I work with a woman who has a very good sense of hearing. She says I work with a woman who has a very good sense of hearing. She says that she has ears like a bat. She can hear ultrasound, sound that is too high for most people to hear. Some people in her neighborhood use ultrasound devices to keep cats away. Most people don’t notice the ultrasound, but it really bothers her. She says it’s like listening to someone scratching a blackboard with their fingernails. Because of this, she tries not to walk near those houses. I’m very different. As I get older, I can no longer hear high-pitched sounds. At work, for example, we use a hot water kettle with a whistle, but unless I’m very close, I can’t hear it.

The Nagoya Women’s Marathon was held yesterday, and I went to watch it. The course went south along a major street near my house and then came back north. It was sunny, and the temperature was great for the runners, not too hot and not too cold. When I got to the street, thousands of runners were heading south, but the other side of the street was empty. Then the top runners came back north. The first group of runners I saw included the top four runners: the winner, Ando Yuka, the second-place winner, Eunice Chumba of Bahrain, the third-place winner, Suzuki Ayuko, and the fourth-place winner, Kaseda Rika.

What do you think of when you hear “African food”? Actually, there are many kinds of African food because there are many different countries with their own dishes. I knew that people in north Africa ate couscous, a kind of tiny pasta, but I didn’t know much about local cooking before I went to Uganda five years ago. Last Sunday, I went to a charity event to help a school in Uganda, and they served Ugandan food. They couldn’t eat “matoke,” which is the national staple dish of Uganda, because they couldn’t get a special kind of non-sweet green banana. We had chapati, pilaf, and “ugali” instead. “Ugali” is made of corn flour which is boiled. It is white and heavy, and it went well with the curry and cooked beans.

People in many countries around the world take showers rather than baths, but most Japanese take a bath regularly. In a Japanese bath, you get into the bathtub and cover your whole body in hot water. People stay in the bath until their bodies feel nice and warm. According to some Japanese researchers, taking a hot bath this way is good for your health. Here are three of their reasons. First, a hot bath makes you feel better because your backaches and stiff shoulders don’t hurt so much. Second, when you are in the bath, you don’t feel your weight. Your body floats in the water, and this helps to relax your muscles. Finally, a hot bath before you go to bed is good because you can fall sleep more easily.

Recently I noticed a new kind of work/study space here in Nagoya. It is called “self cafe” in Japanese. It is like a coffee shop, but no one works there. You buy a drink from a machine, and you can stay there as long as the place is open. They have Wi-Fi, and there are tables and chairs where you can sit and work or study. You can use the outlets to plug in your computer or recharge your mobile phone. I haven’t gone into the one in my neighborhood yet, but my granddaughter has. She said that it is a better place to study than a coffee shop because it is quiet. It seems to be popular. I walked by last night at 8 pm, and it was full.