copps
Premium Member
Well guys, it's been a while since I shared one of my fish travel stories... but now it is time again... 
From the end of November until just before Christmas I was away in Southern Japan and Guam. For those of you who don't know, I am a contracted systems engineer that works on a submarine trainer for the Navy. I travel to the six US submarine bases (including Pearl Harbor, HI), and the seventh in Guam sporadically. Last month I had two and a half weeks of work on Guam. When I travel to these locations, I often take advantage of my work paying for my plane ticket and I do some personal travel on the front end... I've done this for years, and this was my sixth or seventh trip to Guam... and like I've done before, I stopped off in Japan for almost a week before heading to Guam. I come from a military family... my grandfather was killed in WWII when my father was just two years old, and my father was a pilot in the Air Force that flew over 200 combat missions in Vietnam and fortunately survived... or you would not be reading this thread! Ironically my father was on Guam before I was born... the officer's club he frequented is now a Mongolian barbeque restaurant I've eaten at. I take great pride in helping our great nation and while the risk I take on is nothing compared to what my father and grandfather have, I contribute to the training of our nation's submariners.
This will be a LONG thread... I saw many nice aquariums in Japan and did some incredible diving... and in Guam I spent much time underwater, even collecting my own fish that made it back with me. I have hundreds of photos to share and it will take some time...
I flew into Osaka Japan to visit my friend of years Koji Wada, owner of Blue Harbor. This is a very well known and respected retail, wholesale, and maintenance business... they get a good bit of the uber rare and expensive fish that enter the trade... and I love my visits here for that and many other reasons. This was my first trip here though that I had the opportunity to dive. My trip was supposed to be in the summer, yet the installation of our new trainer got pushed back to the point that I'd be diving southern Japan in Winter. The area we dived was Wakayama prefecture... which has about the same latitude as the Carolinas in the US... I had one mission really... witness the largest and arguably most beautiful dwarf angel Centropyge interrpta! The water temperature was manageable in the high 60s... I dived my 5-4-3 mm wetsuit which was borderline but worked... my Japanese friends dived drysuits... which helped in the water... but REALLY helped topside... the air temperature was in the low 40s!!! On the second day we dived the wind was HOWLING... like getting out of a hot tub in the winter... Anyway... I'll start sharing some of the many photos I have...
It was not long after arriving in Osaka we took off for Wakayama... I was anxious to get in the water...
A beautiful drive getting away from the population density of Osaka... Wakayama is known for its oranges... and ironically the diving there too reminds me of Florida in terms of the coral cover and water temperatures... of course the species diversity is much higher though... there were many of these tunnels we drove through...
And a room with a view in Wakayama...
Balcony view showing a rainbow...
And the land of Centropyge interrupta... awaiting me!
More to come...
Copps
From the end of November until just before Christmas I was away in Southern Japan and Guam. For those of you who don't know, I am a contracted systems engineer that works on a submarine trainer for the Navy. I travel to the six US submarine bases (including Pearl Harbor, HI), and the seventh in Guam sporadically. Last month I had two and a half weeks of work on Guam. When I travel to these locations, I often take advantage of my work paying for my plane ticket and I do some personal travel on the front end... I've done this for years, and this was my sixth or seventh trip to Guam... and like I've done before, I stopped off in Japan for almost a week before heading to Guam. I come from a military family... my grandfather was killed in WWII when my father was just two years old, and my father was a pilot in the Air Force that flew over 200 combat missions in Vietnam and fortunately survived... or you would not be reading this thread! Ironically my father was on Guam before I was born... the officer's club he frequented is now a Mongolian barbeque restaurant I've eaten at. I take great pride in helping our great nation and while the risk I take on is nothing compared to what my father and grandfather have, I contribute to the training of our nation's submariners.This will be a LONG thread... I saw many nice aquariums in Japan and did some incredible diving... and in Guam I spent much time underwater, even collecting my own fish that made it back with me. I have hundreds of photos to share and it will take some time...
I flew into Osaka Japan to visit my friend of years Koji Wada, owner of Blue Harbor. This is a very well known and respected retail, wholesale, and maintenance business... they get a good bit of the uber rare and expensive fish that enter the trade... and I love my visits here for that and many other reasons. This was my first trip here though that I had the opportunity to dive. My trip was supposed to be in the summer, yet the installation of our new trainer got pushed back to the point that I'd be diving southern Japan in Winter. The area we dived was Wakayama prefecture... which has about the same latitude as the Carolinas in the US... I had one mission really... witness the largest and arguably most beautiful dwarf angel Centropyge interrpta! The water temperature was manageable in the high 60s... I dived my 5-4-3 mm wetsuit which was borderline but worked... my Japanese friends dived drysuits... which helped in the water... but REALLY helped topside... the air temperature was in the low 40s!!! On the second day we dived the wind was HOWLING... like getting out of a hot tub in the winter... Anyway... I'll start sharing some of the many photos I have...
It was not long after arriving in Osaka we took off for Wakayama... I was anxious to get in the water...
A beautiful drive getting away from the population density of Osaka... Wakayama is known for its oranges... and ironically the diving there too reminds me of Florida in terms of the coral cover and water temperatures... of course the species diversity is much higher though... there were many of these tunnels we drove through...
And a room with a view in Wakayama...
Balcony view showing a rainbow...
And the land of Centropyge interrupta... awaiting me!
More to come...
Copps
