The Japanese shipwreck in Amed: shallow and close to shore

A wreck in swimming depth

Black volcanic sand, jukung fishing boats tipped on their outriggers, and a plastic buoy bobbing about 10 meters out. That buoy is the whole trick of this site. Under it lies a small hull, broken open and on its side, in water shallow enough for sunlight to reach every rib of it. Walk in from the beach at Banyuning, swim 15 to 20 meters, and the first pieces appear below you. ^{5, 6, 7}

Amed is a strip of seven fishing villages on Bali's east coast, roughly 14 kilometers end to end. Wikivoyage names Banyuning as the Japanese Wreck site. AquaMarine Diving is the one shop that calls the water Lipah Bay. Abyss Dive Center and Nico Dives Cool Bali name Banyuning, and Wikipedia writes both names together. One shop, Ecodive Bali, sells the same name as a trip to Gili Selang, further east again. ^{1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 9}

That disagreement runs through everything published about this wreck, including its depth, its length and the ship it once was. The four ways into the water run from a Rp30,000 parking fee to a USD 85 two-dive trip. ^{8, 9}

How deep is the Japanese shipwreck in Amed?

Six sources, six slightly different answers, all of them shallow. Figures read from each operator's own site on 26 September 2026.

Every operator that publishes a number puts the wreck itself between 2 and 12 meters. The spread comes from what each shop measures. Amed Jepun Divers gives the whole site a maximum of 30 meters and an average of 12, then puts the wreck at 2 to 10 m. Dive Concepts spans the site at 2 to 35 m and the wreck at 2 to 12 m. Read the wreck figure, not the site figure. ^{3, 2}

One shop gives a length. Nico Dives Cool Bali calls the hull 18 meters long, partly broken up, lying on its side, with the propeller entirely grown over. No second source repeats that figure, so treat it as one operator's measurement. ⁶

Shallow water buys you time. At 10 meters a tank lasts far longer than it would at 30, the colors stay bright without a torch, and a camera gets natural light on the coral growing over the plates. Amed Jepun Divers makes exactly that pitch for the site. ³

Can you reach the wreck from the beach?

Yes, and the swim is shorter than the walk down to the water. Nico Dives Cool Bali describes a buoy about 10 meters off the beach marking the spot. All4Diving Indonesia puts the first pieces of wreck 15 to 20 meters out. A boat is sold here as comfort, not as the way in. ^{6, 7}

1. 01

   Pay at the car park

   The village at Banyuning runs the parking and the beach access and charges a small fee for both. Two dive shops confirm the fee; both say it usually comes with a drink. ^{6, 7}

2. 02

   Walk down over the pebbles

   The beach is black pebble and volcanic sand, the same material Mount Agung left all along this coast. All4Diving recommends water shoes for the walk in. ^{7, 6}

3. 03

   Find the buoy

   Look for the marker about 10 meters out. There is a cafe, toilets, showers and gear rental on the beach itself. ⁶

4. 04

   Go early, and look up

   Mornings are calmer. Small boats cross over the wreck through the day, so surface with a hand up and keep watching the water. ⁷

Getting to the beach itself is the other half of the trip. Banyuning sits at the quiet end of the village strip, so plan the drive before the day you swim. MMT's guide to getting to Amed has the fares and the drive times from Ubud and the airport.

What is the Japanese shipwreck, actually?

Two shops publish the same three stories, and one declines to pick one. Abyss Dive Center and Nico Dives Cool Bali each set out the whole argument on their own pages. Abyss closes the passage by inviting the reader to choose. ^{5, 6}

1. A Javanese fishing boat. On this reading, Japanese is a slip for Javanese, and the ship is a local working vessel that went down with no ceremony and no record. ⁵
2. A Japanese patrol ship from the Second World War. The coast has form here: the USAT Liberty lies up at Tulamben, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 11 January 1942. ^{5, 11}
3. A ship of unknown origin, named for its toilet. The most repeated version. Divers found a nearly intact Japanese-style toilet aboard, the name stuck, and the ship kept its anonymity. ^{5, 10}

Wikipedia's Amed article carries the toilet story and places the wreck in Lipah bay, Banyuning, citing a dive centre's blog post. AquaMarine Diving adds a fourth description, calling the hull a small Japanese steel freighter. ^{10, 4}

Compare that with the wreck up the coast at Tulamben. The Liberty was a US Army cargo ship, beached there in 1942 and pushed into the sea in 1963 by tremors from the Mount Agung eruption. Name, date, cause, all documented. Amed's other wreck keeps its story, and the guesswork is part of why people swim out to look. MMT's Amed guide covers both. ¹¹

What does it cost to see the wreck?

Four ways into the same water, priced from the operators' own pages on 26 September 2026. Rupiah first; dollars at Bank Indonesia's reference rate.

The gap between the cheapest and the dearest way in is about fifty times. Swim from the beach and you pay the village car park. Take Dive Concepts' half-day guided snorkel and you pay Rp350,000, about USD 19.53. Book two guided dives with Ecodive Bali and you pay USD 85, about Rp1,522,945 at Bank Indonesia's 25 September 2026 rate. ^{8, 2, 9, 12}

Ecodive Bali's price list makes the wreck its dearest local trip. Two dives at Jemeluk Beach cost USD 75 and two at Bunutan, the Pyramids site, cost USD 80, against USD 85 here. That USD 10 premium over Jemeluk buys the longer drive east. Park fees are stated as included in all three. ⁹

Four friends sharing Bintang Divers' boat land at Rp212,500 each, which undercuts Dive Concepts' per-person snorkel by Rp137,500. Two friends on that same boat pay Rp425,000 each and the maths flips. Count heads before you book. Costing a longer stay is a separate job: MMT prices a diving month in Amed line by line. ^{13, 2}

Who is allowed to dive it?

The shops disagree, so the answer depends on whose boat you are on. Dive Concepts lists the site as open to snorkelers and to experienced divers who shoot underwater photographs. Abyss Dive Center runs the same wreck as a certified dive from Advanced Adventurer, level 2 or the French PE-40 rating. Both statements are on their own pages. ^{2, 5}

For a snorkeler the bar is lower everywhere. Made Amed Snorkeling Tour, based in Bunutan, lists the Japanese Shipwreck alongside Lipah Coral Garden, Jemeluk Bay and Pyramid Turtle Point, and asks you to contact them for a price. Amed's wider snorkel scene, with gear prices and boat fares, sits in MMT's guide to snorkeling in Amed. ¹⁴

What lives on the wreck

The hull has stopped being a ship and started being a reef. AquaMarine Diving describes plates encrusted with black corals, soft corals, sponges and gorgonian sea fans, with pygmy seahorses tucked into the fans and anthias, parrotfish and angelfish working the water above. Nico Dives Cool Bali notes the propeller entirely covered in growth. ^{4, 6}

• Small things, close up. Dive Concepts names leaf scorpionfish, nudibranchs, shrimp, crabs and ghost pipefish as residents of the site. ²
• Two different swims off the same hull. Nico Dives Cool Bali describes gorgonians sloping to 30 meters on one side and a sandy bank running about 60 meters on the other, dotted with coral bommies, with frogfish, a resident pygmy seahorse and a mimic octopus. ⁶
• Bigger company on a good day. A traveler's account of the same water reports trumpetfish, butterflyfish and turtles. ⁸

Visibility carries a caveat from the shop that knows the bay. AquaMarine Diving reports that a current or any wave action cuts visibility sharply here, even though headlands shelter the bay on both sides. ⁴

When should you go, and whose rules apply?

April to November is the window, and July to October is the clear water inside it. PADI's regional guide for Amed calls conditions good all year, with the best visibility across the dry season and water between 26 and 29 degrees Celsius. Warm enough for a thin suit, and warm enough to stay down for the whole tank. ¹⁵

This stretch of coast is a protected area. Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries declared the Karangasem Marine Protected Area in July 2023, covering more than 5,478 hectares from Tulamben to Padangbai in five zones. The Amed and Seraya zone runs past 2,200 hectares and holds a 179-hectare core where diving and fishing are barred. ¹⁶

Every fun-dive price quoted above states park fees as included, so the conservation charge reaches you inside the trip price. MMT's article on marine park and conservation fees explains how those lines usually work, and the Indonesia travel guide covers the arrival rules and the tourist levy before any of this starts. ^{9, 13}