Happy New Year EVERYONE!

Nishi Arai Daichi
If you haven’t read my year in review post yesterday, please read it before coming here. I just wanted to tell you about all of my plans for this year and how things are shaping up.

2015 Hatsumode
This blog will continue to operate and I have enough posts that I am not worried about it. I should be able to have enough posts to last until next year, so you will still be seeing a lot about Onomichi and Ehime. I will also start posting about Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver from my trip there last summer.

Onomichi Station
Personally, I have a big announcement. Last year I started up my own company. I have a lot of ambitions to do things in Japan so I started a Kabushiki Kaisha (incorporated company in Japan). I had a lot of headaches and a lot of stress after I opened it up and while I had been keeping really quiet about it here, I feel confident that things are moving forward.

Daruma at Nishiarai Daiji
Coming later this year, I plan to make my biggest gamble ever; I will open a bar in Tokyo! I am both excited and scared beyond belief. I do plan to blog about it in the future but until things are open I don’t want to give away too much. I have told a lot of my close friends and a lot of people who I have met that I will open a bar but I haven’t gone public here.

Raku Beer
The new bar will be in eastern Tokyo and I really hope you will all come. I will be there to get it off the ground but I will leave it to the future employees who will do the day to day operations. I am also looking forward to selling a few of the other wares that we are producing.

Minoh Stout
If you don’t know about it, I produced a T-shirt with a friend of mine. My friend created “Hanamizu Taro” after her husband and she was gracious enough to license the image to us so we could make shirts. You may have seen me wearing it from time to time and you can buy it too! Right now we are only selling it in Japan as we can’t afford overseas shipping. If you do want to buy one, and you are in Tokyo, leave me a message and I’ll meet up with you. If you are outside Japan, I can always mail it but I will have to ask for bank transfers.

2015 Craft Beer Festival in Matsumoto
We will also be producing other T-shirts, glasses, wallets, or whatever we can image in the future so keep an eye on this too. We hope to have an online shop in the future but with the bar coming soon, that won’t be a priority. We don’t have time to get it running smoothly and it wouldn’t be fair to others.

No Beer, No Life! (T-shirt)
So that is my plan for 2016. I hope that my bar will be running smoothly so that I can go to the Setouchi Triennale for the autumn session but so far that looks like a long shot. For now, keep an eye here and to my other forms of social media to see how things are going!
Wow! Sounds like you have some big plans. I wish you the best and look forward to seeing all of the big happenings on the Blog. As someone who just can’t get to Japan at this point in my life, it’s been a lot of fun reading your blog as a sort of virtual visit for now. Should I ever make it over there someday, I hope to grab a drink at your bar. Best wishes, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Hi Paul,
Yup, big things happening. As I said before, hope you can come to Japan someday. I know it isn’t easy but never give up on your dreams. I know I’m not.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too!
Happy New Year Dru!! I’m a follower of your blog and allow me to comment here for the first time. 2016 must be big for you! I’m excited to visit your bar in Tokyo. I’ll continue visiting your blog to know if it’s already open 😉
That T-shirt looks perfect for my husband! I wonder if it’s in Japanese size? He’s size XL in US and if you have in US size, I’d be happy to purchase one 😉
Cheers,
Ada
Happy New Year Ada! Thank you for the comment. Always happy to hear from people who follow the blog.
Of course, I hope to see you and everyone else who follows this blog at the bar when we do open. It’s going to be tough but I hope it goes smoothly.
As for the shirts, right now it is Japanese sizes. I can special order an XXL in the future for him. When the bar is open, come on by and we can talk about it. I probably won’t do another order till the end of the year, but who knows.
Happy New Year again, and I like your blog too. I’ll need a bit of time to take a longer look at it. 🙂