Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi
In a previous article, I wrote about my scaling the famous Mount Fuji of Japan. During the trip, I was accompanied by Abdulaziz Saisho, a Japanese Muslim journalist and author. After climbing down the mountain, we visited an underwater house owned by one of Saisho’s friends. It was an amazing trip from the highest destination in Japan to the lowest, which was situated 10 meters under water.
After climbing down Mount Fuji, we reached station five where our car was parked. At that time, Saisho suggested the idea of visiting the underwater house of his friend and I readily agreed to accompany him. It did not take long to reach the coast from the foothills of Mount Fuji. The owner of the underwater house and some of his friends were waiting to take us down to the house.
Anyone who wanted to visit this house was required to dive under water to reach the door of the house. They provided me with an oxygen tank and asked me to practice diving to see if I could hold my breath under water. In the first and second instances, I failed to breathe for the required time. The third time, it was found that the oxygen cylinder was closed. After opening it, I was able to breathe.
I reached the underwater house after stopping for one or two minutes then continuing to dive until reaching the door of the house on the seabed. The entry to the house was from the bottom to the upper level. For those who are accustomed to diving, there is no need for stopping on the way or even of using an oxygen tank.
After entering the house, we were served tea and lunch. After performing Duhr and Asr prayers in shortened and combined form, we slept for a while as Saisho and I were tired because of the underwater trip immediately after scaling Mount Fuji.
There was a telephone line in the underwater house and I called a friend who at the eleventh hour had abandoned the plan of joining us in climbing Mount Fuji. I told him that the trip was very enjoyable and that it was an amazing experience to climb down from the peak of Mount Fuji to a house under water. After spending about five hours in the house, we returned to the surface and traveled back to Tokyo.
The following are some of the details about the house, which was later closed down and moved to a museum in Tokyo. Saisho provided me with the information.
According to Saisho, the house was among the first undersea living spaces in the world.
1. Location: The Under Sea House (USH) was constructed in 1968 at 10m depth (high tide) in the sea near Mitohama village of Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture. Mount Fuji is located in the north of Shizuoka Prefecture and Izu Peninsula is in the south.
2. Shape and Size: The shape of the USH was like a cylinder two meters in diameter and six meters in length. In the central part, it was like a dome with a two-meter diameter. The doorway was installed at the bottom of the dome in the central part.
3. Facilities: Electricity, telephone, water and air supply were installed through an underwater pipeline. You could cook with a microwave oven, watch TV, and take a shower in the USH.
4. USH No. 2: A new USH was constructed in 1971 at same location. The size was almost 10 times that of USH No.1. While the exhaust pipe of USH No.1 made a lot of noise and frightened away fish, USH No. 2 made very little sound.
5. Oil crisis: Due to the oil crisis in the 1970s, there was a dramatic increase in the cost of electricity and the owners were forced to give up the USH. Now the USH is exhibited in a museum in the Tokyo Bay area as one of the first undersea living spaces in the world.
6. The Emperor of Japan and the USH: The Emperor was shown a video about the USH. His areas of interest include the sea, fish and environment. After watching the video, he asked: “If human beings start to live undersea, won't this make the environment of the sea worse than it already is?"
The owner of the USH replied: “All the pollution from the land, river and sky gathers in the sea. If we monitor the condition of sea water, we will realize how pollution has been aggravated and how the environment of the earth is getting worse."
Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com
