Oh August, you used to be a month filled with creativity and excitement. A month which I looked forward to almost to the exclusion of all others.

.. and now you are just a month that brings ridiculous heat and humidity, one which I can barely step outside without exploding into sweat.. and one which I dislike above all others.. what happened to you? Where did it all go wrong?

We just found out that our subsidy application was successful which means our loans will be approved and we can start building our brewery!

I am so exhausted this morning that I can barely keep my eyes open but this is fantastic news. The dream is still on track!

Probably for the first time since I moved to Japan, I actually sat down yesterday afternoon and played Rimworld.

It has long been my favourite game but I so rarely have the time and energy simultaneously to play anything nowadays and when I do have been exploring other games.

However, yesterday I unexpectedly had a few hours to myself and seemed to have overcome my cold so logged some play time.

I love this game and the Odyssey expansion has just made it even better. I hope I can squeeze in more time to help my bunch of ragtags grow to be strong enough to bring down the empire.

After stressing all week, I discovered this evening that the department responsible for the subsidy we applied for posted their list of grantees.. for this month.

We are not on it.. in fact strangely there are only 2 and they are both in the same city.. this is a nationwide grant and the previous two months had around 20 successful applicants each from various places around Japan..

Something is not right here.. we noticed though that on our feedback we were assigned to group B. So potentially this is the results for group A and ours will come in a week or two (they posted twice in May so not impossible).

Either way, we haven’t heard yet and presumably we would before it was made public so I am trying not to stress even more than I already was..

Since this morning every time I wonder whether today will be the day, I get the dulcet tones of Davy Carton from The Saw Doctors singing “It won’t be tonight, no it won’t be tonight..” in my head.

Ooh, I just discovered a farm growing vanilla beans in our prefecture!

I wonder if anyone is growing oats in our prefecture..

I have plans for a cranachan inspired golden ale and if all of the secondary ingredients are locally available,even if only seasonally, I will be delighted!

In theory, we should find out our fate re: subsidy application decision which could set the wheels in motion for our brewery plans.

.. I wasn’t able to sleep until the past few nights so I hope we find out EARLY this week..

We started a very important task this afternoon, contacting various pubs and craft beer shops to enlist their help as (non-commital) signatories to our brewing license application.

In Japan in order to obtain a license you need to have confirmed buyers in advance..

So far mainly positive responses, and we’re plenty of backups for those who can’t help for whatever reason.

A little nerve-wracking but necessary task.

Yesterday was exhausting, a whole day of filming in the heat. In the afternoon then kids joined us and in the evening we had a big family gathering, all filmed.

Today is a break from filming but a busy day, hopefully mainly in an air conditioned room but lots to do.

Tomorrow is another day of filming but mainly indoors so hopefully more manageable.

Busy times!

Also we should hear about our subsidy application next week..

OK, my outdoor interview recording is done! In half the scheduled time which is just as well as I was melting and struggling with the sun.

The remainder of today’s recordings either don’t involve me or are mainly indoors.

So glad we decided to do my bit in English, would have been a lot more than 3 takes otherwise.