I saw medaka rice fish swimming in a tank with tiny chairs and desks. “It’s a school!” I thought. “A school of fish!” I started to laugh because we say “school of fish” in English. We don’t mean fish sitting at desks and studying, however. We mean a group of fish that swim together. Sardines, for example, swim in schools. English has many different words for groups of living things. A pack of wolves hunts in the wild. A swarm of bees flies around the beehive. A colony of ants lives underground. You can see a flock of pigeons flying around in the sky. In western movies, cowboys take care of a herd of cows.  (115 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

How do you choose a place to go on vacation? Is sightseeing your main reason for travelling, or do you travel to eat? I know many Japanese who take short trips just to eat. Last Sunday, I went on a trip with a small group of Japanese friends. One of them was from Tokyo, and we took him to Himakajima, an island that is famous for octopus. We drove to a small port and took a ferry to the island. The hotel served freshly boiled octopus and octopus rice for dinner, and in the morning, we had octopus “shabu shabu” for breakfast. The food was delicious, and we had a great time talking. Between meals, we took a bath and hung out in the sauna. We had a wonderful time even though we hardly left the hotel.   (137 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

If you go into the Japanese countryside, you will probably see water in the rice fields now. Golden Week is the time to plant rice. Farmers put the water into the fields first. Then, they plow the fields. They get on tractors and dig up the soil so that it isn’t hard. This helps air get into the soil. Plowing also helps to stop weeds from growing. When the fields are ready, farmers plant the rice using the tractors. These days, farming is easier because there are machines that do the hard work. One farmer can do everything alone. Before machines, however, farmers had to do everything by hand. It took a lot of time, and one farmer couldn’t do it alone. They worked together with their families and other farmers to finish the planting quickly.  (136 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Pope Francis passed away on Monday, April 21. He is known as Francisco in Japan. He was the head of the Catholic Church from 2013 until his death. People around the world loved him because he was very friendly and easy to talk to. He traveled around the world to celebrate mass with everyone, and he wanted everyone to work for peace and to help poor people and immigrants. People respected him because he didn’t live in a fancy apartment like the other popes. He lived like a normal person and even cooked his own meals. They are having special church services for him now in almost every country. I’m not a Catholic, but I think the world has lost a great man!   (123 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Ohtani Shohei is a father! His wife gave birth to a baby girl on April 19 in Los Angeles, and he uploaded a photo of his daughter’s feet on his Instagram account. What small feet! But looking at the parents, I think that the baby will grow up to be a big girl. Ohtani took time off last Friday to be with his wife for the birth of the child. This is called paternity leave, or special time off for fathers. Paternity leave started in MLB in 2011, and now the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association would like to have the same system in Japan. I think it’s a great idea. There are some things in life that you can only experience once, and the birth of your first baby is one of them.   (134 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com