Information on
Ogasawara Diving and Islands
Bonin Islands
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Where is Ogasawara?
Ogasawara Islands (Bonin Islands) are located around 620 miles SSE of Tokyo.
Jump to More Informatin on Ogasawara.Underwater Videos
Chichijima
- ダイビングVlog】晩秋の小笠原諸島父島ダイビング!(3:26 min.)
- 小笠原ダイビング(01) SONY NEX5N 16mm Diving in the Ogasawara Islands Japan 01(2:28 min. no BGM)
ポイント名: 父島 日吉丸、バラ沈 - 小笠原ダイビング(03) SONY NEX5N 16mm Diving in the Ogasawara Islands Japan 03 (2:42 min. no BGM)
ポイント名: 父島 北の一つ岩、閂ロック - 【4K】小笠原諸島父島の海にダイブ!(7.14 min.)
- Ogasawara Islands Dives, Japan. at PelagicProductionsUW(7:02 min. incl. Mukojima)
Hahajima
- Scuba diving japan in ogasawara underwater video (22:43 min.)
- scuba diving japan in ogasawara underwater video (22m 43s)
- 小笠原諸島・母島のダイビング【絶景と感動の連続】(23:26 min. including summary and advice. Turn on )
Mukojima Islands (Kater Island)
- 小笠原ダイビング(02) SONY NEX5N 16mm Diving in the Ogasawara Islands Japan 02 (3:03 min. no BGM)
ポイント名: 聟島列島(ケータ) マグロ穴、東のサンゴ - 小笠原諸島 日帰りケータ(聟島)列島遠征 マグロ穴より好きなポイント (7:50 min. Turn on )
General Diving Point Inforation
小笠原諸島のダイビングが超おすすめ!【絶対後悔しない7つの魅力】(20:05 min. incl. advice. Turn on )Transportation
"Ogasawara Maru"
- Sailing Schedule and Fares
- Package Tours
- Ship Guide
- Marine Traffice Information (curent position etc.)
- Vessel Specification:
Length Overall (LOA):150m, Width: 20m, Gross Tonnage: 11035, Year Built: 2016. - Ogasawara Kaiun
Owner of "Ogasawara Mau"
Inquiry: from U.S. 011-81-3-3451-5171
Currently, it is the only way to go to Ogasawara Islands. It leaves Takeshiba Sanbashi at Port of Tokyo once a week and arrive at Futani Port in Chichi-jima after almost 24 hours.
We tend to forget that it is part of Tokyo.
Be prepared! 24 hours is long hours, even when sea is calm. Do not forget pills for seasickness!
Here's a report:
Spending 29 Hours On Ferry! Tokyo To Chichijima (1h 52m 51s)
Travel by a popular YouTuber. His trip was by "Salvia Maru" (pinch hitter) and took five more hours than "Ogasawara Maru." (His room was "the best special league".)
Kyosho Maru
This is a cargo ship, but has accomodation up for 9 people. Schedule is not regular. Here's a report from a birdwatcher from Hong Kong traveled to Ogasawara on this ship.
Trip Report: Tokyo - Ogasawara (Bonin Islands) Passage, March 1-5, 1999 On the Slow Boat to Hahajima
Bird watching trip by Jim Hackett, Hong Kong
Airflight?
No, not yet, fortunately (as of December 2023). Please check "Status of new airport"
Accommodation
You have plenty places to choose from. Please refer :
"Stay" page
at Ogasawara Mura Tourism Association.
Sakaiura Family
Phone: (4998) 2-2530, Fax: 04998-2-2080
Address: Aza-Sakaiura, Chihijima, Ogasawara-mura, Tokyo 100-2101
This is the place I stayed a long time ago. Maybe 10 minutes from Futani port where "Ogasawara Maru" arrives.
It sits at the top of slope overlooking the bay, a little outside "down town" which is closer to the port on low land.
In th evening: If you are a person who prefers enjoying the nature to going out for drink in the evening, you would like the place. Or, you can go out to enjoy the nature.
"Enjoying the nature" is.., let's see, for example;
to look for "green pepe" (luminous mushrooms, like a firefly) in the woods in the evening or to wait in the dark on the beach for green turtles to appear to raise eggs.
Diving Operation
For the list, please refer:Scuba Diving page
at Tokyo Chichijima IslandHere are some of the dive services that have been established for decades.
Kaizin
Long established dive service on Chichi-Jima. Their name appears often in diving magazines.
Papa's Diving Studio
(This is the dive operation our group dived with, long time ago.)
Ogasawara Diving Center
Urashiman
***All above and other dive services in Ogasawara islands are based on Chichjima, except one on Hahajima. (These two are only inhabited islands among Ogasawara Islands.)
I heard that many of Japanese diving instructors have experience working at dive operations overseas. So Generally speaking, Japanese dive operations seem to be able to accept foreign divers with no problem. (if they speak English, I imagine.)
Underwater Photos & Photographers
- Ogasawara's four seasons and the sea at Kaizin
- Diving the Ogasawara Islands at Indopacificimages
- Photo Gallery "Spermwhales in Ogasawara"
My old mini albums:
They are among the first pages posted on this website in 1995. with black and white photos.
Cruise & Whale Watching
- 小笠原諸島2016 Ogasawara Islands (6:59 min.)
- 【島旅】小笠原諸島最北部の無人島群 聟島列島を巡る (6:20 min. Mukoshima Islands)
- 西之島クルーズ 2016 (Nishinoshima Cruise)
- Dolphins and whales found in Ogasawara
- The excitement of meeting a whale. If you go to Ogasawara, you should definitely do whale watching!
web pages:
Diving Articles
Wrecks in Ogasawara
by Charles T. WhippleReport on wreck diving around Chichi-jima. If you have ever dived in Ogasawara, his article will make you miss diving there. I thank Mr. Whipple very much for sending his reports for my site.
Tokyo's Once Forbidden Isles
(not web page)
"Sport Diver" October 1996 Vol 4 No. 5
Story by Charles T. Whipple, Photos by KAIZIN Diving Service
"Although these subtropical islands were discovered in 1583, Japanese were forbidden to go there until 1876. Today, the islands are a paradise for the Japanese and anyone else who loves the ocean."
This is the first article that I have seen about diving in Ogasawara Islands in English diving magazines or on the Internet. I am glad !
It is a rather comprehensive introduction of Ogasawara, not only on diving but also on other activities, history, vegetation, so forth.
Charles Whipple is a writer who has lived in Japan for more than 20 years. He is an avid diver and often contributes diving articles to Australian, New Zealander, Japanese, and American diving magazines. He's fluent in Japanese and willing to help any diver get acquainted in Japan.
Note 12/11/2023:
I just learned that he passed away in 2019. Rest in peace.
He kindly offered to post his diving articles on my then-new website in the middle of the 1990s. I had no idea about his other work and just came across the following article:
“STORYTELLER 7: A TRIBUTE TO CHARLES WHIPPLE”
— PROLIFIC WORDSMITH —
Books
- マッコウの海・小笠原
(Sperm Whales In Ogasawara)
by Takashi Uzu, 1998
ISBN-10:4635590321
ISBN-13:978-4635590327 - Journey to Ogasawara
by Michael Craig, Paperback – October 28, 2012
ISBN10:1456529811
ISBN13:978-1456529819 - English On The Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands (Publication of the American Dialect Society (PADS) (Volume 81)
by Daniel Long (Author), Hardcover – January 31, 2007
ISBN10: 0822366711
ISBN13: 978-0822366713 - The history of the Bonin Islands from the year 1827 to the year 1876 and of Nathaniel Savory
by Lionel Berners Cholmondeley (Author), Paperback – January 1, 1915 ASIN: B0089L69P2
Tourism Information
These are official websites of local or national organizations.
- Ogasawara Tourism Association
- Ogasawara Village
- Hahajima Tourist Association
- Ogasawara National Park - Guide of Highlights at Ogasawara National Park
Status of New Airport
- Airport plan a 'potential threat' to Ogasawara World Heritage site: int'l body
- Airport infrastructure development in Ogasawara Islands Japan: A comparison of media and public discourse analysis
History
- Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait ... in the years 1825, 26, 27, 28.
Vol. II. Chapter VI. [Bonin Islands] by Captain F. W. Beechey, R.N. - NARRATIVE of THE EXPEDITION OF AN AMERICAN SQUADRON to THE CHINA SEAS AND JAPAN
Chapter X
SITUATION OF THE BONIN ISLANDS.
Performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854
Under the command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy - THE HISTORY OF THE BONIN ISLANDS
by Lionel Berners Cholmondeley (1858-1945) - Two Centuries of Language and Cultural Contact on the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands
by Mr. Daniel Long, Professor of Japanese Linguistics, Tokyo Metropolitan University - Ship Plough Boy of Nantucket at the Ladrones, Sulphur and Bonin Islands in 1832.
Lewis Monto's Coastal View of the Bonin Islands, 1832 - The Plough Boy Anthology of the Bonin Islands
Transcriptions of selected published accounts
1727 — 1940
- The Plough Boy Anthology: 19th Century American Whaling
"The Ploughboy Anthology: 19th Century American Whaling" contains transcriptions of books, articles, documents, and manuscript material telling the story of Pacific sperm whaling in the 19th century.
WHALESITE.ORG
All above links except one belong to this site.
"The purpose of Whalesite.org is to offer an anthology of books, articles and images about 19th century sperm-whaling in the Pacific and the early history of places the whalers and whaleships visited — the Sandwich Islands, the Galapagos Islands, Pitcairn's Island and the Bonin Islands. "
The History of Bonin Islands
AT-A-GLANCE chronological table by Toshihiko Tohma- Discovery of the Ogasawara Islands by Ogasawara Village Office
- Bonin Islands (Archbishop Islands, Peel Island)
by The British Empire - Inventing Subjects and Sovereignty: Early History of the First Settlers of the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands.
by David Chapman - A Chronology of Bonin Islands
Sebastian DOBSON (Old Japan, London) - A Modern History of the Ogasawara Islands: Migration, Diversity, and War
Uninhabited Island (Minami jima) near Chichi-jima
Science
- 秘境の島 (30m 5s video)
Research project of Minami-Ioto, Kita-Ioto and Nishinoshima - First Glimpses of the Giant Squid
- Sea Turtle Class for Adults at
Ogasarawa Marine Center - Fruit Bats in Japan
by Yoshi & Keiko Osawa at the fruit bat world
- A lot of bat photos. - Mycena Chlorophos
This is scientific name for Green Pepe. - Mechanism and color modulation of fungal bioluminescence
Others
- Mysterious glow in the dark: Secrets of glow fungi
by Kotoho Akira
When we went to Ogasawara over three decades ago, on the return trip, we were caught in storm and sea was so rough and most of passenger got seasick and laid in the cabin. Somehow, I did not get sick and went up to the deck and saw huge swell in height well above the ship. (Later we heard one ship went down in the storm.)
In the photo at the top is older "Ogasawara Maru" (Length 100.00M, Width 15.20M, Gross Tonnage 3553.12 ton, Speed 21.77Knot) anchored in Futami Port, Chichi-Jima, which is smaller than newer one.
Note on Bonin Links by Toshihiko Tohma (December 2023):
I am glad the link still works after nearly 30 years. It does not matter if it is a website in Japanese anymore, as you can choose to translate when you visit or use Google Translate.
He had his website of collection of links almost the same time as me and neglected several years to update as I did. The last update date shows 2008.
Mukojima (Kater Island), summer 1987
Last updated December 16, 2023.