I used to have a dog when my children were little, but after the dog died, I decided not to get another one. Now, my daughter has a dog. She lives near me, so when I am free in the morning, I take the dog for a walk. She keeps him in the house, but he loves to go outside. When I walk him, we stay out for 45 minutes or an hour. He doesn’t want to go back home. He doesn’t care what the weather is like. He will walk in cold weather, and he will walk in the rain. He is a shiba inu, so he has a natural raincoat. When he gets wet, he just shakes the water off. That’s fine for him, but I have to be careful or I will get wet!  (137 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Have you ever gone hiking in the mountains and found a beautiful stick? Or maybe you were walking on a beach and you found an interesting piece of driftwood on the sand. You can take a picture of it and post it on SNS for your friends, but now, there is a way to reach an international audience. Stick Nation is a group of people from around the world who love sticks. They post videos of interesting sticks they find on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Almost everyone speaks English, so you can learn English by listening to them. Then, go out and use your English. Find your own stick, make a video. and tell the world why your stick is so cool! And don’t forget to tell me about it!　　(130 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

My sister sent me this message on Saturday: “What time do you want me to call you on Sunday? We are switching to Daylight Saving Time (DST).” In the middle of the night, the clock skipped from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m., and Sunday, March 9, was only 23 hours long. Now the sun comes up and goes down one hour later. She doesn’t like DST because it takes her body and brain a while to get used to the new time. She has to get up one hour earlier, so she gets sleepy more easily. She sometimes forgets about the time change and goes to work or her appointments late. She says that children are sleepier because they stay up later than usual. The U.S. started Daylight Saving Time in 1918 to save energy, but now my sister and about 70% of Americans want to stop changing their clocks. (150 words) You

You know it’s spring when the plum blossoms come out. On Monday, I went past the shrine near my house and saw a tree with beautiful white blossoms. You know it’s spring when you see a lot of high school students walking toward a university one morning. They are on their way to take entrance exams. You know it’s spring when people no longer wear heavy down jackets. Temperatures have been in the mid-10s these days, and people are starting to wear shirts and light jackets. You know it’s spring when baseball is in the news again. In Nagoya, we hear a lot about the Chunichi Dragons and their pre-season games almost every day. (114 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com