In Japan, children get a special prize when they don’t miss a day of school. In the professional sports world, athletes who keep on playing don’t get a prize, but the fans admire them. Look at Miura Kazuyoshi in soccer and Kinugasa Sachio in baseball. On Tuesday, September 10, a sumo wrestler named Tamawashi broke the record for the most bouts in a row. He fought in his 1631st bout. When he won it, his fans gave him a big cheer. He has been competing in every sumo tournament since 2004. Sumo is a hard sport, so how does he do it? He is strong mentally as well as physically. He never gives up.  (114 words)

My wife got some fresh beets from a farmer who lives in the countryside outside Nagoya. Beets are root vegetables like turnips and Japanese radishes. They are a common food in Europe and in the U.S., but I have never seen them in Japan. I used to eat pickled beets when I was a boy. They were sweet and a little sour because they were pickled in vinegar. The beets I ate as a boy came in cans, so I never learned how to cook them. My wife has never cooked them either, but she heard that you could make a Japanese pickle called “senmaizuke” with them. She made it last night, and I tried it. The thinly sliced pickle was a deep reddish purple and tasted like the beets I remember. 　　　(132 words)

The Paris Paralympics are over, and the athletes are returning to their countries. Japan did well this year, winning 41 medals. The oldest Japanese winner was Ito Tomoya. He is 61, but he won the bronze medal in the 400-meter wheelchair race! He has an interesting story. When he bought a wheelchair for the first time, he ordered a racing wheelchair by mistake. Instead of returning it, however, he started racing! Another Japanese in the news is Oda Tokito. He is only 18, but he won the gold medal in the men’s singles in wheelchair tennis. He is the youngest player ever to win the gold in this sport. Oda was playing Alfie Hewett of the U.K., the world’s number 1 player, in the finals. I’m sure that Kunieda Shingo, the wheelchair tennis gold medalist of the Tokyo Paralympics, is proud of him.    (143 words)

In English, we have a saying, “The early bird gets the worm.” Birds like to eat worms, and the birds that start early get more worms than the latecomers. In other words, they are more successful. We call people who get up early in the morning early birds. I am an early bird. When I get up in the morning, I am completely awake, and my brain is sharp. My wife is the opposite. She is a night owl. She thinks much more clearly at night than in the morning. In the hot summer, I think it’s much better to be an early bird. I wake up early and enjoy the cool morning air when I walk the dog. (119 words)