Abbo

I've been here 20 years. Japan is a great place for diving. You can take a hydrofoil out of Tokyo for 45 minutes at 40 knots to Oshima and dive there. Another quick and easy place is Atami, which you can reach in a 40 minute train ride from Tokyo. I like Atami for the 70m wreck.

Below 30m the coral is excellent and the water is suprisingly warm - still 23-24 degrees C in mid-October, as it is bathed by the warm currents from the tropics. Water temperature drops to a minimum of 14 degrees C in February. We think that's icy, but if you've dived off New York you'll think it toasty. The clash of warm currents with colder, mineral-laden currents off Tokyo means the waters are both warm and alive with fish. You might be 37 degrees North of the equator here, but the fish are tropical: not just the colourful aquarium fish, but huge tuna, hammerheads and thresher sharks.

I'm trying to get a better handle on the wreck situation. The Japanese navy and merchant marine was parked in the sand across the South Pacific at the end of the last war. Japanese people have no interest in wrecks, and very few of them dive below 30m. We know of a few good wrecks, but there are undoubtledly a lot more virgin wrecks just begging to be dived. Undoubtedly, there are public records to check and the fishermen know a lot more than they are letting on, but the US Navy probably knows at least as well as anyone where the wrecks are, because subs use them to hide behind.

Fishermen's associations are a pain in some areas. They force the dive shops to pay protection money, and you can't dive except through those dive shops. Protection money is paid as a portion of the tank fill/rental fees: that's the real reason they don't like rebreathers - they don't make much money out of us. When there is an incident, the police need somebody to hold responsible, even when the real cause of death is the diver having smoked 40-50 cigarettes a day, as was the case in a rebreather death in Izu earlier this year. Shops don't want the risk. Ohshima is a place where you're free to dive where you want, without interference from fishermen's associations, which is an attraction. West Izu is also relatively free too. One day, central government will grow the testicular fortitude to bring these gangsters under control, but that day is not now, and that fight is not our fight.

Westerners find Japanese law impossible to understand, because they are used to everything not forbidden being permitted. Japanese law has immense grey areas. Some listed businesses derive their whole income in those grey areas, where one law says a thing is forbidden but one says it is not. It would be easier to talk off-line about high pressure gas laws, but though mixing gas is forbidden to individuals, the police will turn a blind eye as long as you use a little common sense. If you cause trouble to the police, they will always be able to find some law you broke, however law-abiding you are: if you behave they will turn a blind eye to a surprising amount. Nippon Sanso (ie Japan Oxygen Co) just bought British Oxygen's helium business, so helium is now cheap and easy to obtain. I can link you up with suppliers, and so can others on this board.

The more of us here dive rebreathers, the better the conditions we can secure. PM me if you want to set up some dives, or if you need to know more.