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I visited more than 10+ diving shops in Japan, but IMC by far is the top-notch. It's one of the very few English-speaking shops on the island. The team includes PADI Course Director, Instructor/Nurse and Instructor/ex-hotellier from 5 star hotel, which makes the shop's level of service quality, safety standard and hospitality totally outstanding.
:::::Pros:::::
English speaking: IMC is one of the very few diving services on Miyako which has an English speaking instructor/guide. IMC has a fully fluent English speaking guide (really nice guy), you can ask as many questions about the diving or local area.
Some staff might be shy to try speaking English (like many Japanese), but they are welcoming non-Japanese speaking guests as well (and underwater language does not matter anyway).
Hospitality and Safety: All of the staff are truly nice, and they just enjoy looking at your smiley face after you reach the surface from the beautiful underwater world. They do extensive planning and preparation to make your day memorable. Some shops charge for a photo, but the instructors do their best to take a good shot of you and share data as a gift. Technically also they use a mask called full face masks for Discover Diving, because it's safer and easier for first-time-divers.
Full face masks are costly and require more daily care, but that improves the safety. They throughly wash and even disinfect those masks or regulators after each use. At the same time, the instructors are all tech divers (not just a normal diving instructor, but those who do or teach extreme dives beyond recreational limit); therefore, their skills, safety standards and risk management are extremely high.
Location and Facility:
The shop is located on Irabu island connected to Miyako Island by a bridge. If you are staying on the main Miyako Island, you might be tempted to find a tour nearby your hotel. The expert tip is that most of the tours from the main Miyako Island anyway take the guests to Irabu/Shimoji Island as the most of the dive spots are located.
Instead, you can just drive over the famous Irabu Bridge to the shop, enjoy diving and do the sightseeing on Irabu/Shimoji Island afterwards (Toguchi no Hama, Toori Ike etc), this will save you some time and risk of sea sickness on the boat. The shop was built as a diving facility, and they are beautiful and well maintained and the showers are clean.
:::::Cons / Tips:::::
Sea sickness: There is nothing to do with the shop, but a number of guests were seen suffering from sea sickness. The shop will always spend efforts by analyzing weather to bring the guests to the calmer side of the island, but the mother nature sometimes wins. You want to be prepared by taking a pill or other measures.
AM tour vs. PM tour: It's somewhat related to the point above but the shop tries to minimize the guide-to-guest ratio to provide a more personalized and fun experience.
That's part of their strict safety and hospitality standard. Therefore, in the AM tour, when there are other guests, there could be more waiting time onboard. You could enjoy relaxing moments and beautiful views while other guests are underwater. The time on the boat could be longer in the AM session, so if you are worried about sea sickness, it might be worth considering a PM tour which has less waiting time than AM tour.
Health Checklist: I saw some guests who visited the shop but could not dive because of his/her health condition. The shop will share the checklist beforehand or you can download from PADI, but read it beforehand and take it seriously. Again, the shop will not sacrifice your safety over anything else. - via 