{Orphanage, and Itoman}

Yesterday I took the boys to the Orphanage along with some other women in our Branch. We provided a gift for one of the children and Santa came and delivered all the gifts to the children. The kids here were age 2-5. They were PRECIOUS. They are so well mannered and behaved and just so darn cute. My heart was so full the second we arrived. SO FULL. These poor little children are in the orphanage either b/c their parents are in jail or on drugs. They have 50 kids in the orphanage. These kids are not allowed to be adopted, BUT majority will be in there until age 18. I wanted to take a couple of girls home with us. I wanted to rescue them and give them a loving home. :) These kids were not adoptable, but there are other orphanages around here where they are adoptable. The Japanese government used to not allow these kids to be adopted, but changed that recently so that they could go to a loving home. The kids played with the Japanese kids. They taught us THEIR version of red light, green light and we taught them our version of it. Then we sang some Christmas songs to them in Japanese. The little Japanese kids performed a dance for us, which was too cute. Santa came, they played with their presents for awhile. It was so fun.

After the Orphanage i drove with three other friends down to Itoman, which is the very south tip of the island. We let the kids play on a playground for awhile. I went to the Peace Memorial to see everything they had. There was lots and LOTS to see about the war that happened here. We will come back soon to actually read all the history and grow through the museums. The history here is incredible, in many ways. We waited at the playground for all of our husbands to show up. They all got off work about the same time so they drove down together. We met up at our Branch President's friends japanese restaurant. It was such a cute , small quaint restaurant. It was so nice. They didn't speak much english, but we they knew enough english words and we knew enough japanese words to be able to at least communicate. :) It was fun talking to the Japanese family that owned this place. They were soooooo nice and gave us a HUGE discount on the food. I can't wait to go back and see them and eat their YUMMY food again.

Then we went to see the Christmas lights. It's the only display of lights on Okinawa. We only had to pay 200 yen a person for anyone over 16 years old. So it cost us a total of 400 yen. When we walked in they had tables set up just like at a carnival, as you can see in this pic above. That seemed funny to me, but it was fun. They were frying up corn dogs, churros(which were half the size of the usual churro), yakisoba, and other fried foods. They had carnival games that you could play and win something. It was funny. THEN after we got through that first part we got to the lights. It was a fun display. In this picture below, you can see all the dome and cone shapes. They had an opening where you could go inside each of them. The boys loved running in and out. They had little fishing boats that they decorated with lights and they had fish statues that they decorated with lights as well. There was a fire show, and there was other live music. It was so fun.

They also had a display of many different Shisa's. Shisa is ONE variation of a few different guardian dogs. The chinese have their own version as well(fu dogs), but they look very similiar. I took a picture of this pair b/c i liked it so much. Here you will see shisa's everywhere, whereas on mainland japan you won't see them AS much. If you don't know what they are, let me tell you. Some places only have one shisa and other places have two. They are guardians. If their mouths are open that means they are warding off evil spirits. If the mouth is closed that means they are keeping good spirits in. In Okinawa they just say it keeps out bad and brings in good. The Okinawans have a few different stories about how Shisa's have protected them from bad in this area. During the war here, there is a Shisa(as tall as a person) that' still standing and many of the Japanese soldiers stood by that Shisa while bombs were going off all around them because they believed it would protect them. The history here is so intriguing and i will have to dedicate a long post telling you about the history...maybe in a few months.

It was a really fun night for us. We didn't get home until 10 pm and the kids all fell asleep in the car...well, except for Gavin. He never falls asleep in the car. :) They had a LONG busy fun-filled day. Today we are going to have more christmas festivities...we are going to watch christmas movies and make all kinds of christmas goodies for friends.

Tomorrow we have our ward christmas party AND in the morning we are going over to our friends house to make gingerbread houses. REAL one's. I am excited for that b/c i don't remember the last time i made one. For our church christmas party we are going to go caroling to all the houses around our branch house, which is off base. We will be singing to japanese people. I can't wait. Then we will go back to the church and have hot chocolate and christmas goodies. It is getting chilly here in the evenings...enough to where you want to wear a sweater. :)

Shane gets Friday off of work, and then he gets the whole next week off. We plan to go camping the day after Christmas with some friends. I am excited to go camping b/c it's been too long since we have been. Anyway, i will try my best to take MORE pics. I have been pretty bad about taking pictures lately!