People in many countries around the world take showers rather than baths, but most Japanese take a bath regularly. In a Japanese bath, you get into the bathtub and cover your whole body in hot water. People stay in the bath until their bodies feel nice and warm. According to some Japanese researchers, taking a hot bath this way is good for your health. Here are three of their reasons. First, a hot bath makes you feel better because your backaches and stiff shoulders don’t hurt so much. Second, when you are in the bath, you don’t feel your weight. Your body floats in the water, and this helps to relax your muscles. Finally, a hot bath before you go to bed is good because you can fall sleep more easily.

Recently I noticed a new kind of work/study space here in Nagoya. It is called “self cafe” in Japanese. It is like a coffee shop, but no one works there. You buy a drink from a machine, and you can stay there as long as the place is open. They have Wi-Fi, and there are tables and chairs where you can sit and work or study. You can use the outlets to plug in your computer or recharge your mobile phone. I haven’t gone into the one in my neighborhood yet, but my granddaughter has. She said that it is a better place to study than a coffee shop because it is quiet. It seems to be popular. I walked by last night at 8 pm, and it was full.

On February 29, Ohtani Shohei announced on Instagram that he is married. Who is his wife? He hasn’t told anyone her name. He has only said that she is an ordinary Japanese woman. Isn’t it amazing that he can keep this a secret? He is one of the most famous baseball players in the world, and he is in the news every day. I’m sure that news reporters are doing their best to find out who his wife is, but Ohtani is very good at keeping a secret. Most people are happy for Ohtani. He has gotten messages of congratulations from other baseball players and from Kuriyama, Samurai Japan’s manager last year. However, some of his female fans have left comments on SNS like “My life is over!” They are unhappy because they can no longer dream of marrying him.

Tomorrow is February 29. You probably don’t know anyone who was born on this date because they are very rare. February 29 only comes once every four years. We call that year a leap year, and the people who are born on February 29 are called leapers. I read that there are only 5 million leapers in the world! You may think that leapers are unlucky because they only have a birthday once every four years, but that isn’t really true. In a regular non-leap year, they celebrate their birthday either on February 28 or March 1. In a leap year, however, leapers have a really big celebration for their true birthday!