When I started making YouTube videos in April, there were many things that I didn’t know. I was so busy learning how to make them that I didn’t notice the comments that people were leaving me. I didn’t notice the comments on my Instagram and Facebook pages either. During the New Year’s holidays, I looked at my YouTube channel more carefully, and I found a lot of comments. Then I looked at my Facebook page and found more comments there, too. I read the comments, and I tried to answer all of them. If you left a comment, please go back and read my reply. This year I will try to respond to everyone’s comments as soon as you send them to me! (123 words) You can send me comments or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

American movies with a Christmas theme come out at the end of each year. A couple of weeks ago, I heard about an interesting movie from 2023. It was at a movie theater in Nagoya, so I took my wife to see it. “The Holdovers” takes place at a boys’ boarding school in the snowy northeast of the U.S. Most of the boys go home for Christmas, but a few unlucky ones have to stay at the school. The teacher who looks after them is very strict. Nobody is happy at first, but they change as they get to know each other. The movie is very funny and sometimes sad, and the acting is great. My wife and I don’t always agree, but both of us loved this movie! (129 words) You can send me comments or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Matsuyama Hideki got off to a great start this year. Last week, he won the Sentry tournament, the first PGA Tour tournament of the year. If you know golf, you know that the lower the score you get, the better. A very good golfer can get a par score for each hole. If you go under par, you are playing very well. A PGA tournament lasts four days, and golfers play one round of 18 holes each day. In the first two days, Matsuyama got eight under par for each round. In the third round, he got an amazing 11 under par. In the last round, he got eight under par again. His total was 35 under par for the tournament. He made history with the lowest total score ever for a PGA tournament! (134 words) You can send me comments or a story at jaremaga@gmail.com

I have finished the Korean course in Duolingo. I kept studying with this app for 10-15 minutes almost every day for two years. I never gave up because Duolingo is a very understanding app. If you sometimes miss a day, it’s okay. In any case, all good things come to an end, and I finished the course last month. What did I learn from Duolingo? It really helped me with my reading, especially when I had to listen to a Korean sentence and put the words in the correct order. I learned helpful phrases and vocabulary as well as grammar. Duolingo didn’t help me become a better speaker, but that was partly my fault. I should have practiced shadowing more. My New Year’s resolution this year is to read and practice shadowing Korean every day. (135 words) You can send me a comment or story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Christmas is a great time to be in the U.S., but I like to be in Japan at the New Year. I always go to a temple in Nagoya at the end of December and help them make “kagami mochi.” They let me bring rice and make my own rice cakes, too. We steam the rice over a fire, and when it is ready, we put it into a stone mortar and pound it with a wooden pestle. Everyone is welcome, and the temple serves freshly-made rice cakes with sweet beans, bean powder, or soy sauce to all the visitors. It is a very Japanese event, but at the same time it is very international. Some foreign students from Nagoya University come for the experience. This time, I met people from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, and Namibia. (137 words) You can send me a comment or story at jaremaga@gmail.com