Latest news with #Japanese-Canadian
The Mainichi
06-05-2025
- Sport
- The Mainichi
News in Easy English: MLB star Shohei Ohtani appears most in new school textbooks
TOKYO -- Famous Major League Baseball player Shohei Ohtani is in many new school textbooks. The textbooks will be for first-year high school students from the 2026 school year. Textbooks sometimes use famous people to make learning easy and interesting for students. But textbook publishers must be careful. If a famous person has problems or scandals, the companies must change the textbooks. Ohtani is in 12 new textbooks. He appears in textbooks for four different classes in two school subjects. For example, in one "English Communication I" textbook, students can practice English using Ohtani's goal-setting chart. Other famous athletes, like Haruka Kitaguchi (javelin throw), Hina Hayata (table tennis), and Tokito Oda (wheelchair tennis), are also in new textbooks. Books teaching Japanese language have songs and works by music artists and TV stars, too. Examples are Gen Hoshino and Neru Nagahama. One textbook from Taishukan Publishing first included Ippei Mizuhara, who helped Ohtani with English, in an English lesson. But Mizuhara had a gambling scandal, so Taishukan Publishing changed that part of the textbook. It now uses a story about a Japanese-Canadian baseball team from before World War II. The education ministry said Mizuhara's scandal made the lesson "difficult" to use. Another textbook for junior high school also had to change after Mizuhara's scandal. A different textbook with a picture of entertainer Fuwa-chan also took her out after she wrote a bad thing about a comedian on social media. Textbook companies say choosing famous people is very difficult. A worker at a textbook company said, "We always think about scandals when we decide the people in our textbooks. We can only check online. We just hope that people don't have scandals in the four years until we make textbooks again." Vocabulary celebrity: a famous person (example: singer, actor, or athlete) athlete: a person who plays sports scandal: a big problem about someone's actions, usually in news or on the internet gambling: playing games for money -- can be bad or against the rules entertainer: a person who sings, acts, or makes jokes to make people happy publisher: a company that makes books or textbooks
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
Cherry blossoms in Toronto expected to reach peak bloom later this week
Cherry blossom trees in High Park and across Toronto are expected to reach peak bloom later this week, the city said. Peak bloom, which begins when at least 70 per cent of the blossoms are open, can last between four to 10 days depending on weather conditions, the city said in a news release Thursday. Tens of thousands of people head to High Park every year to admire the blossoms, the city said. There will be no vehicle access or parking inside High Park starting May 5 for the duration of peak bloom. TTC Wheel-Trans vehicles will continue to have access to the park to drop off visitors, the city said. Visitors are asked to avoid climbing the trees and removing blossoms or branches. They are also asked to remain on paved pathways and trails when visiting city parks to protect ecologically sensitive areas. Visitors can also see cherry blossoms in Trinity Bellwoods Park, Birkdale Ravine in Scarborough, Centennial Park in Etobicoke and Toronto Island Park, as well as on some University of Toronto and York University campuses. The first cherry blossom trees, known as Sakura trees, were planted in Toronto in 1959 after a fundraising project led by Japanese-Canadian leaders and community members, according to the High Park Nature Centre's website. Two thousand trees were initially planted in appreciation of Toronto accepting re-located Japanese-Canadians following the Second World War, the website reads. Several more groves were planted across the city in the following decades. The City of Toronto operates the Sakura Cherry Trees Project, which accepts donations to support the maintenance of existing trees and the planting of new ones.
CBC
01-05-2025
- CBC
Cherry blossoms in Toronto expected to reach peak bloom later this week
Social Sharing Cherry blossom trees in High Park and across Toronto are expected to reach peak bloom later this week, the city said. Peak bloom, which begins when at least 70 per cent of the blossoms are open, can last between four to 10 days depending on weather conditions, the city said in a news release Thursday. Tens of thousands of people head to High Park every year to admire the blossoms, the city said. There will be no vehicle access or parking inside High Park starting May 5 for the duration of peak bloom. TTC Wheel-Trans vehicles will continue to have access to the park to drop off visitors, the city said. Visitors are asked to avoid climbing the trees and removing blossoms or branches. They are also asked to remain on paved pathways and trails when visiting city parks to protect ecologically sensitive areas. Visitors can also see cherry blossoms in Trinity Bellwoods Park, Birkdale Ravine in Scarborough, Centennial Park in Etobicoke and Toronto Island Park, as well as on some University of Toronto and York University campuses. The first cherry blossom trees, known as Sakura trees, were planted in Toronto in 1959 after a fundraising project led by Japanese-Canadian leaders and community members, according to the High Park Nature Centre's website. Two thousand trees were initially planted in appreciation of Toronto accepting re-located Japanese-Canadians following the Second World War, the website reads. Several more groves were planted across the city in the following decades. The City of Toronto operates the Sakura Cherry Trees Project, which accepts donations to support the maintenance of existing trees and the planting of new ones.
