Saipanda
Saipan from the Nikko Hotel
Goto-san is a very generous boss. She gifted the entire Hop-step-jump team a 2 day trip to the white sands of Saipan. So this past month, we’ve been rotating in groups of 6 and jetting off to a tropical island that I bet none of you can find on a map. I stepped off the plane and onto American soil for the first time, and took in Saipan’s soupy, humid air. 2:00am.
I opened my eyes just a few hours later. I met Richard from Aquasmith in reception and in no time we were humming across the blue to our first dive spots near Tinian Island. The diving in those spots was just ok, a nice refresher, though the water was incredibly blue and the colours underwater were vivid. The dive of the day was at the Saipan Grotto, a world renowned cavern dive. The entrance is formed from a large partly collapsed cave. Once under the water there are 3 entry/exit holes that glow bright blue from the open sea behind. Once we had passed through the hole on the right we emerged into a coral garden and saw a turtle glide by over head. We passed through more nooks and cranies and then paused.. in front of me were my first sharks, 2 nice sized white tip reef sharks chilling on a sandy bottom. Richard and I checked them out but when we got closer they zipped off. Though they aren’t man eaters they looked very mean and cool nonetheless!
After exiting the Grotto up the one hundred and something rock steps (loaded down with tanks and gear) Richard continued with a history lesson. Saipan was fiercely fought over in World War II by America and Japan. America came out on top in the 3 week Battle of Saipan, and rather than be captured Japanese soldiers threw themselves off what is now known as Banzai Cliff (Banzai meaning ‘long live’). I didn’t jump. These days 4 massive American supply ships remain just off the coast to support America’s forces in the vicinity. Saipan remains American soil. Tinian Island (near where I’d dived earlier) was the site from which the 2 planes took off which dropped the worlds first and only atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The hotel Nikko was pretty plush compared to my usual travel ghettos. The view from my window was palms, white sand, blue. Nice. The dives the following day were decent too, the first being Ice Cream; a hard coral mound site looking like, you guessed it, an ice cream scoop. Colourful fish a plenty but my memory is of the 2 fantastic eagle rays that glided around quite near us. My last dive was my first wreck dive, a Japanese freighter sunk over 50 years ago. The visibility wasn’t as crisp as the other dives adding to the ’shipwreck’ experience. A nice amount of coral has begun to flourish on the boat, and although it’s degrading after so long there are still doors and open passages to work your way around. I spotted 2 more white tip reef sharks under the wreck and lay on the sand quietly and just watched them while they watched me. I managed to creep to only a few metres away before they got nervous first and zipped off with all the flourish of a baby jaws (to me, anyway). (some photos here:) btw, I recommend Aquasmith, and see this cool clip on youtube
A Saipanda
How else did I wile away my time? I enjoyed 2 dinners with my Japanese co-workers and I became engrossed in the new Paulo Coello book ‘Like the Flowing River’, only putting it down to take a swim or to gaze up at a beautiful Pacific Ocean.
Oh yeah, what’s do you get if (in Japan) you cross a Rhino with a Panda?
…A Saipanda
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