Saipan: Japan 2
June 14, 2004
My short visit to Saipan opened my eyes to a part of the world where I never even dreamed of visiting. Some of the most striking things about this small island of 70,000 people were:
- There were as many signs in Japanese as there were in English
- Many people on the island spoke Japanese
- Although prices were listed in American dollars (Saipan is part of America), the actual prices were on par with Japanese prices – ie. $3.50 USD for a can of soda
- This whole culture seems to exist to bilk Japanese tourists of their money
- The most beautiful buildings on the island were hotels
- The rest of the island looks like any small city in America: 20 years ago
the airport in Saipan at around 1AM Saturday morning and after waiting forever for people to board the bus, we were on our way. We arrived and checked into the hotel at around 3AM. Since it was dark, I couldn’t see anything from the balcony. That’s the extent of Friday night.
Saturday
We had to wake up really early to catch this free tour. Stepping onto the same balcony, I was greeted by a very beautiful view of the ocean and the morning sky. Although the weather was rather humid, the temperature wasn’t too bad. It was a very beautiful sight. For breakfast, I had the most expensive breakfast buffet ever at the hotel – $18 per person and the food wasn’t very good. I don’t think they were really out to rip us off because Hotel Nikko, where we were staying in, was rather expensive in general. I guess you can’t put a Denny’s into the Waldorf-Astoria huh?
Our tour was guided by an older Japanese lady and with her was a young Saipan fellow who was filming the entire tour. The goal of this filming was so that the tourists can purchase this video as a souvenir. The kicker – the video cost a whopping $160. On this tour, we visited Banzai Cliff, The Last Command Post, a beach, and to end, the Duty-Free shop. I concluded that this whole tour was to trap people in the Duty-Free store as the bus left after dropping us off. Luckily, Saipan offers free shuttle buses running the length of the island all day.
Our next thing was a submarine tour. It was my first time in a submarine so it was rather exciting. The submarine was quite small. Looking back now, I guess it was no longer than 8-10 meters. It took us around the reef and we got to see some WW2 ruins and items lost at sea. We also saw a lot of fish with the height of it being the Beetle Ray.
We sat around the beach after that watching the sun set which was sort of neat.
For dinner, we went to a teppan-yaki restaurant (it wasn’t my decision to visit a Japanese restaurant). They had great food and the chef was quite friendly. The waitress seemed like a bitch and she would snap back answers before we finished our requests. Example: “Excuse me can I get a glass of…” “Yes sir, water”. Oh. Tipping: it’s common knowledge that Japanese people do not tip. It’s just not in their culture. Anything and everything is included in the prices. This is something I agree because tipping inherently has its own problems. But anyway, knowing this, restaurants all over the island include a 10% service charge. While it’s fine for great service, sadly, most people who work on the island who don’t work in tourist/hospitality positions offer really piss poor and rude service. The hotel staff, tour guides, and most bus drivers were super cool. The store sales people and non-hotel waiters and waitresses deserved herpes.
Sunday
Again, we went back to that expensive, shitty breakfast buffet in the hotel. We woke up late and had to catch the 8AM bus so we couldn’t get out to a better breakfast place. We were catching the bus to go to Managaha Island. This island is a puny little place about… I would guess 3-5 kilometers away from Saipan. This island is a protected area as it is surrounded by coral and all sorts of neat shit. The island also offers tonnes of water sports, including para-sailing, scuba diving, and banana boat rides. We did some swimming first off and then the woman and I went on this thing called Aquanauts. Basically, you put over your head a heavy helmet that is constantly being pumped with compressed air. This creates a nice air bubble inside to keep you alive while you walk around on the ocean floor. While down there, we saw some cool fish and got to feed them with some sausages that the guides gave us. To prove the point about this being island being made to bilk people of their money, the tour guide couldn’t give me instructions in English. He was in fact Japanese and was only accustomed to having Japanese people join his tours. I mean… what the hell? It just proved how much this island depended on Japanese tourists. Anyway, it was a nice activity and I met a dude named Terry who seemed like a diving expert. We shot the breeze a bit about sharks (there are Tiger sharks around Saipan… in the deeper waters fortunately).
After that, I did some snorkelling (my first time) while the woman floated around on a lifesaver. We had yet another shitty lunch and eventually made our way back to the main island. I was sunburnt bad. Back in the hotel, we hung around the pool and the beach. For dinner this night, we went to this BBQ at the hotel and had lobster. It was awesome.
Nothing much done the rest of the night. The woman and her mother had a massage and spa deal while I stayed in the room in pain from the sunburns watching shitty television.
Monday
We had to meet in the lobby at 3AM for the bus that took us to the airport. Customs in this airport was a bitch as it was small and the people who worked there were all assholes. Also, two older tourist dudes from another Asian country were extremely rude to me. One tried to cut in line while the other blatantly pushed me out of his way to get his bag. Coupled with the pain from the sunburns, I was ready to send them to their graves a couple years earlier. It just seems there are so many old people who are so selfish and rude nowadays.
This was where we bought the $3.50 sodas. The woman who worked the cash register here was such a bitch. I wanted to say something sarcastic to her but I realized that even though this was “America”, most people spoke English no better than immigrant factory workers and stowaways.
At this point, I was ready and willing to go back to Japan.
Summary
I loved the sea, I loved the view, I loved the sunsets. I’m grateful and thankful for the kindness that some islanders showed. I’m sick of the rude attitudes that some of the islanders and some of the other travellers showed. I’m appalled by the extremely high prices which just seems like they’re out to get Japanese people’s money. I’m saddened that people seem to live in sub-standard conditions while they work for a richer, more developed country. I’m also saddened that everything on this island seemed to be built for Japanese people – I felt that the island had lost its own beautiful culture all in the attempt to make money. I saw some beautifully tanned girls and some very muscular, fit men. I saw many WW2 relics that made me feel like this whole island is dwelling on history and using it as more tourist traps. I saw frogs and geckos running on the walls too.
You’ve read through the entire rant? Well, here are some pictures to go along with my words.
PS. In case you were interested, some more information about Saipan: located 15 degrees latitude (closest to the equator I’ve ever been), Languages: English, Chamorro, Carolinian with 86% of people speaking another language (probably Japanese is my guess), GDP per capita $12,000 USD.
