When I was standing at a corner near a train station yesterday, I noticed a smell. It was a strong, unpleasant smell. I looked around, and I saw a ginkgo tree. Other people were looking at the ground. They noticed the smell, too. There were little yellow ginkgo fruits all over the sidewalk around the tree. People used to collect these smelly ginkgo fruits to make ginkgo nuts, but it’s hard work. These days, the ginkgo fruits stay on the ground. Should we get rid of gingko trees? I don’t think so. The smell will go away soon, and the trees will turn a beautiful yellow.    (106 words)

Have you ever been on a treasure hunt? This is a game where you go looking for something hidden. One of the most common treasure hunts in English-speaking countries is the Easter egg hunt. Adults hide chocolate or painted eggs around the garden, and children have fun looking for them. There are also treasure hunts for adults. One of the longest treasure hunts ever ended recently. A French writer made an owl out of gold and silver, and he buried it in 1993. He wrote a book about it with 11 puzzles. People had to solve all the puzzles to find the owl. Over the years, about 200,000 people went looking for it, but no one found it until October 3 this year. Now, there is one very happy treasure hunter, and there are 200,000 very disappointed treasure hunters. (139 words)

The regular 2024 baseball season is over for the Central League. I’m a fan of the Chunichi Dragons, and they played their last game on Sunday. It was also the last game for their manager, Tatsunami Kazuyoshi. I couldn’t go to the game, but many Chunichi fans went there to cheer on their team and say goodbye to Tatsunami. It was an important game for the Dragons. If the team won, they would be in fifth place. Unfortunately, they lost and were last in their league for the third year in a row. Next year, they will have a new manager and new players, and fans like me will continue to cheer them on. We are looking forward to a new beginning.  (122 words)

I led a nature walk in English yesterday. Most of the families were Japanese, but the parents and the children could all speak some English. Staff members helped me take the group to a tidal flat on a river. Once we got there, language no longer mattered. The kids loved looking for crabs and mudskippers. When they picked up a rock, they found crabs under it. At first, they were afraid of getting pinched by the crabs, but they quickly learned how to pick them up safely. The mudskippers were really hard to catch because they were so fast. Some kids used nets and caught a lot. I didn’t have a net, so I used my hands, and I caught one. I felt really proud of myself, just like a kid! (130 words)

I happened to learn two new slang words while watching American TV dramas. The first one was HALT. It stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired. The line in the story said you should not make decisions when you feel HALT. I slapped my thigh, remembering my quarrels with my husband. I always felt HALT then. The next slang word was FOMO. It means Fear of Missing Out. I was completely FOMO when I was young. I was scared of missing any opportunities to meet new friends and hang out at drinking parties. I am not FOMO anymore in my sixties. I’d rather stay home and watch my favorite American dramas and learn new slang. Now I am HSHC, Happy to Stay Home and Chill, which I just thought of. Will this be the next new slang? (137 words)

If you go out into a grassy field at this time of year, you will probably come back with little seeds on your clothes. The seeds stick to your clothes, and they don’t come off easily. They are called “beggar’s lice” in English. In Japan, there is one kind of plant called “nusubitohagi.” When I was working at the environmental center, I had to cut the grass. After I finished the job, I came back and looked down at my green workpants. I thought they were a solid color, so I was surprised when I saw they had a nice pattern on them. I looked more closely and saw that they were covered in little green “nusubitohagi” seeds. (118 words)