JM posts

Chopsticks, not Darts!

Today’s story is about a Guinness World Record breaker. His name is David Rush, and he has just broken a record. He used chopsticks like darts and threw them at a target four meters away. He had to beat the record for the most target hits with chopsticks in one minute. The record was 21 hits. He got 29 hits and broke the record! You can watch the video at the following URL https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/03/31/Guinness-World-Records-Davd-Rush-chopsticks/3391743443607/  This man loves challenges. He now holds more Guinness Records than anyone else. Most of his records are for juggling, but he also holds the record for the most marshmallows caught in the mouth with a home-made catapult in one minute.  (115 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

JM posts

Wonderful and Terrible

There are only two of us at home, but we throw out one big bag of plastic garbage every week. I would like to say goodbye to plastic because I know it is bad for the environment, but I can’t. Everything comes in plastic these days: supermarket vegetables, tofu, eggs, rice, and bread. Plastic is good because it keeps our food fresh longer, and it is much easier for stores to sell food in plastic packages. However, plastic doesn’t go away after you use it. If you burn it, the smoke is bad for your health. If it gets into the sea, birds and turtles eat it, and they die. Plastic also breaks up into microplastics and gets inside fish, animals, and plants. When we eat them, the plastic gets inside us. Plastic is both wonderfully convenient for us and terrible for the environment!   (144 words) You can send me a comment or

JM posts

Working for Disney!

As you probably know, I make YouTube videos of my Jaremaga stories. I think the videos are good for learners, but I don’t really like the sound of my own voice. That’s why I was really surprised to get an email from someone at Walt Disney Studios. They saw my YouTube channel and liked my voice. Now they want me to be a voice actor in an animated movie. I can’t believe it! I went to Tokyo last Friday for a screen test, and I passed! I am starting work this morning. The name of the movie is “An April Fool.” What do you think? Am I a good liar?   (110 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

JM posts

March is a Month of Changes

March is the end of the year for students and many workers all over Japan. Students graduate, and public school teachers have to move to other schools before April. I know that some government workers have to move to other offices at the end of March, and I think it happens at large companies, too. I didn’t think it happened to newscasters, but I was wrong. Last Friday, I was watching the local NHK evening news. At the end of the program, the two newscasters said that they were leaving the show. One of them is moving to radio, and the other is changing to the morning news. The two new newscasters have something in common. They have the same last name: Yamada.  (123 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

Readers' Corner

Readers’ Corner: Who’s Going to Give You the Flu?

The weather is becoming warmer, but some schools are still closing because many students are sick with the flu (influenza) or other diseases. A student asked me how many absences it would take for a class to be closed. A common rule is that if about 20% of the students are absent, the class is closed. But at my school, it’s a bit different. There are only three students in my class. If one student is absent, the absentee rate is 33%, but we can’t close the class just because one student is missing. One of my students said, “If two students are absent, the absence rate is 66%, so the class should be closed.” But I replied, “If two students are absent, who’s going to give you the flu?”   (130 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

JM posts

Yellow Dust from Mongolia

Spring is a wonderful season, but it has some bad points, too. One of them in the yellow dust that comes from Mongolia. The wind lifts the dust high up into the air from the desert and carries it east. The TV weather map shows a big cloud of dust moving toward Japan from China. The meteorologist, the person who reports the weather, says that it is bad for our health. We should stay inside as much as possible and wear a mask when we go outside. We should dry our clothes inside rather than outside so that they don’t get dust on them. I haven’t seen any dust, but I can see that the air isn’t clear. Although it’s sunny, the sky isn’t blue. Late in the afternoon, the dust turns the sun orange.  (135 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com