I work part-time at the Inae Visitor Center at Fujimae Tidal Flat. Every year, the center has a special exhibit, and this year, it is about large birds that you can see at Fujimae. They are called herons and egrets in English, but Japanese uses only one word, “sagi.” Four kinds are white, so it can be difficult to tell the difference between them. The biggest kind is a grey heron. It is a beautiful bird, but it has a bad character. It often steals fish from other birds. A university student is helping with the exhibit. He went to a “sagi” festival, and he made a pole like the one he saw at the festival. I think visitors will like it because they can pick it up and take a picture with it.    (134 words) Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To become a paid subscriber and read

The iris is both a flower and part of the eye. The flower originally comes from Europe and Asia. There are many different kinds of irises, and one kind is native to Japan. The Japanese iris is usually purple or white, and it grows in wet fields like rice does. June is a good time to go and see irises because they are in bloom. The iris is also the colored part of your eye. It is the circle around the black dot in the middle of the eye. When you say, “He has blue eyes,” you mean that his irises are blue. My irises are blue, but the irises of most Japanese are dark brown.    (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” at https://jaremaga.online/ for more information. You can send me

Typhoon Jangmi is bringing rain and strong winds to Japan. It is called Typhoon No. 6. in Japan, but in other countries, they use the international name Jangmi. The typhoon came up from Okinawa and is traveling northeast. It is passing through my area late tonight, and by the time you read this or watch the video, it will be gone. If you are in northeastern Japan, be careful of strong winds and flooding. Don’t go out if you don’t have to. Typhoons can be very dangerous. One of the worst typhoons in Japanese history was Typhoon Vera, known as the Isewan Typhoon in Japan. It hit Nagoya in September 1959 and killed more than 5,000 people.    (117 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” at https://jaremaga.online/ for more information. You can send

We were busy at Fujimae Tidal Flat last week. Three different elementary schools visited the center, and the children had a great time looking for crabs and other living creatures on the tidal flat. When it was time for lunch, the children ate outside on the grass. Most of them had homemade box lunches with rice and different side dishes. Japanese parents work hard to make lunches look great. In one lunch box, I saw a figure made of rice. The body was covered with a thin yellow egg coat, and the figure’s head was covered with a thin egg bonnet. The face was made of tiny pieces of “nori.” It looked too cute to eat.  (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