickr for anyone to look at.
Often times, otherwise simple tasks become complicated in Japan -- the language barrier being the most common culprit. Finding a scuba diving shop falls squarely into that category. The unique problems we face are not easily summarized... Perhaps the best way to talk about them is to just copy and paste a question that I posted up on a local scuba diving Internet forum. The answers to my questions are interesting enough as well, but for now, I think I'll just stick to the basics.
Topic: WANTED: Inexpensive diving on Izu
Hey everyone!
I don't know if this has been discussed before, but it seems that most of the previous threads have disappeared off the forum since the big server crash. Anyway, I just got back from diving in Izu the past two weekends. Did some dives in Osezaki and then another couple in Futo, on the other side of the peninsula. We dove IOP and Wakinohama.
It seems that just about all the dive shops in the area have a pretty standard price for fun dives -- a little expensive in my books. 12,600 yen seems to be par for the course. I have a dive buddy who always goes with a small, mom & pop shop that charges a few thousand less and has really cheap accommodations to boot (2000 yen a night I believe). Unfortunately, they don't seem to be terribly receptive to new (read: foreign) clientelle so when we tried to book with him for last weekend, we were given the cold shoulder and told "no" and "maybe next month." In addition, even if we WERE able to get in with them, there's no guarantee that they won't be busy and all booked up. It sucks to have to scrub a scuba trip because your fave LDS is all booked up. As a result, we ended up diving with Papalagi Divers, which wasn't so cheap.
My question to you all is -- do you know of any inexpensive outfits on Izu that you can recommend. My Japanese is passable enough to speak on the phone or make reservations -- so that part doesn't bother me... Although, if they have any English-speaking staff, that would be an added bonus.
But my main concerns are: getting a dive shop that:
1) costs less than 12,600 for 2 beach dives, and...
2) has access to inexpensive overnight accommodations (of any kind).
Ideally, I'd like to develop a relationship with one or two companies that would help me grow over time. I live about 3.5 hours away from Izu by car and my goal is to do at least one dive a month. I'm not a terribly experienced diver yet (got my OW card in April and have logged 14 dives to date) so it would be nice to have a DM or guide that will help out when/where needed but my ideal goal would be to get to the point where I could dive (with a buddy) but without a guide. In other words, a company that would eventually allow me to rent just the tank (as I own all my other gear). I think companies like Jester (http://www.izu.co.jp/~jester/) do allow you to do just that... But I know nothing about them. It's always good to get personal recommendations from other divers.
Anyway, please and thank you for everyone's help!
Well, there you have it. That really sums it up right there. Yes, we got some good diving in, but it cost a lot more than I had hoped to pay, and we had to do a LOT of research (most of which was not very fruitful) to find a decent dive shop, even though dive shops are a dime a dozen out on Izu Peninsula.
Later on, I posted a reply to my own message in case you're wondering about the eventual outcome of our efforts.
Thanks for the tips received so far (both in the forum and via PM)... I'll keep everyone updated on my progress in hunting for cheap dive shops...
Just finished a 3-day dive trip in Futo -- went with Papalagi again for one day and I finally managed to get in with my dive buddy's group -- the one that's afraid of foreigners.
Well, he didn't seem too terrified of me -- it was inexpensive enough too... He's a very skilled dive guide and he showed us some wonderful stuff underwater, but I cannot consider him as a serious option on a regular basis -- the most important consideration being the fact that his (cheap) accommodations will only hold 3 people, whereas if I want to bring my wife, there would be four of us. Second, being the foreigner thing again -- seems that 2 foreigners is OK right now, but faced with the prospect of taking a third may be just a bit much for him still at this point.
Thanks to ciedd for the new tips (that I haven't heard of before) and to Bill: help me figure out a way for us regular folk to get on-base... You've got a hellava good deal... Or like Mar Scuba said -- bring some extra tanks with you and let us dive with you... ;-)
Anyway, it was a lovely, lovely weekend. I didn't get as many good pictures this time -- but I thought I'd share my favorite from Sunday... It's some kind of Batfish I believe... From what limited resources I have, I THINK it's a Platax orbicularis (Orbiculate or Round Batfish). Some call it the "ugly duckling" of batfishes, but I respectfully disagree... :-) There was a pair of them very close to the Yokobama entry point. (Taken with a Ricoh Caplio RR30 in a Sea&Sea DX3000 underwater housing).
Just in case you're curious about the Batfish photo that I referred to in my post, you can find him on my Flickr page with the rest of the diving pictures.
At this point, I've logged about 24 dives since we got our dive cards in April. My goal is to go about once a month for as long as the water is warm enough to wear a wetsuit (versus a drysuit, something that requires a special training course and the suit itself tends to be quite expensive). It's not that long of a drive -- about 3.5 hours to Izu, so it's easily achievable on a regular weekend. The cost issue is always on the forefront so we have to be very careful how we spend our money.
Now, we are in October, and if you've been following my blogs, you may remember that the Nissan Serena minivan we bought from auction is up for shakken (mandatory bi-annual mechanical inspection) this month... Which is going to completely blow the diving budget for the month. Shakken will probably run me about 70,000 yen, which is just over $700 for all the folks back home. The real adventure this time is going to involve me getting it done, as I've decided to attempt something called "user shakken" or "self shakken." This means, rather than taking your car to a shop, you bring the vehicle to the inspection center yourself and do all the paperwork yourself too. Yes, it's a huge pain in the butt, but the payoff is saving at least $200 in mechanics' and paperwork fees. I'm sure I'll have a full, adventure-laden Blog entry in store for everyone when that's over and done with.