Advice on Scuba Diving in Izu Peninsula and Izu Islands, Japan

The Izu Peninsula is a mountainous peninsula about an hour train ride from central Tokyo, but to get down into the peninsula travel time is about three hours plus. Izu Peninsula offers the most popular and accessible scuba diving destinations on the Japanese mainland. Many dive shops are out of the Tokyo area and dive excursions often begin in Tokyo train stations.

The Izu Peninsula is most famous for its many natural hot springs and resorts and for Japan's first dive sites. Interestingly, the peninsula itself is part of the Philippine plate and is thrusting into the main island of Honshu creating the hot springs, Tokyo's earthquakes and amazing underwater coastal features ideal for scuba diving. This is an amazing, unique dive destination.

The eastern shore of the Izu Peninsula has the most popular and crowded dive sites due to the accessibility to Tokyo and its many trains. Some of the dive sites off eastern shore are so popular that divers actually stand in line to enter into the water! The more remote and harder to get to western coast is much more laid back and unspoiled. The most beautiful west coast dive destination is reportedly the little bay town of Osezaki.

Izu群岛是一条岛，向南延伸到Izu半岛。Izu群岛靠近大陆，可以通过渡轮和从东京的短途航班进入，并提供了良好的潜水地点和礁石。1zplayHachijo岛是一个很棒的岛屿。它已经建立了潜水地点和潜水商店。1zplay

The remote Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Bonin Islands, are the very farthest islands in the long chain of islands off of Tokyo (and technically part of Tokyo). The islands extend far into the Pacific and into warmer southern waters ideal for scuba diving. The remote, hard to get to,Ogasawara群岛are featured in a separate article about Japan's dive destinations.

For scuba divers looking to dive close to the Japanese mainland, the established dive sites off the Izu Peninsula will not disappoint. The peninsula's popular east coast dive sites are very easy to access via train, hop flight or vehicle from Tokyo and Yokohama. There are also trains from Kyoto and Nagoya that make their way down in the peninsula.

Izu Oceanic Park on the eastern coast of Izu Peninsula is not far from Tokyo and a great place to start a Japanese scuba diving adventure. Izu Kaiyo Koen, or Izu Ocean Park (IOP) was the first Japanese dive site officially designated for scuba diving back in 1965. Only a 45-minute bullet train ride from Tokyo, this eastern coast destination offers dives offshore from the hot spring resort town of Atami. This is also a great harbor to catch the ferry to the Izu Islands. The dive sites in the oceanic park reportedly offer great dive conditions year round. The park is great for families and offers salt-water swimming pools, showers and rinse tanks. The rock formations that jut into the water from the beach offer some great dive sites. The dive site known as IOP Beach-Left is the historic dive site that was the first in Japan. It offers a beginners level dive and a lot of marine life. IOP Beach-Right is a more advanced dive site where the bottom tapers down to about 30 meters.

Off the western coast of the Izu Peninsula are other famous dive sites off the small harbor town of Osezaki. The great Mt. Fuji with its snowy peak is visible from Osezaki. To get to the dive sites here you need to tote your gear, sometimes a mile across the black sand, to access the shore dive entry points within Osezaki Bay and just outside the bay as well. Once you get past the surf, the visibility here is known to be consistently good. At 110 feet you enter a zone of healthy reef and marine life decorated with red sea fans and abundant coral. You will most likely spot resident Japanese golden hawkfish, Devil scorpionfish and more Dragon morays. The Sand anemones along the sandy bottom are large and beautiful, often with purple tips.

As you drive down the Izu Peninsula there are popular dive sites such as Futo, a site off the town of Yawatano, famous for Japanese eagle rays. Here you have to carry your gear through a beach in order to access the shore diving. This location can be very popular and crowded especially on Japanese holidays and warm weekends. The good news is that summer water temperatures stay as high as 27 degrees C (or the lower 80 degree F) range. The reef offers lots of marine life such as the tiger cowrie, a tiny fish that mimics the coral polyps. At this location you can see bright yellow and black armored Pinecone fish, gold and white Dragon moray hiding out in crevasses or Clark's anemone fish hanging out in their anemone homes. The coral here is reportedly large and healthy and you can spot rays, Frogfish, Marbled rockfish and Zebra crab among many more inhabitants.

The small island just off the peninsula is called Mikimoto, accessible via a bridge from the mainland located in the Bay of Toba. The waters off Mikimoto offers deep, clear scuba diving, recommended for advanced divers due to the notoriously strong currents. Mikimoto is known as the Pearl Island and offers pearl diving shows by traditional, Japanese, female pearl divers. As mentioned, this area is for advanced divers and is worth a trip down the Izu Peninsula. The dive site is famous for the schooling Hammerhead sharks that frequent the area in the summer months. There is also a pearl diving museum where you learn that the island itself is named after Mikimoto Kokichi, the first person to successfully cultivate pearls back in 1893. The Toba Aquarium is very close to the Pearl Island.

Hachijo Island是乘船或飞机，这是Izu半岛Izu群岛受欢迎的潜水目的地。1zplay距离东京290公里，该岛位于日本河流（黑杂）沿线（黑杂），尽管水域仍然有点寒冷，但当前的供应供应了支持惊人的珊瑚礁，海洋生物，因此伟大的水肺潜水的水域。1zplay岛上有海岸潜水地点和船潜水地点。1zplayYaene，Nazumado，Sokodo和Ochiyogahama都可以从岛上的海岸潜水。1zplay关于Hachijo的重要部分是，礁石只是该岛的许多海上。夏季，水温范围从最高至25度C（77摄氏度），冬季在18度C（64度F）范围内。平均可见度约为50-60英尺。一些值得注意的海上船只可进入的潜水地点是东北海岸附近的Kyokuchouha1zplayma，以及东南海岸附近的Uroune。

While most divers dive the Izu Peninsula in the summer months, consider diving in the winter with a dry suit. Visibility increases and crowds greatly decrease.

前往Izu半岛和Izu群岛的潜水目1zplay的地通常涉lol赛事中心及飞往东京。Tokyo's Narita International Airport, otherwise known as New Tokyo International Airport, handles most of the international flights. Tokyo International Airport, also called Haneda Airport, traffics most of the domestic flights. From Tokyo, there are many hop flights to the seemingly countless towns and islands, making up the long chain of possible destinations.

Izu半岛是潜水在日本开始的地方，该地区提供了许多潜水商1zplay店和指导。1zplay说英语的游客面临的挑战是找到一家商店，其内部工作人员和潜水教练会说英语。1zplay英国当地人经营的一家著名1zplay的潜水店是东京的Mar Scuba。1zplay该商店专门研究Izu半岛，并在Atami Station每日对面的麦当劳会面。东京欧洲潜水员是另一家俱乐部/1zplay潜水商店，可满足英语和瑞典语潜水员的迎合。1zplay这家潜水店位于东京，周末和一日游，沿着半岛进1zplay行大潜水。Toyko的Triu1zplaymph潜水服务是一所较小的潜水学校，还提供前往半岛的旅行。这家小商店有自己的潜水船，可以迎合家庭。1zplay

In Ito, along the eastern coast of the peninsula not far from Tokyo, there are several dive shops. Bonzo Divers is a shop that regularly dives the eastern dive sites and has an interest and love for the marine life. On the west coast is probably one of the most beautiful dive locations in the bay of Osezaki. The dive shops known as Mic21 are a retail sporting goods shops that cater to scuba divers and are found throughout Tokyo and Japan. The Tokyo shops offers dive courses and excursions, specializing in the Izu Peninsula and are resources for divers wishing to access the remote western coast of the peninsula.

潜水员潜1zplay水伊豆群岛,一个好place to fly into is Hachijojima Airport, on the Izu Island of Hachijo. The flight from Tokyo takes only 45 minutes. Hachijo offers great diving and is a getaway from the big city of Tokyo and the busy Izu Peninsula. Another way to get to Hachijo is the ocean liner ran by Toakai Cruise Line that departs nightly from Tokyo Bay and arrives into Hachijo the next morning. Once on the island the resort known as Seapiross on the northeast part of the island is a great resource for scuba divers who want to explore the islands' shore and boat diving locations. The hotel has a dive shop that offers scuba equipment for those who want to shore dive. The shop also has its own dive boat that offers offshore excursions. The resort is a short drive from Hachijojima Airport.

In general, ferries are most easily accessible to the Izu Islands from the peninsula's harbor towns of Takehiba Pier, Atami and Ito.