Glass Balls/Japanese Floats

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

     I hope that life is finding you well. This blog is about a hobby common to the Pacific Islands, whether it be Guam, Saipan, or any of the other Marianas Islands.   The topic is that of searching for glass balls while beach combing.  If I had more time on Saipan, I would search for more glass balls as there are still places on the island that are virtually inaccessible to humans unless they have a background in climbing and repelling by rope.   I have seen such areas and expect there to be many glass balls yet to be found there, but they are becoming rare.  In the 70’s one could find more glass balls, but they are no longer made today or at least not for fishing as was their original purpose. 

     Glass balls come from Japan and were originally used as net floats.  A great website for both pictorial amusement and research is http://home.comcast.net/~4miller/aboutfloats/about.html .  Amongst my friends on the island, the place code named “Lobster Lagoon” that proved to be a place to still occasionally find glass floats earlier this year.  The chances of finding them at this location, however, have diminished as there is a house located above the trail head that has its own private trail leading down to the crevice.  During a heavy storm or typhoon I’m sure that this family would be the first on the scene to find such beauties. 

     I will not share this location with anyone because it is a secret to be earned from many days of hiking and exploring the island.  One of my regrets about Saipan is that I did not make friends that shared the love of exploring and trailblazing that I have.  The longest I had ever spent in the jungle was 6 hrs and I nearly didn’t make it back due to exhaustion.  It would have been nice to have a friend to explore the jungle and beach comb with.  I could have headed up a group at church, but I didn’t feel that the interest was there.  I wish everyone the best of luck in finding these beauties on Saipan and other islands in the Marianas chain.

This glass ball was given to me by a friend on the island of Saipan.  You can see that the original roping is still attached. At first, I had the idea that I would try and get rid of the added sea grunge, but I figured that it was a lost cause.  I even thought about bleaching the rope, but I figured that it might weaken the rope and lead to it fallen apart.  What I will say about cleaning a glass ball is that soaking it in non-bleach or non-corrosive dish soap for a few days and lightly scrubbing the glass with a steel wool sort of scour dish pad will take off a little bit of junk off of the glass. 

This glass ball is one I found at Lobster Lagoon.  It is smaller a a little cleaner than the big one that was given to me.  An important thing to know about glass balls that many people make the mistake of doing is in regard to a shipment of these objects back home.  The truth is that you cannot ship these objects by air.  Because glass floats are sealed glass blown objects, they cannot be flown by plane.  When the air pressure changes, the glass floats will break. So, DO NOT SHIP THESE HOME BY PLANE.  Instead, ship the glass floats by parcel post while wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap.  The parcel post will be a lot slower than shipping by plane because it is shipped by boat, but at least your beach combed treasure will be safe.

This picture was taken at Jeff's Seaside Museum in Guam.  The museum is attached to the restaurant located on the south side of the island named Jeff's Pirates Cove.  I did not care too much for the food, but the museum is worth visiting despite its extremely small size.  It is actually the size of a shack, but is filled with lots of beach combed material and Guam WWII era treasures.

This is a the row of glass balls in the lower glass shelf at the museum in Guam.  I'm not sure if this is true, but I have a hunch that the glass balls were originally made from melted down glass sake bottles from WWII.   In Japan today, One can still find glass floats but many of them are actually made just for tourists or enthusiasts. 

Day 5 of our Guam Vacation

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers:

      It is now time to end my updates about Guam...Kara will probably write one blog of her own talking about the whole trip at a later time.  I really don't have a lot to say about this day and I will be uploading all the 400+ photos of our Guam trip for people to view on Facebook.  I wanted to blog and share a few pictures before I posted them on Facebook.
   Since we had to leave our hotel by noon, Kara and I got up early and drove to the Tumon Bay touristy area and stopped to swim at Governor Flores Beach.  I felt I owed it to her since we really didn't swim a whole lot while in Guam.  While we were there, Kara was bitten by a fish or cut by the fins.  The fish left three lines on her calf bleeding.  It was honestly more like a scratch, but being a prepared kind of guy I took out my little first aid kit and gave her scratch a cleaning and a band-aid.  She didn't really want to go in the water much after that...but went in one last time after some prodding. When it was my turn (had to watch our stuff), I saw a lot of fish where some tourists were feeding them bread.  Most of them I recognized from Saipan except for the spotted one, which I don't remember seeing in Saipan.  I hope you enjoy the underwater pictures.  This particular beach is fairly deep and is not full of super sharp coral like in Saipan.
     After swimming, we went back to the hotel to change, pack up, and check out.  That took a relatively short amount of time.  We then went shopping for some last minute things that Kara wanted to shop for like new running shoes since she has decided to run two 5k races in June, one Duluth, MN and one in Omaha, NE.  If you are a relative or friend and want to support her the race in Duluth is called the "Boulder Dash" and the one in Omaha is called "Run for Trails" and will take place in Gretna.  I also bought some on sale running shoes for the gym since I haven't bought new running shoes since I graduated college (no joke). That was about our priciest purchase but was still relatively inexpensive considering everything we bought was on sale.  We went to some other stores too, but had to hurry to eat before our plane took off from the airport.        
     We decided to rush and eat at McDonalds.  Unfortunately, when we got to the airport we learned that our tickets had been given to other people (we were still there early by 30+minutes)!  Kara was livid, but I was trying to be as calm as possible.  When I asked the luggage checker why this happened, he told me that when you have an "international flight" a person needs to be at the gate an hour before boarding the plane!  I couldn't believe it, the itinerary says, "Please be there an hour early" not "You must arrive an hour early or we will sell your ticket to earn more money for the airline."   In the end the airlines did right by us and put us on the next flight back to Saipan (four hours later).  I think the thing that frustrated me most was getting through the security check point and hearing the intercom say, "Now boarding for Saipan" and we could have been on our plane... In the end, we arrived in Saipan safe and sound albeit later than expected.
     I hope you enjoy the pictures!  Remember to click them for a larger image.

Kara happy to get the chance to swim at another
beach before leaving Guam.

A panoramic view of Governor Flores Beach as it pointing the
camera to the north. 

A picture I thought would look funnier than it is...the joke is
supposed to be that we are two lovers pointing toward Two
Lover's Point haha

Some cool fish that I've seen before in Saipan.  The skinny/pointy
nosed fish are Needle Nose Fish.  They are not dangerous but
do have a habit of encircling swimmers making them feel uneasy.

The strange spotted fish I had never seen in Saipan.

Guam Vacation Day 4

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

     Since I am done grading and tutoring students for the day, I thought I would update our blog and talk about our Thursday in Guam.  One of the first things we did on our Thursday after sleeping in late and watching cable T.V. at our hotel was to go to the Ramada hotel down the road to swim.  The Days Inn, Guam has a deal with the Ramada that allows guests to swim at their pool.  The pool isn't anything special, but it was fun to relax in the sun and swim in water that was not salty.  We had fun just being together and reading the complementary paper that comes with being a guest at our hotel.  

     After the pool, we decided to drive around and in the process we stopped at Ritidian Beach at the northernmost point in Guam.  We went there because the friends we had met (Glenn & Sandy) told us that it was one of the beaches they were most impressed with.  In order to get to Ritidian Beach you have to drive on the incredibly bumpy and hazardous road that goes around Northwest Field (which used to land B-29 Bombers during WWII) and when the road abruptly ends there is a road that goes to the left and is nicely paved.  This road leads to Ritidian Point and snakes its way down to the end where the beach is located.  Ritidian was the location of a large Chamorro settlement 600 years before the Spanish arrived in 1521.  To the Chamorro it was called "Litekjan."  From 1668-1690 (22years), the Chamorro population on Guam dropped from 12,000 to only 2,000 due to the Spanish Chamorro War and European influenza.  By the 1680's, the Chamorro had abandoned their village at Ritidian.  Today, this beach is a beautiful white sand beach with virtually no litter on it.  While we were there swimming/snorkeling and just enjoying the sun there was a Korean orchestral group there having a lot of fun and being really loud as kids are.  Besides that minor annoyance of people having a good time, the only other thing is that the beach is relatively shallow.  My suggestion to anyone who goes there in the future is to bring some sort of shade as there is virtually no shade on the beach and unlike Saipan the beach is wide and if being in sun directly is not your cup of tea... bring something.  Luckily I brought an umbrella that made our time there a little more bearable.  It would make a great picnic area.  Oh, and one last thing I forgot to mention is that because this place was made a wildlife refuge in 1993 it is only open from 7:30am-4pm.

     After deciding to leave the Ritidian Beach area, we drove to a lookout point that the rangers at the War in the Pacific Museum told us would be beautiful and informative.  The first place we stopped was the Asan Bay Overlook Unit (so named on the map).  This overlook was where Japanese were positioned to shoot at Americans arriving at the terribly exposed Asan Beach where the Americans landed.  At the memorial is a list of military personnel that died in the battle and there are depictions in metal plating that show the forced labor of the Chamorro under the Japanese and the emancipation of them by the U.S. forces.  I was also touched by the marble monument dedicated to the local islanders who died at Pearl Harbor, of which there were twelve.  Having visited Pearl Harbor, I feel that their particular sacrifice was extremely sad and worthy of remembrance it it jump started a nation into a mode of industry and defense not often seen in history. We then drove further and found another overlook from which we could see Tumon Bay.  The picture is of the Tumon Bay area (if you visit Guam this overlook is not named to my knowledge so you just have to find it).

     After viewing such beauty, we got back in the car and Kara let me stop at a museum that only cost 3 dollars to enter.  I cannot remember the name of the museum but it was pretty cool.  They had all sorts of donated WWII automobiles and fully restored military vehicles used during the war in the Pacific.  I chose to share some of the historical pictures of people and things rather than the vehicles for the blog as I believe the people are more important.  Since Kara wanted to wait in the car and read, I promised that we would next try and find the Latte Stone Memorial Park in Guam.  Luckily, it wasn't too far from the museum we visited but was a bit tricky to find.  

     The last part of our day was meeting up with Glenn and Sandy and two of their three kids at the California Pizza Kitchen in the Tumon Bay tourist area.   I hope you enjoy our pictures. Remember to click on the pictures to view a larger image.

     

This is the view of Ritidian Beach from the beginning of the
road that snakes its way down toward the gate and entrance
to the beach.

A view of the gloriously clean and awesome beach of Ritidian.

Who else but Kara and I at Ritidian Beach, Guam (no idea why
our hair is so frizzy...)

A picture of the sign at the Asan Bay Overlook Unit showing
tourists what they see in the distance.  This is the same view
the Japanese gunners would have had of our troops landing
along the beach exposed.  You can see the peninsula and harbor
in our picture below. 

Kara and I at the Asan Bay Overlook Unit.

This is one of the metal memorial depictions at the Asan Bay
Overlook Unit.  It shows the Japanese rounding up the
Chamorros from church and farmland and forcing them to work.
The last section shows the American liberation of the island.

View of Tumon Bay from the un-named overlook area.

Picture I found striking at the $3 museum.
And stay they did.

This is Japanese General Takashi Takashina.
He was the commander of all the Imperial
Japanese on Guam.  He died in battle on July 28,
1944 during the battle of Fonte Plateau. 

This is a picture of Sgt. Yokoi  I mentioned in the
previous blog post. This was taken the day after his
capture 26 1/2 years after the wars end in April 1972.

The kid in me couldn't help but post a picture of the American
Bazooka rounds on display.

Picture of Kara standing in front of the latte stones at the
Latte Stone Memorial Park.  For some traditional locals these
stones may be a sore spot in their memory.  These stones are
original and were moved from their ancestral resting places
after the war because construction of the military bases
needed to occur. These particular stones are probably about
8ft tall.  They were taken from Mepo Village in the Fena Valley
and placed in this location in 1955 & 1956.  Latte Stone construction
occurred from 1100-1700 A.D.

Kara and I have seen this in Saipan, but if you didn't know what
a Chamorro house looked like this is how the latte stones
were used. 

Kara and I with two large hot fudge ice cream desserts from
California Pizza Kitchen (One was actually Sandy and Glenn's
but they wanted us to pretend haha)

Guam Vacation Day 3

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

It is time for day three of our Guam vacation.  The morning started out with a quick run to K-Mart because I had found a tear in my swim suit the day before and did not want to offend anyone by giving them a show.  The trunks I bought were a little big so when I got back to Saipan I re-stitched the ties in front in order to better wear them.  Kara and I then went to Underwater World Aquarium. Before we actually went in to the aquarium Kara spent some time shopping at a store called DNA Evolution where she found some on-sale items that look cute on her.  As we entered the aquarium the ticket person told us the shark feeding would take place in an hour. So we waited around freezing our butts off in the very chilly underwater tunnel. It was well worth the wait to see the sharks and rays being fed.  I think my favorite part of the aquarium was seeing the sea horses in a small tank on the second floor. Kara’s favorite part of the aquarium was seeing the two large and endangered sea turtles that were swimming around that had been rescued from an illegal trade at an airport in Japan.  After the aquarium, the first thing on our minds was snacking.  I visited a little coffee shop on the first floor of the aquarium building. Kara on the other hand with to a place called “OVeryBerry” that provided great smoothies.  It was located in a little outlet mall on the strip heading southbound from the aquarium. 

            Our next stop was the War in the Pacific Museum.  It is the sister National Parks Service museum to Saipan’s American Memorial Park.  Unfortunately, the exhibit was a temporary traveling exhibit that didn’t have a whole lot to do with the war.  The exhibit was titled “Setting Up Fences.”  The exhibit did have a lot to with Guam in its present state, however, which was interesting.  Fences may not seem like something that relates to Guam, but if you are a resident (or visitor, I suppose) you cannot avoid seeing the miles of fence that has been put up around the military compounds to the north and south of the island.  One fact in the museum gave the actual number of acres, unfortunately I did not copy that factoid down.  The basic figure, however, is that the U.S. Military owns technically 1/3 of the island’s land (that couldn’t have been used for farm land).  Many locals today dislike the military presence and are afraid of the proposed military build-up that will happen in the next ten years as things heat up in the Pacific region.  People are worried about more land being grabbed, noise pollution from a proposed firing range, and perhaps just that fact that more people will be on Guam.  I think my favorite part of the exhibit was a case that had examples of antique barbed wire fencing haha  Having had experience on the ranch with straightening barbed wire, I got a kick out of seeing the evolution of barbed wire.  Kara liked the fact that there was mention of Nebraska in one of the exhibits.

After checking out the exhibit, we watched a short nine minute video clip of the battle for Guam.  I felt bad for the American force who originally held the island before the Japanese came.  There were only 135 Marines on the island against a Japanese force of about 17,000+ men.  When the Americans landed on Guam to liberate it, they first bombed the island for 13 days straight because they had taken such a beating on Saipan (having only bombed 2 ½ days there.  By the end of the battle for Guam 17,000 Japenese soldiers were dead and approximately 1,000 local Chamorro.  Sadly, the Japanese never wrote down their captives names or gave them a proper burial so the true number may never be known.  To the Japanese, the locals were just a work force to be utilized. Our next stop was the hotel to relax for a little while.

            Once our afternoon siesta had fizzled out we went to the Chamorro Village Street Market that takes place on Wednesday nights at the Chamorro Village complex on Marine Drive.  We had a lot of fun just walking around and seeing the sights.  Holding the coconut crab was a lot of fun for me as was talking to an old man who was one of the first to make the famed local machete’s (which are made from the back suspension rods of a truck).  He was a really neat old man who could barely hear.  Unfortunately he no longer makes them, but his knives (fashioned after the ones marines on Guam may have made after the war) were selling for $150.  After we had walked around for some time, and Kara had ridden a Carabao, we went to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner.  It was the best meal I had that entire vacation. I ordered Trout Almondene and Kara had a mix and match plate of min-burgers and other delights. 

            I hope you enjoy our pictures, don’t forget to click on them for a larger image.

A curious sea turtle poses for a picture as an excited Kara
clicks away. 

One of my favorite exhibits at the aquarium are
these potbelly sea horses (I'm not kidding that
is actually their name haha)

I had a splitting headache from not having had coffee for
the first two days of our trip as I looked for a coffee place.
This coffee shop is locate on the first floor of the building
that houses the aquarium.  It was tucked into a corner of
the building, but I knew my pain would be taken away
because the girl behind the counter was listening to Christian
music on the radio.

At first, I had to do a double take of the title to this smoothie
place because I thought it said "Ovary" haha Don't worry it
is not a clinic or something but a great smoothie place haha

Kara standing in front of a two man Japanese submarine that washed
up on shore during the war.  Another museum on the island said it was a
 three man submarine... not sure which museum is correct.  This sub
is on display outside the War in the Pacific museum in Guam.

 A display of the antique barbed wire at the museum that I
thought was interesting.

This was a machete on display at the Chamorro Village street
market.  The tape says it was made in 1984 making it as old as
me.  This is the type of local machete I've been looking to buy
but can't find on the island. It was made from the suspension
rod of a truck making it rust resistant and incredibly strong.

Kara riding a Carabao at the Chamorro Village.
It is a tradition in the Philippines. 

Me holding a Coconut Crab at the Chamorro Village. I saw one
up close in Saipan at a property I was exploring, but this is the
first time I had held one.  They grow to be really large using
their claws to tear open coconuts and drink the juice and eat the
meat in the coconut.  The are almost extinct on Saipan because
hunters over harvest and do so illegally.  They are mainly nocturnal
animals that like to hide in crevices among the rough terrain on the
islands.  They are supposedly very tasty because their meat is
sweet like coconut.  In Chamorro they are called Ayuyu
(pronounced  ah-zoo-zoo)

A cute picture of Kara and I after a long day of having too
much fun in the sun. Taken at Ruby Tuesdays, Guam.

Guam Vacation Day 2

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

            I am here to update you on our second day of vacation in Guam. Tuesday was the day we traversed the entire south end of the island.  The first thing we did was travel toward Inarajan pool. On our way to Inarajan we visited some of the WWII invasion beaches like Asan Beach.  Upon arriving at Inarajan we saw a little pool with a makeshift diving platform made out of concrete that was rusting and cracking. The waves from the ocean would hit the reef and trickle over into this pool.  There were lots of people there and many pavilions for grilling out and having a good time. Were there fish in this pool?  Yes, the fish eventually get swept over the side into the murky depths of Inarajan trapped until an unseasonably large surf forms on the ocean to provide an escape on a rough day. Videos of Kara and I jumping off of the platform can be seen on facebook for those of you who are friends with us.

            As we continued down the slow/winding road, we stopped at many scenic overlook areas. We had a great time just slowly making our way around the southern tip of Guam. We eventually made it to a seaside bar/grill called Jeff’s Pirates Cove and the museum that is attached to the restaurant. The restaurant had o.k. food, but I felt that it was overpriced for the portion size I received.  I ordered a fish sandwich foolishly expecting to see a large hoagie bun with a slab of fish at the center but instead got a dinner bun with two pieces of fish meat with lettuce on top…the bun was so small that the fish wouldn’t even stay inside the bun while I tried to eat (I almost thought the two pieces were more energetic fried than when they were alive).  I would go to Jeff’s Pirates Cove again if I were only wanting a beer and some chips.  It has some great touristy items in the gift shop and t-shirts, but I was not impressed by the service or food quality.  The other thing that was strange was that they ended their service 10 minutes early just so they could leave work on time.  I saw two poor Asian tourists pull up just as we were leaving, but they were out of luck.  We were also not allowed to go out the front door because the lady had locked it and she told us nonchalantly to go around back through a fenced gate on the side of the building…very poor service in my opinion.  What made Jeff’s Pirates Cove interesting was the museum.  Inside this super small (free $$ to enter) museum was the vast array of island trinkets.  There were glass bottles from Japan and America from the war, WWII ammo, tons of Japanese Glass Floats, and a rather detailed glass display case with many of the shells I’ve collected on Saipan with their known names and scientific classifications.  I would go to the museum rather than eat at the restaurant.

            Lastly, we went to Talofofo Falls.  There are several falls on Guam, but Talofofo is the touristy one. Upon arriving there were pigs in the parking lot wandering around and a complex that used to look really nice, but was falling apart.  We got a local discount for being from the Marianas and enjoyed our ride down on the Gondola system.  There are actually two falls at Talofofo and they are both beautiful.  The falls used to have a little train/monorail like the one we had ridden in Hawaii at the Dole Plantation, but it was extremely run down and probably didn’t work.  There was also a museum with poor depictions and some grammar mistakes.  Below Talofofo one could also see the cave where Sgt. Yokoi of Japan had been hiding for 28 years after the war.  He survived on the fruit, shrimp & eels (found in Talofofo river), and various other unsavory things, and by bathing frequently to avoid disease. 

            I hope you enjoy the pictures! Remember to click on them for a larger image.

Kara, hanging off the barrels of a Japanese Anti-Aircraft
Gun from WWII that was on display at one of the invasion
beaches southwest of Asan Beach.

Inarajan pool taken in such a way as to look beautiful.  To
right (outside the frame) is the jumping platform and
pavilions. I tried to get most of the people out of the picture.
The pool extends further to the right and is fairly deep.

This is Kara and I behind a beautiful scenic backdrop
along Guam's southern tip.  It was taken at the Guam Vietnam
Memorial Scenic Overlook.

Another beautiful view somewhere along the southeastern
side of Guam.

The big sign you see outside of Jeff's Pirates Cove.  For a
while we thought we'd missed the restaurant until we saw
this sign.

One of the pigs at Talofofo Falls parking lot trying to find
shade wherever possible.

Kara at Talofofo Falls (Fall 1)

Grant (me) at Talofofo Falls (Fall 1)

A rather graphic depiction of Japanese ritual suicide that
occurred at the falls during WWII.  Since the American's
were able to land tanks on the island, they had the upper hand.
The Japanese would rather die than be taken alive and dishonor
their country.

Guam Vacation Day 1

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers:

            Today, I am going to start the first blog in a series of our spring break vacation in Guam. This blog will only be about our first day in Guam. The future entries will be about each day we spent in Guam and the last entry will be a hotel review of the Days Inn, Guam and the Airport Hotel, Guam. Our first day in Guam started out a little slow, but eventually started to pick up.  Since our hotel had a check-in time of 3pm (sorta odd right?), we decided to go to K-Mart and shop like an sensible Saipanese resident would do. While at K-Mart, we bought a few touristy things & essentials we needed for life in Saipan. My wife on the other hand also thought of some friends and the things they need or would want.  I will always admire my wife’s thoughtfulness and desire to remain “in-relationship” with people even when it inconveniences her or is hurtful to her.

            After shopping at K-Mart, we went to our hotel to check-in.  We stayed at the Days Inn, Guam.  I will save my hotel review for the hotel review blog entry.  I will say, however, that the service we experienced at the hotel was wonderful and that the rooms were kept tidy, but the noise around the hotel was probably some of the worst noise pollution I have ever experienced at a hotel.  I believe the reason for this is that it is situated along a two lane road that many Guam residents use as a thoroughfare to reach Marine Drive. 

            After checking in to the hotel, we decided to go to Two Lovers Point (a popular tourist attraction). Two Lovers Point offers a beautiful view of Tumon Bay and has a story about two Chamorro lovers. The woman is being forced into marriage with a Spaniard and because the Spanish have come to the island to claim it.  I am not too sure about the historical details but there was a Spanish/Chamorro war a long time ago in Guam’s history.  The woman and young man decide to run away and jump to their deaths off of the cliff face leading to a watery death hundreds of feet below.  On a positive note, while we were at the point I met a lady named Rose in the gift shop who used to work for a teacher at our school and she gave me the advice that Wednesday night was the best night to go to the Chamorro Village (Guam’s version of street market).  We also made friends with Glenn & Sandy, a couple we met after Glenn offered to take our picture with Tumon Bay in the back ground.  While I was in the gift shop, Kara began to converse with Sandy not knowing she was the wife of the man who just took our picture.  After telling her that we were Christian school teachers, Glenn & Sandy wanted to take us out to dinner at Outback Steak House as they wanted to bless us.  We could not turn down the opportunity for such Christian hospitality.  With them were three of their kids (2boys and a girl), all of whom were delightfully energetic.  In the end, we made friends that we will never forget. These are some of the pictures from our first day in Guam, I hope you enjoy. Remember to click on the picture for an enlarged image.

           

Kara and I in the center of a sandy heart at Two Lovers Point.
Our love just like sand gets everywhere hahah

Silhouettes of Kara and I at Two Lovers Point as she kisses
me on the cheek.

Kara at Two Lovers Point with the beautiful flowers that
match her shirt.  Tumon Bay, Guam is in the background.

A picture of one of the six or so concrete depictions
of the story of the two lovers.

The picture of the sunset at Two Lovers Point that night.

Glenn and Sandy, the kind couple who took us out to eat.
We will never forget their generosity and will try to do that
in the future when we have the financial means to do so.

I hope you enjoyed our first day there are many more photos to come in later entries.  Yours Truly, Grant

Spelling Bee/Trip to Guam on Business

     On March 3rd, 2012 was the annual regional spelling bee in Guam at the Sheraton Hotel.  I have so many pictures to share that once again I will let them do the talking by describing their importance below the picture.  I traveled to Guam to support my student Ms. Tiglao in her efforts to win the Spelling Bee.  I must share my gratitude toward the Tiglao family for having been so supportive of both their daughter and myself while in Guam.  They met me at the airport Friday night when I arrived and led to the hotel.  They even blessed me through helping with meal expenses.  It brings joy to my heart to know that teachers play a special part in the lives of their students and to know that their families are appreciative.  Without the Tiglao family my experience in Guam would not have been as stress free as it was.  I pray that the photos both from my trip, the bee itself, and the sightseeing I did will be informative for those wanting to taking part in such things themselves someday.  Enjoy the pictures and explanations... don't forget to click on the picture for an enlarged image.

This is a picture of Ms. Tiglao being required to spell her first word, which was "magnolia." The Scripps Spelling Bee had 74 schools participate this year.  The first student to drop out of the competition failed to spell the word "discipline" as they forgot the "e" at the end.  For those who have not gone to a spelling be before, when a speller misspells they put the microphone down on the pillow and step off the stage to have a medal placed around their neck and are allowed to sit with their family.   As the bee progressed the words became harder.  The following are words my students had to spell correctly for each round:  2nd "libretto", 3rd "infinitesimal", 4th "kielbasa", 5th "globular" (at this point the words were no longer on the study sheet and were from the unknown portion of the pronouncer guide) , 6th "iambist" (at this point there were only ten students left in the 6th round), the last word she attempted to spell was "cicada" (which she misspelled but managed to take fourth place overall and thus earned a $50 certificate and medal etc).  She did remarkably well and should be very proud of herself despite her desire to win first place and go to Washington D.C. The final two competitors were both from Saipan!  A girl from Cha Cha Junior High School won the overall competition in round 15 by spelling the words "biliousness" and "Ichabod" two in a row correctly. It was a very intense hard fought battle.

Me with the whole Tiglao family in support of Ms. Tiglao's achievement of being in the top 5!

At the bee there were a lot of refreshments for the students (for free) for everyone else it cost $1.

View from inside the Sheraton Hotel, Guam

During my exploration of Guam's Highway #1 I went on an off road and found this Japanese Buddhist Shrine Monument that is a peace memorial for the Japanese spirits that are trapped at the base of Mt. Matagi (more like a small knoll).  At this location a Japanese garrison was cornered by American troops.  To the right of the memorial there are stairs leading down to a series of highly fortified caves/bunkers.  It was at this spot on August 11, 1944 that the troops led one final charge to their death after their commander, General Hideyoshi Obata, committed suicide after one last transmission to the emperor stating, "I shall be the bulwark of the Pacific Ocean." Below the monument are bones of the fallen Japanese that are periodically found around the property. The white spire is to symbolically represent two palms praying.

These are one of the two sets of stairs.  It definitely needed some repair and upkeep.  The other set to the far right not visible in this picture were well kept.  Not sure why this set was not... At the bottom of the stairs there is actually a water collection reservoir the Japanese would have used and it is still collecting to this day even though the pipes that once transported the water are now gone. 

A picture of one of the four heavily fortified cave bunkers.  If I had brought my headlamp for exploration I probably would have gone inside.  Anything was better than being eaten alive by the mosquitoes.  In front of the entrance is a small shrine paying respect to the fallen.  There is a Buddhist chapel of sorts on the property and inside are many of the relics people have pulled out of these bunker/caves over the years.  The bones that are periodically found in the jungle surrounding this sight have their place below the monument above.

This is the pathway at the memorial where the massacre occurred.  I took this picture with panoramic going straight up to show the height of the bamboo surrounded the whole area.  I am not sure if that was planted before or after the war, but they were very tall and they made an especially eerie sound clinking together in the wind.  I wish I had taken a recording of it, but it was an unnerving sort of feeling.  Not to mention you wondered if a piece would snap off and fall on you.

While in Guam I had to stop at Two Lovers Point, which has a cheesy local legend and a beautiful overlook of the ocean at sunset. This is a place where tourists can take pictures inside the heart.  Without  wide angle lens it is a little tricky to get the whole phrase in there.

When Kara and I go to Guam over Spring Break I will bring her here and we will pay the $3 per person they charge to go view the ocean at sunset from the platform.

A view of the ocean artistically.

Artistic View #2

Artistic view #3

Artistic view #4

Links to articles relating to the spelling bee (if the links become obsolete I apologize in advance to viewers of our blog):

 Information about the Top Ten from the Pacific Daily News:

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20120304/NEWS01/203040325/Saipan-girl-wins-bee?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

Other Links from the PDN with Spelling Bee Galleries

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=M0&Dato=20120302&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=203020805&Ref=PH

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20120303/NEWS01/120302023/VIDEO-Watch-replay-today-s-2012-regional-Spelling-Bee?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|Frontpage

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=M0&Date=20120303&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=203030801&Ref=PH&Item=0&odyssey=mod|mostpopphotos

Saipan time is also Guam Time: