Today is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. It falls on the fourth Thursday of November every year. If I were in the U.S., I would roast a turkey, make mashed potatoes, and bake a pumpkin pie. However, my daughter is visiting from the U.S. She wants Japanese food, so we are going to have a Japanese-style Thanksgiving dinner: chicken wings instead of turkey, taro (“satoimo”) instead of mashed potatoes, rice, vegetables flavored with sesame sauce (“gomaae”), and sweet bean jelly (“yokan”) instead of pumpkin pie. The day after Thanksgiving is the start of the Christmas shopping season. Do you know why it’s called “Black Friday”? Everyone used to go shopping, and the traffic was terrible, so the police started to call it “Black Friday.” Now, thanks to the internet, there are Black Friday sales everywhere, and the traffic is not so bad because many people shop online.    (147 words)

You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com