For information on travel from Osaka to Guam, see day 110 below.

Travel Log: Day 107 (10/12), Osaka Japan

JC and I were moving pretty slow today after our date night last night. I should have been hung over given the estimated 7-8 units of alcohol that I had. I pretty much felt fine though. At this point I’m glad we’re wrapping up Japan and going to a more boring location (Guam). Hopefully we can get back to our normal amount of drinking (3-6 units in a week).

Today’s activities were very lounge-centered. I laid around being entertained by AC’s shenanigans such as trying to get AI to give her a list of 100 things to do because she was bored. It kept giving her 5-20 things and she kept yelling at it that she wanted a FULL LIST OF 100, NO PAUSING BAM BAM BAM. AI would insist it understood and do the same thing again. We watched a couple movies as well.

Travel Log: Day 108 (10/13), Osaka Japan

We mostly stayed around the house today aside from a lunch outing. The pizza place we have seen in the nearby shopping street was our original plan, but it was closed. So we walked further down the shopping street and found a place making okonomiyaki. The menu had zero English, and the couple running it spoke zero English, but we managed to get the order through with pointing and gestures. Originally we ordered two cabbage and two pork, but gathered from her gestures that there was only one pork. The food was really good.

The day was rounded out by watching a recording of the recent Broncos game, napping, and mostly just relaxing.

Travel Log: day 109 (10/14), Osaka Japan

Typical school day with the exception that we did not do electives in order to get to lunch before the rush. We went to the same chain of belt/conveyor sushi that we found in Shinsekai, but this one was just a half mile walk away. We were disappointed to just now be discovering it existed, because we would have eaten there a dozen times by now most likely.

In the afternoon we started packing our things to get ready for our flight to Guam tomorrow. This flight is going to result in different packing procedures because we need to check our bigger bags (they are too heavy). We are loading them up with anything we could stand to lose, which is most things. We’ll be carrying all critical items in our carry-on bags.

Travel Log: Day 110 (10/15), Osaka Japan & Guam

Today we left Osaka and arrived in Guam. The day started early when we got up at 5am to finalize our packing and the list of things we had to do to leave the Airbnb. That mostly went smooth and we were ready to walk out the door at 6am to start catching trains.

Trains To Airport

The trains to the airport threw us a bit of a curve-ball. Despite pre-mapping the route for the exact time we were leaving, the trains actually running at that time were slightly different. For whatever reason the frequency of trains wasn’t the same as the pre-mapping which caused us to have to leave a bit later, and catch our connecting train additionally a bit later. This ultimately wasn’t a huge deal, and we still got to the airport about 2.5 hours before our flight. It did create some stress though in just wondering why it was different than planned, and what else could be wrong due to that.

Airport

The Osaka airport process was pretty easy. We had some trouble finding the T’Way airline counter, which I think was due to them not having it up on the board for us to find. We walked by that area looking for T’Way and it wasn’t there. I went to information and they told us where to go, which was back where we already looked, and there it was. We may have just been too early for them to open up and show on that section’s board.

We checked our bags, and the people at the counter impress me like so many other service people we have encountered. They go from dealing with Japanese speakers, to Korean, then to us with English. Whatever they are paid, it isn’t enough.

Security was a breeze; we didn’t have to take off our shoes or take out liquids. Finding our gate was also easy and there was a great coffee and snack place right there where we spent most of the last of our yen.

Flight

We knew we were flying on a budget airline, but this thing was really budget. The seats were uncomfortable, no wifi, no screen, my tray table was off kilter. Takeoff was scary because there was a vibration through the whole plane that felt like it was ripping apart. The 3.5 hours felt very long whereas our 12 hours on Zipair felt like no time at all.

On the positive side of things the tickets were very cheap, the staff provided great service, and our food was tasty.

Guam Airport

Things were smooth and easy at the Guam airport. We didn’t have to wait in line at immigration because nobody was in the US citizen line. The foreign line was very long though. Baggage claim was quick and easy, with no lost luggage. Customs was equally simple, where we just provided our QR code for the customs form we previously filled out.

After all of that we went to the rental counter to get our car. That’s always a bit of a hassle but I think we had the paperwork done and we were in our car within 30 minutes of arriving at the counter. We got a Mazda 3 which is fun because I have never driven any type of Mazda as far as I know.

The Drive and Airbnb

The drive was a headache and it didn’t have to be. Upon landing we noticed our phones wouldn’t connect to data, which ultimately turned out to be because Airalo doesn’t service Guam on the plan we bought. Most likely I knew this at the time of purchase of that esim but I decided (correctly) that it was acceptable because we could just use Google FI data in Guam. At the airport I briefly switched my phone to Google FI and the data didn’t immediately connect, so I assumed that was a bust as well.

As we started driving, we decided to just go for it without investigating our phone connectivity issues, and therefore not having maps. The Airbnb host provided what seemed like thorough directions. However, as we started to try to navigate them we got lost by thinking an initial left out of the rental car place was the first left of his instructions. It was very reminiscent of the old days where it was the norm to navigate via word of mouth and landmark based directions. We ended up getting out Google Maps on my phone once we were lost. Even though I had no data to get directions, I previously downloaded the Guam offline map. We navigated our dot on the map to the Airbnb location I had saved on the map. We ultimately got to the Airbnb no problem. It just took longer than it should have.

Airbnb & Phone Troubleshooting

We got into our Airbnb and took the initial pictures and checked things out. This place is even better than we expected. It’s spacious, clean, nice and cool, and just has a great feel. Our only complaint so far is that the beds are a little squishy and reminiscent of the Jaco beds.

Once we got on wifi and got our bearings, I dug into the phone situation. Ultimately the fix is what I had already tried at the airport, which was simply using Google FI for data instead of Airalo. Everything is in working order now.

We made a grocery run to Kmart just to get some initial stuff. Holy shit is the food expensive here. We paid $130 for food that will amount to about 15 person-meals. That is not good and if that holds we would be spending something like $3K for groceries here. I don’t think it will hold however, and that Kmart just bends people over because it’s a tourist attraction essentially. The prices look like they will be better at true dedicated grocery stores.