Tokyo, Twenty Years Later

I started freediving at 46. By that point I'd been married, had kids, built a career, and traveled way less than I wanted to. Most of my twenties and thirties got spent in offices and on the parenting clock. When I found freediving, I hoped it would become the vehicle for the travel I never got around to.



It has. Greece, Tonga, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Thailand, and back home in the U.S. - Vegas, LA, San Diego. The "Nomad" in Freedive Nomad isn't aspirational. It's the actual point.

I don't just want to dive at the easy and famous spots. I want to see how other freedivers train, who their community is, what the water feels like in places I haven't been. Experience the freedive culture. So if you've got a place I should see, reach out. I might just show up.

A heads up

This isn't a how-to. If you're looking for one of those, click away.

However, If you want to learn freediving near Tokyo and need it in English, look up Yoko Ota at Freediving Tokyo. She's a serious competitive freediver and a great instructor. Funny enough, she walked a similar path to mine - finance to freediving.

Japan Freediving

First of all, how cool is it to freedive with a view of Mt.Fuji? In the photo above you can see the snow capped Mt. Fuji and it was EPIC.

Japan has quietly built the deepest female freediving roster on the planet. Four Japanese women have crossed 100 meters — more than any other country. To put that in perspective, that collective depth would be enough to place them in the top 10 among men globally. It's not a fluke. Maybe there’s something in the water? Or sake? Or natto? 

The second thing: one of the top male freedivers in the world right now is a 50-something Japanese man named Tetsuo Hara, who holds a day job as a director at a tech company and dives past 110 meters. I got to train in his usual waters. Some people retire early to chase a sport. He just... does both.

The trip

When most people think freediving in Japan, they think Okinawa. Those in the know say Kagoshima. Tokyo doesn't come up. But that's where I was headed.

There's no shore diving around Tokyo, and the spot we hit isn't technically Tokyo — it's Kanagawa Prefecture, about 1.5-2 hours away from Tokyo, and an hour away from Yokohama. Close enough. Unless you go through a school, you need a friend with a boat.



I had one. My friend Kayo, an avid freediver, brought me into her crew. Five of us total: Kayo, Kaba, Kan (our captain), Kazu, and me.

When I was planning the trip around visiting my adult kids, Kayo told me the water would be 19°C. I was relieved. I've dived Southern California in 15-16°C even in summer, so 19°C felt easy - I'd bring my 5.5mm wetsuit and some gloves and call it good.



We met at Isogo Station, a short train ride from Yokohama Station, and on the 45-minute drive to the marina in Shonan I confirmed the temperature with the others. It was actually 14°C, not 19. Five degrees isn't a small difference. But I was already in, and still looking forward to it - I'm an avid ice bather, so cold water doesn't bother me, I thought. 

At the marina we kitted up and motored ten minutes out to depth. A sailboat regatta was tacking nearby, recreational fishermen scattered around, and a clean straight-on view of Mt. Fuji from the water. I loved it. Visibility, on the other hand, was maybe two meters - no great footage out of this trip ice - though I was told it was a particularly bad day.



When they asked what I was aiming for, I said 30 to 40 meters.

The 14°C had other ideas. My first few dives I couldn't get past 12 meters — my body just wouldn't relax. Ice bathing is one thing; finning down a line and trying to hold your breath in cold water is another. Eventually I settled in and got down to 20, hit it a few times. I had more in me, but I made the call to stop there. Cold water punishes mistakes, and a few extra meters wasn't worth pulling something or pushing past a margin I couldn't see.



I was quietly relieved to find the others felt the same. It felt good not to be the only one ready to be done.

The marina had good showers. I took a long, hot one, then we went to lunch - and I made my one exception. I'm off booze until the World Championships in Roatan, but I'd already decided this trip was the one I'd break it for. The reason: hiresake. Grilled puffer fish fin in warm sake. I'd forgotten about it for years, only recently remembered it, and was determined to track some down on this trip. It's late in the season for it, but they had it. If you've never had hiresake, find a place in Japan that does and order one. The grilled fin throws so much umami into the sake it's almost obscene.



Drive back, short train from Yokohama, and I was in my hotel before 4pm.

The road I didn't take

I think about that 2005 decision sometimes. Hong Kong was the right call for the career I had then.



I have no regrets about not moving to Tokyo. Perhaps if I had, I never would have found freediving - and freediving is the foundation underneath everything I love about my life now. The work I do, the island I live on, the people I dive with. Perhaps none of that happens if I take the other road. That's not a risk I'm willing to take, even in retrospect.

So I got to Tokyo anyway. Just on different terms, and a side most people don't see - colder water, shorter dives, lunch with friends I'd just met, and home before sundown. Instead of long hours in an office and a long, crowded commute.

That feels exactly right.