Sea Friend — Attraction in Tokashiki

You stay at this hotel for one out two reasons only, either you have booked scuba diving arranged by the hotel or mainly you stay here because it is less than 100m to Aharen beach which is amazing!||I did not scuba dive so will not touch on that.||Pick up (as well as drop off) at ferry station worked well and there is only 10-15min transfer to the hotel and Aharen village. Check in was prepared in the reception with all papers already laying at the desk when we arrived. We did not have the room as we arrived before lunch and check in was in the afternoon so remember to keep bathing gear close at hand.||Rooms was ok, a bit worn and small (always in Japan) but fairly well kept and cleanliness was ok (perhaps a bit less than elsewhere in Japan but still ok). However, there is a part of the hotel that is smoking permitted in the rooms! If you stay here and have a problem with the smell of cigarette smoke do NOT stay in the lodge, in the main building there is non smoking rooms. Sadly I had missed this so we had a smoking room and there was definitely a smell in there. Also the wifi seems to be limited to a specific number of devices, could not connect for first 1,5 day but the wife had no problem and I tried phone, Ipad, computer so my guess is limited number of devices.||Restaurant was ok, breakfast was perhaps not the best but lunch and dinner was pretty good and prices was really low (approx 1000yen for dinner or lunch, beer was 400yen). The interior of the restaurant is a bit boring and it closes kind of early. Reception also closes at 20.00 but there are some vending machines outside and the local shop 150m away is open until 21.00. There is also a few more restaurants/bars in the village but very few, perhaps 5 in total.||The hotel offers sunbeds and snorkeling gears at discount prices for overnight guest but no one told us first days so had to pay full price (there was no information about this) but prices are pretty ok, maybe 2000-3000yen depending on number of chairs/umbrellas/snorkeling gear and in comparison to Europe this is a bargain.||The beach is stunning and the snorkeling is good, the hotel is also on the eastern/southern side of the beach so a bit less people, not crowded at all during our stay. Snorkeling is pretty good and just a few meters from the shore. Watch out for some of the animal, we saw a sea snake and my wife was stung by a jelly fish.||Overall the hotel is nothing special but staying in this village is very nice and the...

The accommodation was very comfortable (twin room and in-suite bathroom) and the restaurant is good (with lunch sets being the best overall in our opinion). All the staff were very friendly and accommodating and despite a language barrier, were very helpful. The location is excellent and within a minute of the beautiful beach and not far from some stellar viewpoints of the surrounding area. They also offer a free shuttle to and from the ferry terminal, which is very helpful. Overall we would recommend the accommodation if visiting Tokashiki island.

Regarding the diving, perhaps it is a style we are not accustomed to. However, here are some observations that mattered to us: The rental gear does not come with a second regulator. We have never seen this on any gear we’ve rented throughout our diving (Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, etc) as it is simply a safety concern. The dive guide was consistently touching, kicking, and sitting in coral. Some coral even looked visibly broken and damaged around some areas divers drop down into. The dive groups are quite large in size with a dive master to diver ratio of 1:7 at one point. Again, this could pose a safety issue, particularly if there are novice divers in the group (which there were). They do not create dive groups based on skill level/experience. Our group ranged from levels of dive master to people on what appeared to be a discover suba. This meant a lot of time was spent adjusting buoyancy issues, etc. The dive times were quite short (about 35 minutes max) even though we had lots of air left in the tank (over 100 bars). The dive profiles got progressively deeper throughout the day (starting at 6 meters and going to 25 meters). I know this practice has differing opinions in the diving community, but generally speaking, I would think you would not want to have a huge differential of diving depth if getting progressively deeper.

Another note (though this didn’t matter to us as much but could be impactful to others), the dive guides do not really speak English. Though they are effective at communicating a basic dive plan with direction, time, and maximum depth. You can effectively use google translate with them if you have specific questions. If you are someone who needs a lot of assistance and are not a Japanese speaker, this may not be the best set up for you. Alternatively, if you are relatively independent, then you...

Quite a simple place for accommodation, sufficiently providing all that is needed for a simple diving holiday.||||We stayed in the pension, which has en suite bathroom with a bathtub. The room is pretty basic and although the management does provide Wi-Fi service, signal is non-existent in the room. Cleanliness and customer service is impeccably Japanese: nice, simple, and effective.||||In terms of food, the pension does have a restaurant/canteen just across the road. The food is quite okay, but do walk around a little, as there are ample family restaurants all around the place which have homemade japanese food. The sole mini-mart nearby is just a 5 minutes walk away down the left of the road.||||Diving wise, the service was awesome. Most instructors are Japanese, and some speak english, among other languages. I do suggest for those who are interested in diving to book up-front, as the dive center seems to be fully-booked from time to time. We manage to slot ourself in after someone cancelled their morning trip, and did two dives altogether with our hilarious dive-guide Gintaro-san. The pier is about a 3 minutes drive from the pension, and dive sites here have pristine water and quite healthy corals. Worth mentioning is the dive site located in-front of the lighthouse， called 灯台下, which has an amazing underwater cavern, which is wide and could be safely swam through, even by novice. ||||There is also a dive preparation area to gear up, to shower and for equipment storage before and after the dive.||||To conclude, the pension is not a luxury hotel, hence the basic accommodation. But the management does provide all that is needed (some by rental), for a day of outdoor activities. Do recommend for dive-enthusiast and...