The Jaremaga Essay Contest for high school and junior high school students is now over. We received 49 essays this year. I want to thank Kitahara Nobuaki and Nakanishi Tetsuhiko for helping me to choose the best essays. We wanted to choose the best three, but the essays were so good that we ended up choosing five. I want to send out the winning essays before the end of February, so I will start tomorrow. You will get two essays each week, one on Thursday and one on Friday. I will start with the high school essays and then will send out the junior high school essays. I’m sure that you will enjoy them as much as we did.   (119 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

I was listening to a man talk about his favorite baseball team, the Tampa Bay Rays. His team didn’t do well in 2025, so his friend asked him, “Would you give up pizza forever to help your team win the World Series?” The man said he would give up pizza. He started thinking about everything that he would give up to help the Rays win the World Series. He made a list of other things that he would give up: alcohol, meat, and international travel. He is a true fan! I like the Chunichi Dragons a lot, but I wouldn’t give up alcohol, meat, or international travel even if it would help the Dragons win the Japan Series.    (122 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

The other day, I saw a news report about a strange game in Japan. People go around and take pictures of power poles. Then they use an app to upload the photos to a special site. They get points for each pole, and they get prizes with their points. Some players say that they make more than 50,000 yen per month! Who made such a strange game? It was an electric power company. They need to check more than a million power poles in one prefecture. This takes a lot of time and money, but if people send them photos, it is much faster and cheaper to check the power poles. It’s a great idea because the players don’t think that they are working. They just enjoy playing the game and winning money.   (133 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Many third-year high school students are studying very hard for the Common Test for University Admissions. It will be held on Saturday and Sunday at universities all over Japan. Almost half a million people have signed up for the test this year. People who want to go to public universities need to take this test, but there are private universities that ask for Common Test scores, too. I used to proctor this kind of test when I was working at university, and I know how long and difficult it is. Students take tests on many different subjects including English, math, history, and science. This goes on for two days, so they need stamina. It is hard to sit and concentrate for such a long time. I want to tell all the students, “Good luck! You can do it!”    (138 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Crows are some of the smartest birds in the world, but in Japan, many people don’t like them. They look for food in people’s garbage bags and make a mess in the street. However, one startup company in Sweden thinks that crows can help to keep cities clean. Smokers often throw cigarette butts on the ground, and it’s expensive to pay city workers to pick them up. Crows like to pick up things, so the company has made a special machine. It gives crows a little food when they bring butts to the machine. If you teach one crow, the other crows will learn from it. Crows can help to keep cities clean! Of course, it would be even better if we could teach smokers to stop throwing cigarette butts on the ground!   (133 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com