How To: Daruma

Step 1: Go to Jindaiji temple on the day of the Daruma Festival in March.

Step 2: Buy a Daruma doll. It can be a big Daruma.

Or a small Daruma.


Step 3: Make a wish while this monk writes a kanji character in one eye of your Daruma.

Step 4: Go home. Wait a year. Hopefully your wish comes true!

Step 5: If your wish came true, color in the other eye of your Daruma.

Step 6: Return to the temple on the next Daruma festival. Watch some monks processing into the temple.

Step 7: Shuffle along with the crowds following the monks up the ramp to the upper part of the temple. Vow that next year, you will arrive well after the monks are done processing.
























Step 8: Regain your zen by listening to the monks chant and play their interesting instruments.

Step 9: Throw your Daruma down the ramp into the giant wooden box. Later, all the old Darumas will be burned.

 Step 10: Have a snack at one of the many food stalls set up along the street leading to the temple.

Repeat steps 2 - 10 yearly.

(Optional Step: Go home and google that interesting instrument: it's called a 'sho'. It's a free-reed instrument made of bamboo pipes. Thanks, Wikipedia!)