Guam: Buildings and Curiosities (Part 2 of 3)

If you're just tuning in, here's the link to Part 1.

Aside from the phenomenal view, weather, and diving, the buildings are worth noting. Guam is a place of stark contrast, with high-end shopping and hotels along the beach mixed in with abandoned buildings, massage parlors of assorted quality, and amazing restaurants.

Contrast in Buildings
This was near our hotel. I thought to myself, "What colorful and interesting architecture! I wonder what's down that corridor! Is it a hotel? A pool? Boutique stores? An outdoor cafe?"

 

Hooters. Mystery solved.



We didn't get a chance to go in, but this is the F.L. Moylan Company Guns, Ammo and Knives store in the same building as Moylan Party World.

The Moylans must have very interesting family reunions.


In this building, you can buy a new motorcycle (first floor) or bring your dog to the vet (second floor).

Some buildings just struck me as unusual.
I think Horse and Cow is a restaurant. Does it serve both horse and cow?

I realize this is technically the "Pure H2O and Mini Mart," but when one is driving by, only the largest letters stand out and it looks like "HO MART." Look at the picture from a distance, you'll see what I mean.

I assume this is a fishing supply store. (Disregard the sign in the middle of the picture, it's difficult to get good shots from a moving car.)

I have to admit I was curious to see what Chen's Furniture and Gift Center would have, but we didn't get a chance to stop there either.

This is clearly a happenin' place.

I also learned something new. I thought a latte was a delicious beverage made of steamed milk and espresso, but it turns out that it's also the pillars that the ancient Chamorro people used in house building. This image is a little less funny when you know what it's really referring to, but now you've learned your new thing for today.

Not a coffee shop.

Club G Spot next to Ball Scratchers.

Classy.

Other Curiosities

Who do you call when you have too much trash? Mr. Rubbishman! This has to be the most sophisticated garbage man representation I've ever seen.

An ad in the elevator of our hotel:

Who DOESN'T want Tweety on their fingernails?

Near the rental car office at the airport:

Most magical ATM ever!

The beach happens to be called Gun Beach, but I prefer to think that it's a beach for guns.

Gun beach. No people allowed.

This tickled me, too. It's a series of small caves guarded by a Do Not Enter sign.

We made a U-turn when we saw this. Yes, that's a dog standing on a bovine. Just hanging out.

Later, we found out that the cow-thing is a carabao, a subspecies of water buffalo, and this one with the dogs is locally famous. Her name is Lucy, I don't know what the dogs' names are.

(Sound is unnecessary in this video)

Lucy and the dogs belong to a guy named John Santos, and I have no idea what they do all day, but they're around and everyone knows who they are.


Getting a Massage

People in Guam must be very relaxed! Some massage parlors are legitimate, quality spas. On the other hand, if you happen to be a male and you walk into one of the seedier places and ask how much a massage is, you might get your trousers grabbed. So I'm told.

One massage...

Two massages...

Three massages...

Four.

Five massages...

Six massages...

This one has a mop!

Seven massages...

 MORE!

 ...I couldn't decide if "Bob's Whispering Palms" was the name of a massage place or not.

I hope it's a diner.

Link to Part 3

Guam: The Flight and the View (Part 1 of 3)

We went to Guam mainly to go scuba diving, and it was a big success. We're already planning things to do on our next trip.

Flights: The Same But Different
We flew via space-A (space available) flights, which is open only to military personnel and dependents. It's essentially hitchhiking with a military plane if there is room for passengers. Provided your schedule is flexible enough to be able to handle flights canceled with no notice (read: sitting at the terminal with all luggage in hand), it's an interesting way to travel and is both like and unlike commercial flying.

From Japan to Guam, we flew on a C-17. They weren't really carrying anything other than passengers, and the flight crew was nice enough to allow me to take pictures of the inside of the plane. I previously did not know what a plane looked like naked with all the ducts, hoses, cables, and pipes exposed. We also had fold-down net seats along the side of the plane instead of the usual rows of seats with tray tables I'm used to. No overhead luggage, no reading lights or air vents, and everyone was given ear plugs to block out the sound of the engines.

This plane is naked on the inside.

It's huge and empty, too.

A video sweep of the inside, you may want to turn the sound down.

Our checked baggage was strapped to the floor in front of us. There's something comforting about being able to see your stuff and know it's actually on the plane where it's supposed to be.

Yep, that's our stuff. Right where it should be.

Check out ALL THIS LEG ROOM!

You know all that extra gravity you feel when the plane rushes forward for takeoff? It's peculiar to feel that sideways.

Once we reached cruising altitude, we could get up and walk around. Husband and I strolled the length of the plane and he answered my zillion questions about what all the little boxes and doohickeys are for (side note: my spellcheck just corrected "doohickeys." I had no idea that was in the dictionary. Good for you, Firefox.). Other people laid across several seats and went to sleep, one kid had a foam yoga mat and a portable DVD player and spread out in the middle of the cargo area.

At check-in, we could order (for about $5), an in-flight meal (even though it was only a 3-hour flight). There was a vegetarian option, which made me happy, and it was obviously assembled by a person instead of a factory machine. It was nothing special by culinary standards, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a small array of snacks for side dishes and dessert, but it was the best in-flight meal I've had.

Seriously, best in-flight meal ever.

On the return flight we were in a normal-looking charter plane and then a plane that was half regular airline seats and half cargo bay with net seats. Like I said earlier, an interesting way to travel.


The View
Scenery in Guam is about what you'd expect from a tropical island.

A video of our drive along the coast (sound isn't important, all you can hear is ambient noise and the radio):

Bright blue water, palm trees...

vast ocean and beach...

The ocean, nearing sunset on a cloudy day.

Scuba divers entering the water for a night dive.

This is actually part of a bar that I'll talk about later.

 magnificent skies...

and rainbows.

Okay, the view from our hotel window wasn't quite as breathtaking, but you can't win 'em all.

This next part is going to be long, so I'm going to cut this off here and continue later. Stay tuned!

Link to Part 2
Link to Part 3

Bon Odori and Back to Seo

The base has a community day for Obon. It seems to be a pretty big deal for the locals, they are allowed on base without an escort and can buy inexpensive food and goods at the base shops, and there is a small street festival. It's a great community outreach event. Husband and I decided to participate by dressing in our finest yukata.

Westerners inherently look a little odd in kimono, but I did my best. I even tied the obi by myself. (Thank you, YouTube.)

New hair stick and sandals for the occasion!

Husband with his sumo print yukata.

On base, this event is hyped up pretty well and I had high expectations. This was in contrast to my self-consciousness at wearing traditional Japanese clothing as a Westerner when nobody else seemed to be dressed up for the day. I was afraid I would offend someone, but we actually got several compliments from random people on the train. At least, I assume they were compliments. I couldn't understand a word (my listening comprehension is terrible and my vocabulary isn't terribly large), but body language didn't seem angry. That, and as the day went on, we saw more people dressed up. So it was overall good and I'll do it again sometime.


Odori on Base

The helicopter was kind of neat.

The taiko performance was great.

Vendor street:

The vendor booths were disappointing (nothing vegetarian-friendly other than shaved ice and funnel cake), there were only a couple of booths selling doodads and baubles (one guy doing airbrushed shirts and another selling dinosaur-shaped balloons). I was hoping for more, but these signs crack me up.

Oh! So Good! How good? Squirt-yourself-in-the-head-with-ketchup good.

Steak and Frylock?

Okay, the row of inflatables was pretty cool. Especially the one of King Kong fighting a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

You have to admit, that's pretty awesome.

This image doesn't quite capture how sad the conductor is that he has to ride around on an itty bitty train in the hot, hot sun all day. So sad.

After deciding that we'd seen enough meat-on-a-stick booths, we headed toward Tokyo proper to meet up with a friend to see a parade in Nakameguro.


Obon in Nakameguro

Random cool building, I don't know what it is or what it's for.

Everybody is lined up for the parade. This was a neat event because it wasn't too terribly crowded and it's something traditional that we don't have an equivalent for in the US.

It wasn't a Macy's Thanksgiving Day type parade with floats and stuff. It seems like every organization or business or club that wants to participate can, if they have enough people. Typically there was a leader with lanterns on a long pole to lead the (color-coordinated) group...

...followed by a group of dancing people...

This old guy is doing it right.

Most groups had a band bringing up the rear with flutes, drums, stringed instruments, and small gongs or bells. Some had chanting, and a few had lantern jugglers (I'm sure there's a real term for this, but I don't know what it is).

One group had some girls flitting about in front of the elegant ladies in hats shaped like gyoza.

And if you wanted to see more of the toddler trying very hard to keep up with the others, here you go.

One more for the road:

When we'd had enough of the parade (I think we stayed for the first hour or so, but it may have gone on long into the night.) we went to dinner and ended up back at Seo for a couple drinks (click the link if you haven't read about our first experience there the night before).

The bartender did the same show as the previous night and because he recognized us (or maybe just because we were dressed up), we got pulled into the post-show games. Note: games are prefaced by a few seconds of freestyle dance for no reason other than it's fun. Husband volunteered for the see-who-can-drink-beer-through-plastic-tubing-the-fastest contest (intentionally chosen so the three contestants were an American, a Japanese guy, and the Korean bartender) and even though he had insisted the previous night that lifting the cup over one's head and siphoning out the beer would be the right technique, he did lose to the bartender. He got a prize anyway, a case of some sort of canned rice drink.

I didn't understand exactly what the bartender said after that, but I think it was "Oh, you two are just so cute. Come up here." So we both got pulled back behind the bar to give a little speech or introduce ourselves with the long-handled spoon as a microphone. I had no idea what was going on, so I tapped the spoon and asked if it was on and if everyone could hear me and awkardly stalled as much as I could until the bartender took it from me. It was okay, everyone pretty much got that we don't speak much but were there to have a good time. He asked in English if we like K-pop and I said sure, why not?  

Dansu taimu! The music started, so we danced like everyone else had before us. No expectations, no judgment, just having a good time. The bartender sprayed foam like snowflakes over our heads and we boogied in the fake snow. Americans in Japanese traditional garb dancing in a Korean bar under fake snow. What are the odds?