Daruma are used for making New Year's resolutions. With a magic marker, the buyer blackens in one of the eyes while making a resolution. If, during the year, they accomplish their wish, they can blacken the other eye to show they succeeded. At the end of the year, people return used darumas to the temple for a special burning and buy new ones. After visiting the temple, Japanese people return to their homes to eat, play traditional games and just relax.
Children fly kites and play with wooden tops.
Adults play poetry games and pratice calligraphy. Probably the most important holiday tradition for Japanese children is O-toshidama . These are little envelopes containing money that children get from their parents and other relatives. Even though the Japanese holidays are very different from holidays in America and Europe, since children are expected to be good all year in order to get O-toshidama, in a way, it is just like Christmas. In 1991, they moved with their family to Tsukuba, Japan, where they are the only foreign students in their small Japanese school.