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

BTS is one of the most popular music groups in the world, but the members had to go into the military and couldn’t perform for four years. They got out last year, and they gave their first concert in the center of Seoul last Saturday night. It was a free outdoor concert, and there were about 260,000 fans in the streets! There were large screens everywhere so that they could watch BTS even if they were far from the stage. I happened to turn on Netflix at the right time and watched the concert from my dining room. Although I’m not a BTS fan, I enjoyed it. The fans in the streets loved it! They had tears of joy in their eyes as they cheered and sang along.   (128 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

This is the 50th anniversary of the Winter Paralympic Games. They started in Sweden in 1976. At that time, there were only two sports, alpine skiing and Nordic skiing. Around 200 athletes from 16 countries came to the first games. Since then, more and more countries have participated. This year, over 600 athletes came to the Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics from 55 countries. They had six sports: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, snowboarding, and wheelchair curling, and there were 79 medal events in these sports. Japan’s star was Muraoka Momoka. She won two silver medals in alpine skiing this time, and she now has 11 medals altogether. That is more than any other Japanese paralympic athlete.  (117 words)  You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com