“Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window” became the most published autobiography in the world last year, and Guinness gave Kuroyanagi Tetsuko a World Record certificate last December. “Totto-chan” is in the news again, but it isn’t the book this time. It’s the animated feature film. It won a prize at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Annecy is a town in southeastern France, and it has the biggest animated film festival in the world. This year’s top prize went to “Memoir of a Snail,” an Australian film. Unlike “Totto-chan,” the Australian film is made with claymation (animation that uses clay figures). I like both kinds of animation, and I’d like to see both of these films.     (117 words)

My students like to say that Japan has four seasons, but I tell them that they are wrong. Japan has five seasons. They look at me as if I am crazy. They were taught that Japan has four seasons at school, and the Japanese word “shiki” means four seasons. Then I ask them, “What about the rainy season?” In June and July, the weather gets very humid, and it rains a lot. To me, this is Japan’s fifth season. By the way, has the rainy season already started in your part of Japan? Weather forecasters say that the rainy season has started in western Japan, but I haven’t heard anyone say that it has started in central or eastern Japan.    (120 words)

Yesterday was Father’s Day. This special day was first celebrated in the U.S. in 1910, two years after the first Mother’s Day. Ms. Dodd worked very hard to create a special day for her father to thank him for raising her and her five brothers after their mother died. Now Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in many countries. People usually give their fathers presents and spend time with them. How did you celebrate Father’s Day? I thought about my own father who passed away a long time ago, and in the evening, my daughter came over and gave me a nice bottle of wine! My other daughter, who lives in the U.S., couldn’t be with me, so we chatted online instead.  (126 words)

Recently, we hear a lot of about bears in Japan. People are afraid of them because they can be dangerous. When a mother is with her cubs (young bears), she will attack anything or anyone that gets near them. Bears also attack people when they are looking for food. Bears are usually seen in the countryside, but some bears come into town. This happens in the U.S., too. A friend of mine in Virginia posted a photo of a bear cub up in a tree on Facebook. It was in a park near her house just outside of Washington, D.C. It didn’t hurt anybody, but it got into my friend’s garbage can. She has changed from a plastic can to one made of metal.（124 words)　

I found this vending machine on the streets in Nagoya. It is selling one thing, a hot sauce called Sriracha. Sriracha is a spicy sauce which is made from chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. It originally comes from Thailand, but a Vietnamese man started making it in the US, and now it is almost as popular as Tabasco sauce. I remember an American student who liked it so much that she brought some from the US when she came to Japan. Now, she doesn’t have to leave Japan. I found a Sriracha vending machine in Nagoya! A vending machine for hot sauce? I don’t understand. It’s not that popular, is it? I hope that no one mistakes it for a soft drink machine and tries to drink one!    (134 words)