Chichijima Dolphin Swim

In-water encounter with resident pods of Indo-Pacific bottlenose and spinner dolphins along the western and southern coasts of Chichijima, the main island of the Ogasawara (Bonin) archipelago — 1,000 km south of Tokyo and accessible only by a 24-hour overnight ferry from Takeshiba. Boats spot pods from the surface, then drop snorkellers ahead of the line of travel. Bottlenoses are slow, curious, and often hold eye contact for whole passes; spinners move in larger, faster schools and frequently spiral past at 5–10 m. The surrounding reef hosts the wrought iron butterflyfish (Chaetodon daedalma), a species endemic to southern Japan that is unusually common here. The Ogasawara group is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2011), often called Japan's Galápagos for its isolated endemic fauna.