Saipan Final

After lounging at the pool a bit more on Sunday, yesterday evening we departed Saipan and returned to the cold of Central Japan. We were greeted not only by the cold but severe winds which made it seem even colder. The high winds had the Shinkansen shut down allowing us time to really enjoy the cold in Tokyo station and delaying our arrival to home til around 11pm.
Anyhow our final days in Saipan were much like the first, just relaxing and enjoying the awesome weather and scenery. We did get a bit of rain Saturday night which moved our visit to the resorts cultural show/BBQ indoors. It was still enjoyable as we were seated with a couple from nearby Saitama area with whom were were able to communicate fairly well with and enjoy the show. Heather and myself along with a Russian family were the only westerners(maybe Russians arent westerners?) at the show out of about 200 people. In fact i would say in a resort with over 400 rooms, I believe we were the only Americans in the place all week.
If your looking for a good place to relax we would recommend Saipan as a place to go.
Outside of diving, a couple of golf courses, and a bit of sight seeing, there is not a lot else to do. There are a few western restaurants/bars, and a bit of shopping but it is pretty minimal. The Island is small and definitely caters mainly to tourists from Japan, Korea, and China. So if you need lots of shopping and interaction with other westerners, you may be better off with Guam, but given the choice I would go back to Saipan for its simplicity and Heather would choose Guam for the shopping and restaurants. For families Guam would definitely be the better choice.
The rest of our trip photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8953511@N05/sets/72157613495604409/