There’s nothing that Billy Talent can’t solve.

So I know a lot of my friends are endeared to facebook. As much as they are to text messages and other sources of contact. This article pretty much sums up everything nicely. I don’t often use facebook because of several of the problem reasons listed. I have always been one for direct contact, even a phone call is better than dueling it out over textified madness. Why is it that people have taken to these methods of communication? Sure there are plenty of benefits, but I feel the cons outweigh the pros. Opinions? How about the article? Check it out at Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204660604574370450465849142.html

Today marked the first cool day we had in Japan for the entire summer. It’s pretty much been shake and bake since May or June. This might be the first night without AC, finally. I took a long walk around my area and realized at how much sky you could actually see at night. It’s kind of relaxing to have what I had back in Lincoln. The stars are always there for you. To help give you an idea of the expansive lightless fields that I call home, here you go:

The picture really doesn’t do this area justice, but it’s the best I have at the moment. More to come soon on my recent summer travels. As for mattdinofrio.com, it’s still up and coming. Yes I know it isn’t up yet.

So I find that my region is quite disconnected from the rest of Japan. We don’t have a shinkansen so it’s not like we are really close to anything. The closest city is Matsue, and even they have no shinkansen. The closest city that is connected to the rest of Japan is that of Hiroshima which is three hours and a $40 dollar one-way bus ticket away. Regardless of that fact, Shimane is also one of the most famous regions in Japan. In August, during the time of all the festivals, there is a time when the ‘gods’ are absent from all other prefectures and are said to go to Shimane. They also have,… I believe, the second oldest wooden structure in Japan: Izumo Taisha. There’s a lot to check out. Here’s a sample:

So I guess someone found my blog. Usually I find no comment to go through. In stead of the usually 1 or 2 spam, I found 16! Thanks for taking the time to read. I will put up some photos of where I live. Most of the photos up now are places in and around Izumo which is where I live. The little map shows where Izumo is found. Thanks for reading.

I saw something about Japan, clicked, and it turned out to be a video someone from Tokyo created. It’s pretty cool, check it out.

WK Tokyo Labs

After some thought and plenty of time to ponder on it, I finally came to a realization. I always got caught up hanging out with my friends and having great times, but there always seemed to come a point and time when those times ceased. Well, of course, we all have had it happen at some point. It’s just the way of things it seems. I had it in my head that I was to blame, but reality is we are all slowly changing into something different from before. We find new people to interact with and the old is moved to make room for the new. This isn’t a bad thing, just the way things work. I hope that everyone reads these posts, but I know it only goes to a certain level. Everyone uses their facebook, text messaging, or whatever other preferred method to keep in touch. All in all, I wish everyone good luck and I will continue to update this as regularly as possible.

 Side note: Now there were people asking for pictures and making comments about mattdinofrio.com. Of course it is not up yet, but the design is in progress and it should be up fairly soon. For now I will post the occasional picture here.

Every morning I wake up, eat breakfast, and start my walk to the train station. It’s great getting to hear the utter silence in the morning. No cars, an occasional bird, and the sun beaming down since 5:30. As I walk past shrines and temples, I get waves of cherry blossom incenses wafting in the air. It’s fantastic. Even though everything here is time related and following the schedule is of the utmost importance, I managed to find a casualness to Japan. My area isn’t exactly country, although I won’t speak for the next town over, but it’s interesting seeing the cohesion of new and old. A bell being rung by the old couple praying at a shrine and the incenses accent the large new roads formed for the guy with Jag that will be hitting the streets in an hour. Somehow it works.

I’ve always been interested in what the world market uses in comparison to the US. As for the car market, the US has the most diverse by far with cars varying from domestic and foreign. However, I find that in most other countries, the home maker has the advantage. The same case is found here in Japan. There are very few American makes here,… very very few. I see a Chevy or two rolling around and maybe an old Dodge once in a great while, even a Chrysler or two, but most of the others are domestic brands. The big surprises are that of the European makes. I found Opel and Peugeot to be very popular amongst others (VW, Mercedes, and BMW) in the foreign brands. Another seemingly sought after “foreign” brand is Lexus.

Cars here aren’t as small as everyone thinks they are. Brands like Peugeot and Opel specialize in these small cars, but others such as Chevy, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes do not. Even the domestic makers seem to have shifted their attention away from small cars and are making these large beasts. I guess it all depends on the brand… I find domestic Japanese brands that are successful in markets abroad have shied away from small car production. On the other hand, companies like Daihatsu, not so popular in the US, focus their attention on a small cheap car for the masses, (literally a box on wheels smaller than any Scion you can think of).

I know this may not be interesting to most of you, but given what I studied I like to observe these kinds of things. I think the car market is by far the best to observe because there is so much diversity to it. So many countries strive to get into the mix and the two newest competitors are that of China and India! How many of you realize that India aims to sell cars in the US? If I’m not mistaken they already started this past year with Tata Motors.