Category Archives: Marine

We were swimming in the sea not so far from our house, when Aya shouted that she’d found a weird shell floating in the water. At first we thought it was a plastic toy but it seemed to be natural, … Continue reading →

Aya’s getting really confident in the sea now. We were snorkelling for an hour and a half, and we swam several hundred metres, but she was fine. The sea was full of box jellyfish (andon-kurage) so it was just as … Continue reading →

Went snorkelling with my friends Bob and Chris in a different place to usual, near a small lighthouse just up the coast from Ashiya. Link to map and aerial photo here. We immediately realized our mistake of swimming in the … Continue reading →

Very exciting dip in the sea today! Spotted a beautiful lionfish (kasago) and several eels (unagi). The lionfish was only about 50m out from a very popular beach, which is a little concerning since it has venomous spines. This is … Continue reading →

Went snorkelling again today – the third time in three days! The tide was out and I managed to hold onto a rock so that I could take some reasonable photos of fish. The best experience was meeting a little … Continue reading →

I came across this big octopus (tako) while snorkelling today. It was the biggest octopus I’ve seen – at least 50cm from outstretched arm to arm. It was a bit deep (4m) for me to get a decent picture and … Continue reading →

Aya came with me snorkelling at Kanezaki today. It was her very first time and she did really well (especially considering she’s only nine). We swam out about 200m from the shore and snorkelled for about one and a half … Continue reading →

Spent another three hours in the sea today – mainly alone but the kids joined me for the final hour. I’m finding it very difficult to get the high quality photos I’d like to take. I guess one of the … Continue reading →

I took the kids along to the beach this evening. Nice sunset! We found lots of hermit crabs (yadokari), as usual, and also found the weirdest little crab. It was a species of spider crab (kumogani) that disguises itself by … Continue reading →

I bought a new digital camera (Sony Cybershot DSC-P100) and its underwater housing (MPK-PHB). Only cost 48,000 yen in total. The pictures below are from my first day using it (= today). I was in the sea for three hours … Continue reading →