Saipan, Mariana Islands

So I officially understand what having your “sea legs” means.  The past 3 days through the Philippine Sea have not let me forget that I am living on a ship.  The constant swaying of the ship does have a few advantages though.  1. You can be drunk and no one will know it…no one can walk straight.  2.  The pool turns into a great wave pool.  3.  My balance is impeccable. I now can run in place on the treadmill while practice my side to side defensive moves at the same time.  Too bad my days of soccer are long gone. 

 

We went a few days ago, to Saipan, which is part of the Mariana Islands.  It is just south of Japan. I knew nothing about it before, but had quite the history lesson while there.  It was actually very interesting and in my opinion the best way to get a history lesson.  The Island was fought over by the Americans and Japanese during World War 2.  We wanted it as a refueling place because it was so close to Japan and the Japanese obviously didn’t want that to be possible for us. We got to see the beaches where the American troops landed and began their fighting.  America took over the island and the Japanese women and children that were left began jumping into the ocean off the cliffs (shown in the picture), which are known today as the suicide cliffs. The Americans tried to stop them, but they were taught that there was no hope left once their husbands were killed and it was better to die than to live under rule of the Americans.  Also, there were stories of the people who were native to the island before Japan and America came over uninvited onto their land.  Some of the native people would hide out in caves for months so that they would not be affected by the war that was happening on their territory.  It was incredible to hear the stories and get to see the sights of these places.  Seeing the cliffs where hundreds of Japanese took their lives and seeing tanks on the beach left by the Americans made my idea of the war so much more real.  The island is now still owned by the US and all of the people who live there are considered US citizens. On a lighter note, we did find a Hard Rock Café, where we got our fix of American burgers and music.  We also found a market that had Oreos and Dr. Pepper.  Although, only 3 days later and our two bags of Oreos are now gone.  I guess Japanese biscuits and fortune cookies will have to hold us through the rest of the trip.