good meat day

I have been listening to podcasts a lot more often recently, mostly how stuff works and freakonomics, the format seems to rub off on my head as I go about my day.

On that note yesterday for me in Japan it was Heisei 29th year November 29th  now this 2-9 combination recently in Japan has a connotation with eating meat, the 29th of each month is known as niku no hi or well 肉の日 now the reason they call it that is that you can make a pun with 2 and 9 in Japanese "ni" and "ku", alright all you people that are going to push your glasses up your nose and say it is "kyuu" instead, depending on the case "ku" is actually correct. This matches the pronunciation for meat so it has become a custom recently in stores and other places to push you into eating meat in this fateful day of the month.

Japanese meat consumption is split between pork and chicken and beef lags behind at around 20 kg for white meat and 10kg for the one I didn't mention before. It was much lower years before actually, for some reason Japan has been trying to increase its meat consumption. The US  average meat intake a year is at around 35kgs  in the case of beef now this numbers are all from the top of my head and I think it is better that I keep it this way, you can go on google and just get better data yourself.

that ends the random talk of the day so you can go at any 29th of a month and go "did you know that recently in Japan...." and show off. To go back to my own life, I just handed my second paper to my professor so I think my graduation is lining up to happen if I am lucky this Sunday I got to take the N1 Japanese Proficiency Test, I took it 2 years ago and failed by two points, scared of similar results I didn't have the guts to sign up again, people younger than me have encouraged me to just give it a shot. At least I can measure if I am better than I was 2 years ago(99 points as a goal to still fail)

if any of you read Hajime no Ippo, well damn that recent chapter hit like a brick, such a long series taking that turn is just sad. I always make the promise to update this more often, but I will keep at it as often as I can. It is relaxing between writing other kinds of things nowadays.

Mr president

I have not updated this at all, but it seems a good time, to explain the title I am the president of the international student association in this university so everyone calls me president ironically even people outside the university sorta do. I gotta give speeches to sponsors, go to schools to speak about my country. Talking about that, this year I was requested to trick or treat with some middle school kids, just so you know Japanese kids are very high on the cuteness department to the point you wonder what the hell happens to them in high school that destroys all that cuteness, well besides cute I learned that they are freaking ruthless, while we walk between houses they gave their stern opinion on each house owner and the candy they got from each also straight calling one house owner gay  because of the clothes he had on when he opened the door.

I managed to submit another paper to IEEE which means I need another one to graduate, it is mostly written so I think I will be able to make it till next year, since my research is going decent I can also play clarinet often, had concerts with the US pacific air force band, I think I managed to get along with the leader one and the bass player was raised in my country so it was easy to speak to her too. I think up to this point I have managed to make a name for myself playing clarinet out here, most of the people around the concert hall know me and the staff there also know about me, last concert a lot of old ladies kept approaching me saying "clarinet-kun" or things like that and giving me presents or thoughts, the presents are poaches they made themselves or food they had made. I think the younger me would say "why can't I get some younger fans" but the current me is just satisfied with having any fans whatsoever.

i am thinking about asking a girl I teach clarinet out, break the golden rule... well I did once already but things happened and well it didn't actually materialize she is busy with something I know is important for her so I think I will ask after that if I have the guts.

Recently met some English teachers and they are quite fun to hang out with, two of them are quite pretty girls, they could be air hostesses in the 60s I guess(sorry flight of the conchords) and the other guy has similar sense of humor to mine.

my clarinet mouthpiece broke sometime and I requested a handmade one last year, the seller has me hanging for months, but honestly I really hope he can come through for me quick.

I think I will try to update this more often, but I am doing my best. Gotta look for a job here sometime, seeing the news about my country it gets worse by the second.

well as long as youtube keeps it up gonna recommend this  vid, 3 hours long but it is a pretty darn good set.

https://youtu.be/donS-kx2_hQ

have a good day. Slammer out.