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.

So I have recently learned something after self-reflection. I always realized that the way I see things isn’t always how others will see them. Of course, makes sense, right? Well,… I think that most of us take this for granted. When we look at photos for instance, the artist saw something that we wouldn’t normally see. I may see a wall, but the photographer managed to take the picture at such an angle that it’s no longer a wall but something else! They introduce you to new things, open your mind to a world that you normally don’t get to experience. After taking photos myself for over a year, it’s finally dawned on me. I would always strive to be creative, but it’s not something you can force, rather you need to open your mind to it. I have some new photos that I like very much and enjoyed every minute taking them (even though they probably only took one minute in total). I may sound crazy, but see for yourself: