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

Baseball fans, you can stop waiting. The baseball season is here! Last night was the opening night for Major League Baseball in the U.S., but because of the time difference, the game is going to start at 8 o’clock this morning. The San Francisco Giants are playing the New York Yankees. The opening day for the other teams is today, Thursday. Japanese professional baseball is starting on Friday night, and all 12 teams will be playing. Whether you like MLB or Japanese baseball, you will have something to watch. I am rooting for the Boston Red Sox and the Chunichi Dragons. Who are you rooting for?    (107 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

When you ride a bicycle, there are some rules that you should obey. Until now, the police have not been strict when people break the rules, but things will change on April 1. If you are stopped by a police officer, you will get a blue ticket and pay a fine. There are more than 100 new fines! If you don’t want to pay a fine, make sure that you know the rules. For example, if you use your smartphone on a bicycle, you will have to pay 12,000 yen. If you ride on the sidewalk, it’ll be 6,000 yen. Using an umbrella or earphones on a bicycle will cost you 5,000 yen, and riding without lights at night will cost you 5,000 yen, too. I usually ride on the sidewalk, but I will change. I don’t want to pay 6,000 yen!    (142 words) You can send me a comment or your own

Do you know the word “litter”? Some people don’t throw their trash into a trash can. Instead, they throw it on the ground. That is called “littering.” It makes the streets and parks look messy. It’s also bad for the environment. I went to a park the other day, and there were a lot of white tissues on the ground. Why did someone litter like that? Why didn’t they take their trash home? Then I looked more closely. Those white things weren’t tissues. They were flowers from a magnolia tree. The large white flower petals fell to the ground and looked like litter, but that isn’t litter. The flowers are biodegradable and will return to nature.     (116 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com