Back on Honshu now after hanging out an extra 2 days due to flight cancellations. We had great weather for the first 12 days, then the wind picked up and the last three we were pretty much hotel-bound.

Thanks to all for the previous advice.

Our sons ended up doing a course with Marine Field a bit north of Naha, then we all dove with Sea Friends on Ishigaki. They are a Japanese group with a couple good-sized dive boats and a 40 year history. They were offering 3 boat dives for ¥17,000 including lunch and gear, which was about ¥5,000 less per person than the other shops we looked at. Some of the shops with English websites may provide a more bespoke experience, but at a higher cost that adds up quickly for a family of four.

The manta were not around, some said it was because the water was too warm and no major typhoons had come through to stir things up. Still, great coral, some sea turtles, and plenty of fish.

On Ishigaki, we were very impressed with the snorkeling off Yonehara beach and went four times (it was just 15 minutes from our AirBnB at Kabira Bay). You have to go pretty far out (maybe 300m or so) to get to the reef's edge where the really good coral is, and at low tide it is like swimming through a maze. Once at the edge it drops down to 15-20m plus. An incredible amount of fish and a number of sea snakes. At the shallow depths there was significant coral bleaching, apparently due to high temps in August. We would go around 4:30-5pm and stay out until 6-6:30. I highly recommend it, but only for good swimmers with proper equipment such as rashguards/wetsuits and life jackets/floats. A large sign warned of riptides to the right, so we stayed left.

Due to typhoon #11 we weren't able to do anything during our IC stay, which is a shame since the water in front of the resort looked very promising.

On the main island I did a little exploring in front of the Sheraton Sunmarina. No coral to speak of, but a fair number of little fish. Odd rules about using life jackets (in water 1 meter deep) if you have snorkle (only googles did not invoke the rule).

We also did a bit of snorkeling on Iriomote at Hoshizuna beach. It is well protected and we saw some pretty good-sized fish. Coral wasn't all that amazing, but we were being conservative as the approaching typhoon was starting to create waves. Our stay there was only 6 hours as they weren't sure about the 5pm ferry being canceled or not. Next time I go I will definitely stay a night or two and do some hiking/kayaking.