Guam (Hawaii Junior) Where America's Day Begins

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  Tumon, Guam
Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The main difference between our hotel in Guam and our hotel in Tokyo was that the Westin in Guam had a higher percentage of Japanese.  Our friendly hotel bartender Chris estimated the percentage at 90-95%.  He wasn't far off.  We speculated that Guam is the poor Japanese man's Hawaii.  It's much closer to Japan and far less expensive than Hawaii.  We toured an underwhelming mall and a Kmart that was as ugly as it was busy.  Beyond that, there were some very high-end retailers near the tourist and hotel strip on Tumon Bay.

The Westin was a huge hotel on a great, peaceful slice of beach.  My "partial ocean view" room (see obstructed view) was massive and had a fantastic view of "Club Foxxy" across the street.  I got up early enough the next morning to get out to the ocean for an early morning swim.  The water and sand was nice and I was the only one in the water, so there were colorful fish everywhere.  As I swam out further, I started to think that I hope there wasn't a shark, jellyfish, or stingray related reason that I was the only one in the water.  I made it out to a buoy which I discovered marked a small reef and took a look at the coral and fish wishing I had more than a half hour to do it.

We found numerous spots along the island related to WWII history and the big role Guam played.  It was taken by the Japanese and the native Chamoro people suffered greatly before the Americans retook the island nearly three years later.  This put the Allies within striking range of Japan by air.  A member of our group's father was stationed on the island and we were able to retrace his steps- a very interesting journey.

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