Akebono was the first person born outside Japan to become a Yokozuna. He was one of the tallest wrestlers at 203 cm and one of the heaviest at 233 kg. His coach and mentor was Takamiyama, the first great wrestler from Hawaii. Akebono was a powerful wrestler and became Yokozuna in 1993, the year he won four of the six grand sumo tournaments. He won 11 grand tournaments altogether in his career, In the early 1990s, his rivals were the brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana, and together the three of them made sumo more popular than ever. After he left the sumo world, Akebono went on to do kickboxing and pro wrestling. He passed away this month at the early age of 54. His mentor, his rivals and other sumo wrestlers came to say goodbye at his funeral in Tokyo on Sunday. (141 words)

After work last Friday, I went to the barbershop in my neighborhood. There are usually two barbers there, but one of them had already gone home. The barber who was still there showed me a chair. He shaved me, cut my hair, and gave me a shampoo. Actually, I prefer the other barber, not because he is a better barber but because he is a better talker. This barber didn’t talk much, and I fell asleep while he was cutting my hair. Then I started to wonder what the women in my family thought. My wife said that she preferred talkative hairdressers. My daughter felt the same way. Only my granddaughter said that she preferred quiet hairdressers. Why? Because she likes to fall asleep when she’s there.

The newest Oxford English Dictionary has about 20 words that come from Japanese. They include katsu, tonkotsu, karaage, onigiri, donburi, and takoyaki. This shows that Japanese food is popular in the English-speaking world. Actually, katsu comes from an English word, “cutlet” but it is cooked in different ways in different countries. I’m sure that people know tonkotsu because ramen is very popular. Takoyaki is a little surprising to me because people seldom eat octopus, and I’ve never had anything like this little hot snack outside Japan. I’m also surprised by onigiri. I still remember going on a picnic when I first came to Japan. I loved the karaage in the picnic basket, but I didn’t like the cold rice balls. (120 words)

Sometimes, nature has the power to make people change their schedules. On April 8, there was a solar eclipse in the U.S. It went from Texas in the south to New Hampshire in the northeast. Day turned into night for a couple of hours. There was a partial eclipse in New York City, too. The moon covered almost 85% of the sun at the same time that a professional baseball game was scheduled. The teams decided to move the game to a later time in the day so that the eclipse didn’t bother anyone. My sister, who lives in New Hampshire, took today’s photo. How did she watch the eclipse? She used a colander, a bowl with many holes that cooks use to drain boiled pasta. The shadow of each hole showed the same partial eclipse on the ground. (139 words)

The new school year has started in Japan. The Japanese school year starts in April and goes to March of the following year. This is different from many other countries where the school year starts in September and goes to the following summer. Another difference is the entrance ceremony in Japan. The first-year students and their parents go to school for a ceremony. They wear nice new clothes or new uniforms and take pictures next to the sign at the school gate. Other countries don’t have a ceremony. Children start taking classes from the first day. One thing is the same, however. Many children find the first day of school exciting but sometimes a little frightening. （116 words）