"I don't get it - but it was hard, right?"

I'm studying like crazy for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test on December 6th. The kids also have tests tomorrow and Friday so it will be quiet and I can do some more studying.

The girls didn't win the regional speech contest - I'm told the "level is high" there - but since I didn't witness their defeat I'm not too upset.

I wanted to do something exotic with my last three persimmons, so I combined them with chunks of beef, carrot, soy sauce, mirin and a little ginger, and put it on rice. The texture was a little odd because the fruit was so soft and ripe, but the flavor was perfect. If I ever have persimmons again I'll try it sooner while they're still firm.

Last night we visited a local English conversation class for adults. There were only four students, but it was nice to talk to people older than me.

Here's an odd news story about squid postcards.

I love this one about Japan's first female professional baseball player - sixteen years old and cute as a button.

Mama sent me this article about Japan's new generation of "slacker" or "so-so" workers - well, it's up to one's own definition as to whether their lives are better or worse than those of their parents and grandparents. And more than one's own, being as wishy-washy as I am every time I consider that sort of situation and my own I change my mind. "But one's career is more important than a fling - but love is more fulfilling than work" - and so on. Emotional dilemma aside, what it really made me think of is this song by Kanjani8 entitled "Irresponsible Hero." It's the same theme - the set even has a lot in common with my workplace - the enormous daruma doll, the framed certificates and proverbs in ornate kanji, and the stuffed birds (the principal's office has a few). Snacks in one's desk drawers, badly worn suits, misuse of spinny chairs - though it's a bit funner in front of a camera. Lyrics along the lines of: "Your life is whose object?" "Things will happen one way or another." and "I'll do my best - starting tomorrow."

It's perfect to be the theme song of the "Slacker Nation."