Oda Tokito is amazing! He is only 19 years old, but he already has a career Golden Slam. You need to win the four big tournaments, called Grand Slams, and an Olympic or a Paralympic gold medal. He had already won Wimbledon, the French Open, and the Australian Open, and he had a gold medal from the Paris Paralympics last year. On Saturday, he did it! He won the men’s wheelchair singles at the U.S. Open. He wasn’t the only Japanese hero though. Kamiji Yui won the women’s wheelchair singles. She has also had a great season, winning all of the Grand Slams except for Wimbledon. We can look forward to her getting a career Golden Slam, too.  (118 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

I talked about tornadoes in Japan on Monday. Today, I’m going to talk about tornadoes in the U.S. Japan has about 25 tornadoes a year, but the U.S. has about 1,200 tornadoes! Why are there so many tornadoes in the U.S.? It’s because of geography. Many tornadoes are created when cold dry air from the Rocky Mountains meets warm dry air from the Southwest and warm wet air from the Gulf of Mexico. Tornadoes occur from Texas in the south all the way to Minnesota in the north. People often build special underground shelters. That’s because tornado winds are so strong that they can destroy everything above the ground.   (109 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

There was excitement in Tokyo last weekend. Prince Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Akishino, had his special coming-of-age ceremony on Saturday. On his way to the ceremony, he waved to the people along the street from the car. They were waving Japanese flags and shouting, “Banzai!” Prince Hisahito is the first prince in 40 years to have this ceremony. At the main ceremony, he wore a long yellow robe. After he greeted the Emperor and other members of the royal family, a special black hat given to him by the Emperor was put on his head. Now Prince Hisahito is an adult.   (103 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Typhoons bring strong winds and a lot of rain. The biggest ones are hundreds of kilometers wide. They can cause floods and mudslides. Tornadoes are different. They are small, but they are very dangerous. Typhoon No. 15 hit Japan on Friday and moved along the Pacific coast. When the typhoon got to Shizuoka Prefecture, a tornado started in one town and pulled off the roofs and the walls of several buildings. Later, when the typhoon reached Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture, there was another tornado. This one lifted up a car and turned it over. Luckily, there was nobody in the car.  (102 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

At the end of July, some members of the Fujimae group went to Zimbabwe with Nagoya government officials to attend an environmental conference. When they came back, one of them showed me a strange souvenir. It was an old banknote from 2008. It said “One Billion Dollars” on it. It was real! In 2008, inflation was very, very bad in Zimbabwe. Prices went up every hour! If people got Zimbabwean dollars, they had to use them right away. The government kept making banknotes in larger and larger dollar amounts. What could you buy for 1,000,000,000 dollars? I’m not sure, but I think you could only buy some bread. Inflation didn’t stop until people stopped using Zimbabwean dollars and started using foreign money like US dollars. The one billion dollar banknote is not real money now. People sell it in the street as an interesting souvenir.    (145 words) You can send me a comment