As if dolphining out in Mikurajima wasn't enough, the following summer holiday saw me take part in another two diving escapades, the first taking place on the Izu Peninsula. Here, about 100 kilometers south-west of Tokyo, I was to receive scuba lessons as part of an PADI Open Water Diver Course in order to obtain a diving license.
Although it may be hard to tell from the pictures, this was in the middle of the Japanese summer season, and thus ridiculously hot which meant that probably the hardest part of the training was dragging yourself from the preparation area, accross the street down to the beach and eventually into the ocean wearing several kilos of diving equipment.
In the water we went through various drills, such as what to do if you lose your respirator, how to clear you mask of water and so on. As you can see in the underwater shots, the water around Tokyo is not the cleanest in the world. In fact, as our instructor pointed out, it bore a remarkble resemblance to miso soup...but thankfully I would get a chance to see how beautiful it can be underwater only a week later in Okinawa.
The whole course took all of two days and at the end I was the proud owner of a PADI diving license!