Guam

M had a week off of school for Fall break, so we took a trip out of Japan to Guam! It is the closest American soil to Japan, and about a 3 hours flight from Osaka. Since Japan is finally open for tourism and reduced it’s requirements for Covid related testing, we wanted a little tropical weather and to pick up some stuff from America. We booked flights and 5 nights in Guam at the Pacific Islands Club hotel, which was pretty reasonable due to being the off season.

Pacific Islands Club

The resort has all inclusive and breakfast buffet options, but we booked the room online via one of the major travel sites and got a package deal with just the room and airfare. Eating outside the hotel turned out to be the right decision, since the buffet looked mediocre and we would have quickly been tired of eating the same stuff everyday.

The hotel looks like it has seen better days, and was probably a top destination 20 years back, but probably due to covid and lack of visitors, the place could use some room renovations and fresh paint. We stayed in a standard room in one of the towers, maybe upgraded rooms don’t look as tired. It was also hard to get a price on the buffet breakfast, we got different answers from the staff but the host at the restaurant said $30 for adults and we gave that a pass. We did utilize the snack bar a few times, the selection there was pretty limited and resort prices as well. Also, the ramen place there was also sub par, would not recommend. However, the hotel did have some great features, including a water park with slides, kayaking and a bunch of activities. We did get to do most of those activities, and M had a really great time in the pools. By adjusting to eating outside the hotel, we ended up having a blast and would consider staying there again.

M got to try snorkeling, in a salt water pool with fish.

And shoot some arrows at the archery range.

The water park also has a splash play area, slides and several pools. Kids could spend days here, even lots of locals came to play.

The hotel was mostly full of Koreans, in fact wherever we went on the island, it was about 90% Korean visitors. We didn’t find many Japanese tourists, which was a bit unexpected. It’s not really a holiday in Japan, and someone explained to us that even if travel restrictions were lifted, if someone did get Covid while visiting outside of Japan, they would have a hard time explaining that to work. While that sounds overly cautious, especially when there is plenty of Covid risks within Japan, it just highlights that you don’t want to be ’that guy’ in Japanese culture.

Car Rental and Getting Around

We found a local car rental place nearby, and reserved a compact car for only $25 a day! There are no sales taxes in Guam, so it was literally just $25 which was an awesome deal, especially since they were out of compacts and we ended up with a van. There are buses that run along some of the touristy spots, and it’s $4 per person for a ride, which we took a couple times… but maybe in hindsight we could have kept a rental for a couple more days. While tourism is returning, there are many things still on reduced schedules and not open. From our hotel, we could also walk to the main touristy drag in about 15 minutes.

Two Lovers Point

The day we had our car, we checked out a couple sights, like the Two Lovers Point. Looking out from the cliffs was pretty cool.

This reminds me of the wishes you can leave at shrines!

Just a warning, that it may still take a bit of time till the entire island is back to full tourism strength. We noticed that some places were closed half days, or not open at all during the week. There were some hotels that were shutdown and a noticeable number of restaurants and store fronts that were also shut down. Covid did a number on places like this.

Shopping

We wanted to pick up some supplies while we were here, one being over the counter medicines. Japan seems to be fairly restrictive on medicines, so we wanted to hit up things like allergy medicine and Tylenol. There is no Costco or Target, but there is a big Kmart where we found those type of things.

We also went to the Premium Outlets, which was not very big or premium, but we did pick up a few sweaters for the approaching winter. There are some higher end stores near the hotel area but they were open only a half day and felt kinda dead in terms of shoppers.

We were also looking for a new laptop since one of ours is dying, but there is no Mac store and the only authorized dealer (a tiny shop) had a mark up from the retail price. We didn’t find any large box electronics stores either, so I assume the locals must order online and pay extra for shipping? In any case, we passed and decided to just get one in Japan even though they have a funny Japanese keyboard layout.

Food

Food choices were pretty decent considering the size of the island. Since we were happy to leave the hotel for food, we found a Jamaican place with yummy ribs.

The Beachin Shrimp place had some amazing garlic shrimp! My favorite side dish in most local joints is the Chamarro rice, very delicious.

Guam also has the usual chain stores, like Applebee’s and Chilis. We tried to keep those to a minimum, there are plenty of local places that serve brunch and loco mocos. We also scratched an itch for LA Kalbi at one of the many Korean restaurants. There are some interesting differences of American Asian food and Japanese Asian food… and LA Kalbi doesn’t seem to exist in Japan. Maybe not that surprising, but it’s one of our favorites that we miss. We were pleasantly surprised with the local joints in Guam, and reminded of the big portions of America! Better hit the gym again after our vacation.

Chamarro Night Market

On Wednesday nights, tourists and locals gather at the Chamarro Night Market and is definitely worth checking out. We had to taxi over to it, (actually we used Stroll, the local equivalent to Uber) but well worth the cost ($20+). First, they have a lot of BBQ food stalls and trucks, and for an amazing $12 bucks we got a huge plate of food. It was enough for the whole family!.

Next up, they had a free dance show which was a huge hit for the kids. Did I mention we ran into M’s classmate and enjoyed a playdate at our hotel water park? We all checked out the night market too, and picked up some ice cream there as well.

The only thing missing was the lack of any alcohol being sold. Maybe we could just sneak our own next time! We decided to bus it back, kids ride for free and it stops at all the major hotels.

Underwater World

We made a quick visit to Underwater World which has a tunnel that lets you walk through the big tank and check out some sharks and rays.

The eel tank was memorable, those guys look pretty evil.

The Circus!

There was a circus/acrobatics show that was at our hotel. No animals involved, but a nice selection of human acrobatics and stunts. The tent is small, maybe scaled down due to the low number of tourists, so there is no need to get the expensive seats since all of them are close to the action. M loved the show, it was near Vegas level entertainment, but for under $50 a head!

Summary

We enjoyed our 5 nights in Guam, it was nice to sit by the pool and enjoy the warm weather. M really had fun at the hotel water park, and we didn’t have to leave the hotel much to keep entertained. I believe in another year or so, the tourists will be back and the island will recover from the losses during Covid. I felt the service was generally pretty awesome, and the locals were happy to have people come visit again. Guam felt like a mini Hawaii, with a relaxed vibe. I recommend the many local restaurants, they were generally great!