In Japan, people usually clean their house thoroughly at the end of the year. They clean the parts of the house that usually don’t get cleaned regularly such as door screens, window sashes, and the space behind the refrigerator. This doesn’t happen in winter in North America and European countries. Instead, people wait until the weather gets warmer. That’s why it is called spring cleaning. People also change the clothes at this time of year. My sister is doing that right now. She is putting away the boots and sweaters and taking out the warm-weather clothes. The same thing happens in Japan. It’s called “koromogae.” My wife took out our summer clothes last month, and we are still trying to get rid of the things we no longer need. That is the most difficult part!     (135 words)

Usually, people have to go far north in winter to Alaska, Canada, or Scandinavia to see an aurora. You can also see auroras in New Zealand. The biggest sun storm in over 20 years occurred over the weekend, and it sent a lot of energy through space to the Earth. People could see auroras all over the world. The skies turned pink, purple, and green as far south as Florida in the U.S. and as far north as Queensland in Australia. We couldn’t see an aurora here in Nagoya, but the newspaper said that you could see one in Tohoku and in Hokkaido. My sister, who lives near Boston, sent me a photo of the aurora there. The sky was just beautiful! (122 words)

The beginning of May is the time to plant rice. Most fields were dry during the winter, but now they are wet. These wet fields are called paddies. Farmers drive tractors through the paddies so that the mud becomes soft. Then, they take small rice plants, which are called seedlings, and put them into rows. These days, most farmers put the seedlings on their tractors, and the tractors do the planting, but people used to do it by hand. I went into the countryside near Nagoya yesterday, and I saw a man planting in the old way. He was wearing boots and standing in the paddy. He took one seedling at a time and put it into the mud. It was beautiful to watch, but it looks like backbreaking work!   (130 words)

When I was growing up in the U.S., convenience stores didn’t stay open all night. 7-Eleven, for example, got its name because it was open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Then 7-Elevens started opening all night. You could go there any time and buy almost anything. These days, it’s difficult for convenience stores in Japan to find workers, so some stores have started to close late at night. Last Saturday, when I went to a convenience store at the edge of a city, I saw a sign on the door. It said that the store opens at 5 a.m., and closes at 12 midnight. Maybe this 7-Eleven should change its name. Instead of 7-Eleven, how about calling it 5-Twelve?   (120 words)

In January, I wrote about Inoue Naoya. His nickname is “Monster,” and he was given the “Fighter of the Year” award at the beginning of 2024. The day before yesterday, he had a boxing match to defend his title against Luis Nery of Mexico at the Tokyo Dome. This was the first boxing match at the Tokyo Dome in 34 years, and the Dome was full! There were 43,000 fans in the stadium, and they were very excited. It was an exciting match. Nery knocked down Inoue in the first round, but Inoue came back and fought harder. His punches were so fast that Nery couldn’t defend himself. He was knocked down three times, and Inoue won with a TKO in the sixth round.    (123 words)