Hirosaki Orphanage

Dec 2006 - Every year in December, Greg's squadron and their families go to the Hirosaki Orphanage to bring presents to the children and spend a few hours with them. Greg was TDY that week so he didn't get to go, but I went. We decorated cookies, played games (tug of war & musical chairs,) and Santa came to visit and delivered presents. Some of the girls even did a traditional Japanese dance for us. I sponsored 2 kids - a 12 yr old boy and a 16 yr old girl, and bought gifts for them. It was a little over a 2 hour bus ride each way up into the mountains, and was snowing pretty hard. It was a great time though, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Greg had my digital camera with him, so I took pictures with a disposable camera. They turned out really dark and blurry so I posted the 2 clearest ones. Right before we left, we passed out bags of candy and the kids from the orphanage gave us apples. (They gave us something healthy and we got them all jacked up on sugar!) Good times, good times...

Musical chairs
Tug-of-war