There were other T-Shirts for sale such as "I went to Saipan and Terry Schiavo and Johnnie Cochrane died", but there's too much controversy there. They also had T-Shirts that said "I went to Saipan and Mitch Hedberg died", but nobody is ever aware of up-and-coming comedians. And, in a less dark context, "I went to Saipan and Neil Young and Jerry Falwell entered the Hospital".

Marie and I went to Saipan for a 4 day and 3 night vacation. I had wanted to go somewhere with her (Korea, Guam, Saipan) for her birthday in February, but we've both been too busy. But, now we had a deadline. She started work on Monday April 4th (it's going well) and won't have time for a vacation for a while now. She decided on Saipan becaue of the weather and beaches, we got tickets, and then watched Windtalkers with Nicolas Cage which happened to be on TV that night. The movie is based on the war of Saipan (and how the US used American Indians and their language for codes) so I got to see lots of nice scenery of the island before going (albeit, in the movie it's war-riddled with dead bodies all over).

The flight from Narita to Saipan took about 3 hours. Saipan's basically 3 hours south of Japan, but it's a little farther east. Hence, there's an hour difference in time zones, too.

We got there, took the shuttle bus to the hotel, and I quickly realized how Saipan was almost exactly like Japan except everyone speaks English as well as Japanese. Everyone living there is pretty much bilingual. 80% of the people are Japanese (whether they are tourists or locals). It became an American owned country after WWII, but pretty much everyone is still Japanese. We checked in, and quickly enjoyed the view from our room (check the photos). We went down to the beach in back of the hotel, waded in, then dipped in the hotel pool nearby, showered, and went to dinner at a BBQ restaurant. At the restaurant, everyone was cooking their own dinners (which was the theme of the restaurant) - I was looking forward to doing it. But, the waiter came over and cooked ours and wouldn't leave our table. We didn't have time to talk to each other. A bit too overbearing. I realized he was doing this to get a tip. The rest of the people eating were Japanese and since there's no tipping in Japan and he was Japanese, he doesn't expect tips from them. But, since I'm American he wanted to earn a tip. This became quite annoying by the end of the weekend (being singled out as the American who tips). Marie and I realized the best thing to do was to have her (a Japanese), hand the waiter (another Japanese) a small tip (maybe $3) when the tip in America would normally be $5 or $10. I stayed out of it and sometimes only spoke Japanese so they couln't even tell I was American - I could pass for European with my fashionable dressing :)

Next day, we rented a car and drove arond the island. The island is very small (about 10 square miles?), so we could see everything there was to see in one afternoon. First, we went to a quick lunch at Subway (there ar 5 on the island). They even screwed up our order by adding Jalapenos to Marie's sandwich and forgetting cheese on mine. So American Style! For those scoring at home, I got Tuna on Whole Wheat with Provolone, Lettuce, Tomatos, Jalapeno, Pepper, Salt, Oregeno, No pickles, No onions.

From there, we drove to Banzai Cliff where Japanese fearing defeat (and the associated shame) threw themselves into the rocky waters and killed themselves. After that, Marie drove the remainder of the day. She wanted to practice and Saipan is a great place because there are no cars on the road. However, since it's American, people do drive on the opposite of the road there (compared to Japan). After correcting the side of the road Marie was driving on, she did fine. Nowhere as scary as when she drove in Saipan.

Next, we went to a place called The Grotto. It a small pool separated from the ocean by huge rocks and cliffs and look like a cave filled with water (check the photos). The bottom of this huge pool had 3 small passagaways out to the main ocean where scuba people would go out and see more. This grotto sort of reminded me of the end of the Goonies where the kids finally find the Pirate ship in the cave/grotto pool of water. We saw people in scuba gear jumping in and thought it looked fun. We had worn our bathing suits in case we found a nice beach, so I said when in Saipan, do as the Saipanesianesess do. A guy saw me traversing the rushing water and sharp rocks over to the middle rock wear you can jump in and offered help. Marie took pictures while I jumped in. The water was amazing. Next, I motioned to Marie to come in, so she traversed the terrain and jumped in, too.

After that we drove to a couple other cliffs and shore spots, then up to the very top of the island. From up there, looking down on the rest of the roads and island, it felt like Sim City or a minature train set.

That night we drove to Tony Roma's ("famous for ribs!"). We got huge American-style fattening, can't-finish-all-this-food dinners (check the photos). I started realizing that the food in most restaurants on Saipan really isn't that good. Since you're stuck on the island, I guess they don't go to great lengths to make it taste good. Additionally, these meals are so much more expensive than a normal meal. Like 50$ a person for what normally should be an 18$ entree. They use American dollars for everything, so no Yen. I just used my credit card for everything, so I didn't have to go through exchanging money.

After dinner, we walked around the one big indoor mall on the island which was pretty much setup as all Jewelers and purse stores for the tons of Japanese tourists who love that stuff (Louis Vuitton, Coach, Tiffany's, etc).

The next day, we had made all-day plans by purchasing a package deal that would give us a day's worth of water-sport-centered activities. First we got Jet Skis for 30 minutes. I'd nevere done that before, so it was a bit scary at first. They realy have a lot of power behind them, but after you get used to turning and hitting large waves, you start taking more chances and can have fun. Next, we boarded a motor boat that would take us to an island where we could relax and snorkel all day. We had packed lunch and just lounged on this small island all day long. I must have gone in and out fo the water 10 times and just floated around. Snorkeling was great. You can see in the photos how clear the water is. We had perfect weather for 4 days and the people living there said the weather is a constant 80 degrees F all year long. Never fluctuates. It was perfect for me, not so hot that you sweat, but not so cold that you can't go in the warm waters.

After a day on the island, we went para-sailing behind a motorboat. You know, where they pull you in the air from the ground in a boat while you're attached to a parachute. That was fun, too. But, we were only maybe 100 feet above the water, 100 feet behind the boat. Nothing like you might see in the movies where people are in the clouds 300 or 500 feet above the water.

That night we went to another average tasting, overpriced surf and turf restaurant. The next morning, we only had a couple hours before we had to get to the airport, so we spent about an hour on the waterslide connected to the hotel pool (check the photos). That's my foot! (Marie's photo-taking-timing is apparently not that good.)