The sumo world has a new star. His name is Aonishiki. He won the Grand Sumo Tournament in Kyushu last Sunday. How did he become the champion less than three years after he started sumo in Japan? Actually, he started practicing sumo in Ukraine when he was seven years old. He also wrestled and practiced judo while he was growing up. He came to Japan when he was 17 and joined the Ajigawa stable when he was 18. He rose quickly through the ranks, and after this tournament, he is going to be “Ozeki,” the second-highest rank in sumo. He is happy, but as he said, “there is one more rank above Ozeki.” He wants to be the next “Yokozuna!”   (120 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

The other day, I had a chance to talk to a caregiver who is very rich. He made his money by investing, and he turned a small amount into a large fortune. He continues to invest in an effort to increase his fortune. Of course, there is a risk in investing, and he has lost a large amount of money several times. However, he has been successful. He works part-time as a caregiver, but he told me that he doesn’t need to. He works simply because he enjoys it. He loves taking care of elderly people and says that they are treasures to society.   (104 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

In Japan, people use the yen for money. People in the U.S. use dollars and cents. There are 100 cents in a dollar, and the smallest coin is a penny. It is worth one cent. The U.S. has been making pennies for more than 200 years, but they suddenly stopped making them last week. They made the last penny on November 12. The government said that it costs too much to make these coins. Each penny costs four cents to make. Americans can still use old pennies, but they will disappear one day. Japan has a one-yen coin, and each coin costs three yen to make. I wonder if Japan will do the same thing?    (115 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

My younger daughter, who lives in the U.S., is visiting us here in Japan now. She wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, but this isn’t the right time of year. Instead, we decided to drive around the mountain. On Monday, we drove from Nagoya to Shizuoka. We crossed Suruga Bay by ferry so that we could see Mt. Fuji rising up from the sea. That’s the best way to see how high Mt. Fuji actually is. We stayed at a hotel to the east of the mountain, and yesterday, we drove to the five lakes on the north side of the mountain. We came back along the west side. We couldn’t stop taking pictures of the many faces of Mt. Fuji, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of my wife and daughter talking and laughing together.   (135 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

My wife and I have been watching the morning NHK drama called “Bakebake.” It’s called “The Ghost Writer’s Wife” in English. It’s the story of the daughter of a samurai. At the beginning of the Meiji period, her family suddenly became very poor, so she started working as a maid for Lafcadio Hearn. He was one of the first westerners to live in Matsue. He was a newspaper reporter, but he was teaching English there. The drama is very interesting to me because I didn’t know how difficult life was for samurai at that time. While I was talking to my sister in the U.S. last weekend, I told her about “Bakebake.” Then she emailed me the next day. She found the drama online and started watching it with English subtitles.   (131 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

It’s Sho-time again. That means that it’s time to talk about baseball and Ohtani Shohei. He has won the Most Valuable Player award for the fourth time. Only Barry Bonds has won more MVP awards. There are 30 baseball writers for each league, and everyone voting for the National League MVP chose Ohtani as number 1. That’s amazing, but Ohtani is an amazing player! In the American League, the votes were much closer. There were two favorites: Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Cal Raleigh of the Mariners. Judge got 17 votes, and Raleigh got 13 votes for number 1, so Judge got his third MVP.   (106 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com