Today I am happy to tell you about the 8th Jaremaga Essay Contest. It’s for junior high school and high school students. We are looking for stories about heart-warming or humorous experiences in simple English. Don’t worry about mistakes. If your story is good, we will choose it! The winners will receive a certificate from Jaremaga, and we will post the winning stories on Jaremaga in February and March next year. The contest deadline is January 10, 2027. To find out more about the contest in Japanese, go to the Jaremaga website. If you are a junior high school or high school teacher, please encourage your students to write an essay. It is great practice for them, and we get a lot of interesting stories. It’s a win-win situation for everyone!    (131 words) To submit your story, go to the following link. Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To

My daughter has a Shiba Inu, and I walk him almost every morning. I see a lot of Shiba Inu because it is the most popular Japanese dog inside and outside Japan. A couple of weeks ago, I found out something interesting about Shiba Inu from the NHK TV program, “Don’t Sleep through Life,” with Okamura and Chiko-chan. The Shiba Inu used to be a hunting dog in central Japan, but in the Meiji and Taisho eras, it was mixed with western dogs. Soon, there were very few pure Shiba dogs. Dog lovers decided to save them by breeding Shiba Inu from several different prefectures. That’s why the Shiba Inu isn’t called by a place name like other Japanese dogs such as Akita, Hokkaido, and Shikoku.    (126 words) Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To become a paid subscriber and read it 5 days a week, go to “Support

The Nagoya Castle Hotel was a special place for my family many years ago. We never stayed there because we live in Nagoya, but we sometimes went to the restaurant on the top floor for special occasions because it had such a beautiful view of Nagoya Castle. The original hotel closed in 2020, and they rebuilt it. It reopened last year with a new name: the Espacio Nagoya Castle. I passed by it for the first time while I was birdwatching on Saturday morning. It looks like a castle with stone walls on the bottom, and the hotel is on top. I didn’t go inside, but I have seen photos. It’s a luxury hotel with lots of art on the walls. It’s one of only three Nagoya hotels in the Michelin Guide, and it is expensive! A room for one night costs as much as a computer!  (147 words) Jaremaga now comes out

Halloween is October 31. If you live in the U.S., you need to be ready. Children dress up in costumes and go from house to house asking, “Trick or treat?” They want candy and snacks, and everyone gives them something. When I was growing up, most families made their own costumes, but these days, more and more people are buying ready-made costumes. Popular costumes this year include Spiderman, characters from the movie “K-Pop Demon Hunters,” and Woody and Jessie from “Toy Story.” People also decorate their houses with skeletons and ghosts. Be careful! Some of the decorations are really scary!  (100 words) Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To become a paid subscriber and read it 5 days a week, go to “Support Jaremaga” below for more information. You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

We have had a lot of typhoons this year. Right now, Typhoon #30 is hitting western Japan. When I first came to Japan, I didn’t know what a typhoon was. Then, one hit Nagoya. I realized that a typhoon is just like a hurricane. Both are very large powerful storms. The only difference is the name. If they hit the U.S., they are called hurricanes. If they are in the western Pacific Ocean and they hit Asian countries, they are called typhoons. In Japan, they are given numbers, but in other countries they are given names. For example, Typhoon #30 is called Typhoon Champi. Champi is the name of a flower. They give hurricanes people’s names in the U.S., for example, Hurricane Douglas, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I don’t like it when they use my name!    (141 words) Jaremaga now comes out online on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.