Mikomoto Hammers Review: What to Expect (2024)
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After diving up close with the beautiful threshers in Malapascua, we continued our shark diving adventure in Japan. In July 2024, we flew into Narita and took a Shinkansen and local train down to Shimoda to dive with Mikomoto Hammers. I did see the scalloped hammerheads, but what I didn’t expect was unseasonable weather for July and a very cramped dive boat. Read on for an honest review of Mikomoto Hammers.
Is Mikomoto Hammers Worth It?
Well, it depends on your diving style.
Considerations:
- You may be packed shoulder-to-shoulder on a boat with up to 30 divers (26 passengers and 4 guides)
- Dive time is limited to 35 minutes, including your safety stop (more on that later)
- Visibility is highly variable
- Almost militaristic style as opposed to “fun” diving
I’m not a fan of crowds and fully recognize that I had been spoiled by off-season diving in the Philippines. I found the Mikomoto Hammers dive boat to be too cramped (worst I’ve ever experienced) and the 35-minute dive time too short for me to want to return. They run a tight schedule with morning and afternoon trips and I felt rushed at the dive shop, on the boat, and underwater. It was the most hectic dive experience I’ve ever had and I wouldn’t go back.
Where is Mikomoto Hammers?
Mikomoto Hammers is in the town of Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula of Japan. The dives take place at Mikomoto Island, a 20-minute boat ride from Shimoda.
Google Maps here.
How to Get to Mikomoto Hammers
We took three modes of public transportation (Shinkansen, local train, and bus) from Shinagawa Station to Mikomoto Hammers over two days. You can also take the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station. We stayed overnight in Atami at Prince Smart Inn by Atami Station.
If you instead want to go directly from Narita Airport to Mikomoto Hammers, check out their access page.
Three legs from Tokyo area to Shimoda:
- Shinkansen: Shinagawa to Atami Station
- Line: Tokaido-Sanyo
- Shinkansen train type: Kodama
- Direction: Nagoya or Shin-Osaka
- Trip time: 38 mins
- Price: 4,270 JPY
- Discounted tickets on SmartEx
- Local train: Atami Station to Izuykyu-Shimoda Station
- Lines: Ito and Izukyuko (stay on the same train)
- Trip time: 1 h 45 mins
- Price: 2,020 JPY
- Bus: Izuykyu-Shimoda Station to Mikomoto Hammers
- Bus number: S53 or S60
- Trip time: 23 mins
- Price: 620 JPY
- Get off at: Hino bus stop (日野)
- Mikomoto Hammers is across the street
If you don’t want to take the bus, Mikomoto offers pickup at Izukyu-Shimoda Station by appointment at:
- 4:30 pm
- 5:30 pm
- 6:30 pm
If you’re arriving early in the morning on the day of the dive, contact them to arrange pickup.
Tip: If you’re traveling with a lot of dive gear, reserve a seat on the Shinkansen at the back of the carriage by the luggage space.
Mikomoto Hammers Guesthouse
The rooms in the Mikomoto Hammers guesthouse are Japanese style with tatami mats, AC, foldable floor futons, a low table, and a small clothes rack. The rooms are minimalist, quiet, and clean.
The rooms don’t have keys and you’ll keep the doors unlocked. If you’re traveling solo, you’ll likely share the room with another diver. Small lockers are downstairs for valuables.
There is one toilet upstairs and two toilets downstairs. The shower rooms downstairs are Japanese style (gender-segregated and communal). The shower room has four showers (no dividers) and a bathtub. If you want privacy and don’t want to bathe in the presence of strangers, get a hotel in Shimoda.
Other facilities and amenities include free wifi, kettle, tea, coffee, fridge access, luggage storage, and spin dryer for wet bathing suits.
7-Eleven is just a three-minute walk down the street, so you can grab food and snacks there (breakfast not included).
We were two in a room and paid 5,000 JPY per person per night. Check out the guesthouse pricing page.
If you dive in the morning, you can pre-order lunch for 800 JPY.
Diving Mikomoto Island with the Hammerheads
Best Time to Dive Mikomoto
The best time to dive Mikomoto is June to October when sea conditions are supposed to be stable.
Our trip in July had unseasonably bad weather, so two of the three days we reserved were canceled. We were notified by email and refunded.
Dive time
I didn’t expect the dive time to be 35 minutes (including safety stop). The online schedule shows 45 minutes. I learned from one of the guides that the local fishermen’s association “controls” access to the water and that dive boats have to abide by their rules. Mikomoto Island is popular for big game fishing.
Current
The Kuroshio current is strong and brings warm water and sea life like scalloped hammerheads. You might have to “rock crawl” along the rock walls if the current is too strong to swim against. Currents can change direction throughout the day. Only self-sufficient, experienced divers comfortable in strong currents should attempt this site.
Tip: Don’t bring a gigantic camera rig unless you’re experienced shooting in similar conditions. Most divers will be better off with a smaller, more streamlined GoPro rig that can be operated with one hand. Remember, you might need free hands to rock crawl and you need to keep up with your group in the current and not get distracted with camera settings. We did the rock ledge hammerhead dive, but others have done “swimming in the blue” dives which are more physically demanding.
Gear to Bring
Pre-dive
The dive briefing was at 7:00 am in the shop. The shop is quite small, so with 26 divers and four guides it’s already quite packed. We had two online forms to fill out (waiver/dive experience and a health questionnaire).
The guides do the briefing in English followed by a safety video in English and Japanese.
After the briefing, I went outside and put my gear into provided Ikea bags and then onto a truck headed to the port. I donned my wetsuit halfway and took a separate van.
Setting up gear on the 49-foot (15-meter) boat was quite chaotic. I was literally bumping my neighbors while setting up on the steel 10-liter tanks. No one in our group requested Nitrox, but we were told our group had to dive 28%, which was fine and we weren’t charged extra.
We were instructed to put the empty Ikea bags in the forward cabin instead of leaving them under our stations. So there was another traffic jam as everyone headed to the front to leave their bags.
The boat trip to Mikomoto Island was 20 minutes and the boat was fast! The fastest dive boat I had been on! There were stormy conditions that day so the trip was rough and several divers were feeding the fish. I was fixated on the horizon as we motored out, turning all shades of green.
Our guide did another briefing right before we geared up and reminded us not to swim up to the hammerheads, to grab onto the rock to pull against the current (“rock crawl”), and to keep our mask on and reg in when waiting for pick up at the surface.
Hammerhead dive
The boat rocked in the wind as we prepared to be the first group off for the live drop. After buddy checks, we were yelled at—or “energetically commanded”—by another stressed-out dive guide (who is also the owner of the shop) to hurry up and get on the platform. In contrast, our dive guide got on the platform and clearly and calmly said, “Please come here.”
Once I dropped down, I was finning hard and breathing hard against the strong current. As I swam over some rock formations, I had to pull myself along the rock, cautious not to poke myself on tiny urchins burrowed beneath. Apparently, I was moving too cautiously, since the guide grabbed my arm and swam me further along for a few kicks.
After more hard finning over big boulders, we got to the viewing spot—a wall with a small balcony-like ledge at 70 feet (21 meters) that provided some protection from the current. I was perched on the ledge with two other divers and couldn’t quite get comfortable. With air dumped out of my BC, I was initially literally shoulder-to-shoulder with another diver. My exhalation bubbles danced horizontally across her face, and the current would sway me into her. To make room, I moved over and knelt awkwardly facing parallel to the wall so my tank wouldn’t hit it. I gripped my little rock balcony but every time the current surged, I’d lose my balance.
My dive buddy was sitting to my right on a different exposed ledge. At one point, he turned his head to the left and was greeted by another standing diver’s gonads. He also reported losing his balance as the current would catch his dangling fins.
The topography makes using a reef hook entirely impractical as we’d be tossed against the rock face behind us.
I only had 18 minutes of bottom time in view of the schools of hammerheads. It was an overcast, stormy day and the visibility was poor, so I got intermittent glimpses of them through the haze. As a silhouetted school emerged from the murk, the dive guide rattled a small bell to alert us. There were hundreds of hammerheads and they were amazing. They were beautiful and elegant. I had never seen so many sharks in my life. Schools of them would coalesce then diverge, sometimes a lone shark would veer towards us. The thing was, I couldn’t relax on my rock balcony. My awkward unstable position and fear of letting go in the unpredictable current distracted me from enjoying the experience.
The guide signaled to us and we headed up to do a drifting safety stop. Along the way, I crossed other groups and a sea turtle in the shallows. There was no time cruise around on the way back. When I surfaced—at 35 minutes exactly—the winds and rain had picked up. I bobbed in the swell, holding on to the guide’s SMB as I waited for the boat. Our guide gave clear instructions on when to wait and when to approach for boarding. Luckily, the boat had a hydraulic lift, so I was able to board standing with full gear on as it bucked like a bronco. This feature was fantastic as it would have been dangerous getting divers up an untamed ladder in the storm.
As soon as the last diver boarded, the boat headed back to the port at full throttle through the chop.
Note for photographers: there is no fresh water camera bucket, so put your camera in the cabin.
After the stomach-churning 20-minute ride, there was another mad rush at the port as 30 used tanks needed to be swapped. We only had about 15 minutes for tank swap, bathroom break at the port, and to set up gear. I found it hard to relax and refuel properly during the surface interval. Since it’s so tightly scheduled there are no hot beverages or snacks during the 15 minutes in port. However, there is a cooler filled with water on the boat.
We headed out for dive two in the same rough conditions. When gearing up, both me and my buddy were getting into our BCD’s at the same time and my buddy’s reg hose was stuck in the inside back of his BCD. My buddy said he couldn’t find his reg and the stressed-out owner immediately saw the hose was stuck—a good thing—and started yelling. But I couldn’t hear what he was saying over the engine noise and commotion.
He then came over to my buddy and very forcefully yanked several times on the reg hose to un-stick it. I’m glad he intervened, but I also think he risked damaging the LP hose of my buddy’s personal gear. We were so rushed that there wasn’t time for my buddy to loosen or get out of the BCD straps to make space for the reg to pass.
After a quick buddy check, we were rushed to the platform and jumped. We swam back to almost the same spot. This time, I sat on a ledge and dumped all the air out of my BC. My tank was against the rock wall, my butt was securely wedged in and I was a lot more stable. I could finally start to relax as we watched the silhouettes re-emerge. I looked up and admired the hammerhead spectacle in the haze. The currents would ebb and flow and briefly change direction. Clouds of bubbles would swirl and disperse across my mask whenever this happened.
After 13 minutes in view of the hammerhead parade, it was time to head back. This time we crossed more groups. I saw two turtles again in the shallows and at least three divers were crowding around them with GoPro’s while another group was approaching. It was a circus and I didn’t even bother trying to get a shot.
We drifted in the blue during the safety stop and were one of the last groups to get picked up. Once on the deck, someone had taken my station, so the stressed-out owner yelled at me, “Hey! Hey! HEY!!” to direct me to a different one. I think some variation of, “Please sit over there,” would have been clearer.
I barely had time to get out of my gear before the boat started to roar back at full speed. At the port, the boat was idling as we unloaded. The diesel fumes were overpowering and worsening my nausea. Several other people complained of headaches.
Post-dive
Our group waited at least 25 minutes in the rain for a van to pick us up at the port. The whole day was so rushed, but van pickup was not. We were still in wetsuits so the rain wasn’t troublesome. I had to walk at least 30 feet (9 meters) away from the boat to escape the fumes.
After the five-minute ride back to the shop, there was a flurry of activity outside as everyone was rinsing and hanging up gear. Our guide kindly Airdropped us his GoPro footage from the day and we headed inside for lunch. Since we were the last group to get back, we were also the last group to eat our pre-ordered lunch (rice bowl with chicken).
Shortly after sitting down with our lunch, one of the front desk staff members comes over and says the van dropoff to the station is in about 15 minutes (and we needed a ride in that direction). I started shoveling the food into my mouth and was thinking, “Ugh, we still have to pack up our wet gear that’s hanging outside.” My dive buddy was rushed trying to quickly towel dry his camera gear before he packed it all. Then a few minutes later, the same staff member comes back and says we can catch a ride in an hour if that’s fine, and we agreed.
We packed our gear and got a ride (550 JPY per person) to our next hotel at Shirahama beach northeast of Shimoda.
Final Thoughts – Mikomoto Hammers
I like relaxed diving, so the Mikomoto Hammer’s style was not a good fit for me. It was almost militaristic in that every single minute was accounted for and we were frequently yelled instructions. I didn’t feel like I had time to relax and enjoy the trip.
I think this is an operation that is volume-driven and not diver experience-driven. I would also note that the rushed nature of the dive operations, combined with swimming against strong currents while using undersized 10 L tanks could potentially pose accident risk factors.
Pros
- Thorough safety video
- Hundreds of hammerheads
- Diver lift on boat
- Good dive guide (ours was calm and gave clear instructions unlike the stressed-out owner)
- Rental gear in good condition
- Convenient guesthouse
Cons
- Crowded boat
- 35-minute dive
- 10 L tanks
- Rushed before, during, and after the dive
- Chaos of going back to port for tank swap
- Visibility can be very poor
- Possibly awkward viewing position
I’d be reluctant to come all the way to Japan to dive with them again. If you don’t mind the crowds, however, you might have a great time. Especially if you go on a day with good conditions and great visibility. After chill shark diving trips in the Bahamas and at Malapascua, Philippines, Mikomoto Hammers is a one-and-done experience in my books.