ASIJ Wellness

January 12 from 1:30-7:00p.m. There will be thousands of Daruma dolls in all colors and sizes at the Daruma Festival in front of Ome station.  See where they burn the old ones. Open-air stalls selling Daruma dolls and offering trinkets, barbecued corn, cotton candy, and potted plants will be set up along the shrine approach. Using black ink, one fills in a single circular eye while thinking of a wish. Should the wish later come true, the second eye is filled in. It is Japanese tradition to fill in the right eye first, leaving the left eye blank until the wish is fulfilled.

Directions: Take the JR Chuo line to Tachikawa. Transfer to the Ome line and get off at Ome station.

http://wadaphoto.jp/japan/oume.htm