Judo comes from Japan, but Japan didn’t get the gold medal in the mixed-team judo event. It went to the French team. That’s not so surprising. There are four times as many people doing judo in France as in Japan now. Fencing is a European sport with roots in Italy and France, but the Japan men’s team beat the Italian men’s team and won the gold medal in the men’s fencing foil. They also got the silver medal in the men’s epee. Sports are no longer national. They have become international, and that is probably because of the Olympics. Fencing has been an Olympic sport for more than 100 years, and judo became an Olympic sport in 1964 when Tokyo had its first Olympics. (124 words)

Yesterday, as I was driving around Nagoya, I kept seeing police cars. It wasn’t a zero day, so why were so many police officers patrolling the city? Was there some kind of emergency? It was 39 degrees in Nagoya, so I told my wife that the air conditioners in the police departments were probably not working. The police officers were driving around in their cars to keep cool. Of course I was joking, but I might be right about the weather. There are many people in the hospital now because of the heat. Maybe the police were patrolling the streets to make sure that no one was dying of heat stroke.　　　（111 words）

When I camped in my car a week ago, we stayed near Fujimidai. Fujimidai means a place where you can see Mt. Fuji. I was lucky because the evening rain cleared the air. When I walked up to Fujimidai the next morning, I could see Mt. Fuji far away just above the Southern Alps. Then, as I was driving down the mountain later that morning, I passed a car coming up the narrow road. There were cameras on the roof of the car. It was a Google Street View car, and it was taking photos of everything! I was excited at first, but then I thought, “Is there anywhere that Google hasn’t been? Traveling is no longer an adventure because you can see every place online before you go there.”  (130 words)

The artistic gymnastics started last week. I first heard about the Japanese gymnasts from my sister, who lives in the U.S. She said in an email, “I don’t know who I saw, Hashimoto or Oka, but he was fantastic!” I found out later that the Japanese men’s team won the gold medal, and Oka Shinnosuke got the gold in the Men’s All-Round. Then I saw Simone Biles do her incredible floor exercise. The American women’s team won the gold medal. Then Biles got the gold in the Women’s All-Round, and her teammate, Sunisa Lee, won the bronze medal. I was happy to see both countries doing so well. (108 words)