Yesterday was Easter. Christians believe that Jesus Christ went to Heaven on this day 2000 years ago. About 50% of Christians are Catholic, and Catholics have special rules about Easter. They are not supposed to eat meat for 40 days before Easter, but they can eat fish. Most people in South America are Catholics. However, South America has animals that are not found in Europe or Asia. Some people from Venezuela told the Vatican about the capybara 400 years ago. “It can swim, and it tastes like fish. Can we call it fish?” The Vatican said “Yes,” so people started eating capybara before Easter every year. If you go to Venezuela now, you can find this “fish” on the menu.      (120 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Fukui Prefecture became famous when a new kind of dinosaur was discovered there in the year 2000. They called it Fukuiraptor. The prefecture built a dinosaur museum, and you can major in dinosaur studies at Fukui University. Now the university is world-famous. A professor says that he has cloned a dinosaur! He found the live DNA in a fossil and was able to clone a new kind of dinosaur. This isn’t science fiction like Jurassic Park anymore. It’s real! Next year, we will be able to see the live dinosaur inside a special cage in the museum. It’s an Aprilfoolsaurus.    (100 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Have you heard the news about fluorescent lights? Japan is going to stop making and importing them by next year. If you have fluorescent lights in your house, you will have to change to LED tubes. LEDs are more expensive than fluorescent lights, but they are better in many ways. They use less energy, so your electricity bill will be lower. They also last about 10 times longer, so you don’t have to buy new lights so often. LED tubes are also better for the environment because they don’t use mercury like fluorescent lights. Be careful when you change them, however. Make sure that you buy the right kind of LED tube. If you make a mistake, the LED can catch fire.       (122 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

You can see cherry blossoms everywhere in Japan at this time of year. It’s wonderful to walk under the cherry trees or to have a picnic in a park where they are in bloom. But people don’t just look at cherry blossoms. They use the flowers and the leaves to make many different kinds of food these days. I had sakura soba the other day with my wife. It was a beautiful pink, and it tasted a little like sakura mochi. Sakura mochi is perhaps the oldest example of food made from cherry trees. It is made of sticky rice, sweet beans, and salt-pickled cherry leaves. It was first made at the Chomei Temple in Tokyo 300 years ago, but it became very popular. There are many new kinds of sakura foods, but sakura mochi is still my favorite.  (139 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com