Pocky and Pepero are biscuit sticks covered with chocolate and other sweet flavors. Pocky is made in Japan, and Pepero is made in South Korea. Today is a special day for these sweet snacks in both countries. November 11 was chosen because it looks like four Pocky or Pepero sticks when you write it in numbers: 1111. Pepero Day started in Korea. At first, middle school girls exchanged Pepero because they wanted to be tall and thin like the snack. Now people exchange Pocky on the same day in Japan. You can buy these snacks in other countries, too. When I was in Spain, I found Pocky at a highway service area, but it was sold under a different name: “Mikado.”    (121 words) Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To become a paid subscriber and read it 5 days a week, go to “Support Jaremaga” below for more information.

Exercising to music has a long history. In Japan, people have been doing radio exercises for almost 100 years. These days, many people exercise by themselves, and they listen to the music they like on their smartphones. When I went to a park last week early in the morning, I saw a large group of senior citizens exercising. They were moving very slowly, so I think they were doing Tai Chi, or “Taikyokuken” in Japanese. Then I heard the music. They were doing Tai Chi to Enka! I was surprised at first, but then I realized that this was the right kind of music for them. It was slow, and it was music that they knew.   (116 words) Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To become a paid subscriber and read it 5 days a week, go to “Support Jaremaga” below for more information. You can send me a

Today I am happy to tell you about the 8th Jaremaga Essay Contest. It’s for junior high school and high school students. We are looking for stories about heart-warming or humorous experiences in simple English. Don’t worry about mistakes. If your story is good, we will choose it! The winners will receive a certificate from Jaremaga, and we will post the winning stories on Jaremaga in February and March next year. The contest deadline is January 10, 2027. To find out more about the contest in Japanese, go to the Jaremaga website. If you are a junior high school or high school teacher, please encourage your students to write an essay. It is great practice for them, and we get a lot of interesting stories. It’s a win-win situation for everyone!    (131 words) To submit your story, go to the following link. Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To

My daughter has a Shiba Inu, and I walk him almost every morning. I see a lot of Shiba Inu because it is the most popular Japanese dog inside and outside Japan. A couple of weeks ago, I found out something interesting about Shiba Inu from the NHK TV program, “Don’t Sleep through Life,” with Okamura and Chiko-chan. The Shiba Inu used to be a hunting dog in central Japan, but in the Meiji and Taisho eras, it was mixed with western dogs. Soon, there were very few pure Shiba dogs. Dog lovers decided to save them by breeding Shiba Inu from several different prefectures. That’s why the Shiba Inu isn’t called by a place name like other Japanese dogs such as Akita, Hokkaido, and Shikoku.    (126 words) Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To become a paid subscriber and read it 5 days a week, go to “Support

The Nagoya Castle Hotel was a special place for my family many years ago. We never stayed there because we live in Nagoya, but we sometimes went to the restaurant on the top floor for special occasions because it had such a beautiful view of Nagoya Castle. The original hotel closed in 2020, and they rebuilt it. It reopened last year with a new name: the Espacio Nagoya Castle. I passed by it for the first time while I was birdwatching on Saturday morning. It looks like a castle with stone walls on the bottom, and the hotel is on top. I didn’t go inside, but I have seen photos. It’s a luxury hotel with lots of art on the walls. It’s one of only three Nagoya hotels in the Michelin Guide, and it is expensive! A room for one night costs as much as a computer!  (147 words) Jaremaga now comes out