Saipan: December 2018
Instead of the planned one day/one night in Saipan, the actual visit would be one hour. I suppose you take what you can get? Sadly the awful pulled-straight-from-the-Pay-Less-package shu mai were probably a poor way to start the day...
At least the somewhat delayed flight to Saipan was a quick 25 minutes, with great views of the northern areas of Guam on take-off, even more spectacular views of Rota both ways, and plenty long enough to get off the plane in Saipan, through immigration, a few photos, and then back into the airport. Mount Tapochau is clearly visible from the airport, but with barely an hour on the ground, getting there and back in time for the return flight was a bit too dicey.
The unfortunately brief visit to Saipan was over all too soon. Back to Guam, yet another layover with some only slightly-less-sad soba at the food court, and some downright terrible food at the United Club. There was finally enough slack in this poor little airplane's schedule to catch up for the delay that it had incurred about 4 or 5 flights beforehand, and all too soon it was time for the third flight of the day, onboard the exact same Boeing 737-800. At least it had a fresh flight crew for the third trip.
Narita International Airport was busy as always. A quick visit the United Club, which is even larger than the one in Hong Kong, and probably even nicer. Food is better if you like mass produced sushi, although the club is a few years old and starting to show its age. A slight flight delay (5 out of 7 flights on this trip delayed, yay?) announced at the gate meant time for a visit to Sushi Kyotatsu for omakase. It's pretty good sushi by airport standards but pretty blah by Japanese standards, which means it's still tons better than airplane food.
Then time for one more flight. Food wasn't quite as good as previous trans-Pacific crossing a few days before, neither was the seat, but the chicken and shrimp were both very edible, and the Japanese breakfast before landing was well done. No good views this time, but t'was all good as sleep was more important!
Nearly 17,000 miles later, it was both a little sad vacation was over, and simultaneously good to be out of an airplane and back on the ground!