A business trip in Tokyo

 a business trip, I'd call it (if one would read only this post) an "exploration of Japanese food in Tokyo". Not that I hadn't already experienced that, since we had been visiting Japan during our honeymoon, but let's say that refreshing the tastebuds on the matter was a pleasant experience (sadly, at one occasion we ended up in an italian restaurant...! no words on that!!!).

I just know the name of two of the restaurants we have been around, for the rest, we moved randomly just picking what inspired me and my colleagues.

Obviously, our aim was at eating (and I was hungry - so I ended up eating a lot!)

Our first lunch was on the road to the office building. The place was very local, no english menu. I ordered a tonkatsu but my nose was bleeding (amazing timing - I was almost dying!) and I ended up filling my nose with tons of paper and not feeling any taste of the food I was longing to eat so much!

Tonkatsu

After not sleeping on the plane and half a day of work, I was tired. But that didn't help the jetlag. Lying sleepless at night became the norm.

The view from the hotel room (with a nice reflection)

The first evening we ended up eating sushi of course, topping it with some dessert at "Dean & De Luca" (no comment. Finding a place where to get some dessert was the hardest thing in the world).

The sushi, alright but nothing comparable to what we ate the last night!

My cake with hazelnut and green tea and an exhausted Robert (don't remember what he ate)

 During breakfast there was the possibility to choose some Japanese stuff, but how to eat everything was very mysterious. I ended up trying a little bit of everything in a very random and unorthodox way

Breakfast

 One evening, still around Shinagawa (where our hotel was), we ended up eating yakiniku (grilled meat) which was amazing. I could have been eating though a couple of portions more...

Grilling some ribs

Yakiniku

In this yakiniku place they were eventually selling some dessert and we decided to try.

No idea what this is

Ice cream with green tea and azuki

Everytime we were walking in Shinagawa I remember feeling the amazing smell of roasted meat. That is why we ended up impulsively there.

Shinagawa station

Shinagawa

I "imposed" a couple of things to my colleagues.

First, okonomiyaki, which they had never tried before (now we have big plans to open an okonomiyaki restaurant in Malmö).

Okonimiyaki Kiji, in Shinagawa

Okonomiyaki

Keeping our okonomiyaki warm

The place was quite popular and we had to wait half an hour before getting a seat. The day before it was about the same situation and we ended up resigning the plan. 

We topped the okonomiyaki with some tasty cake nearby the hotel. Nothing very japanese!

My cherry pie

Green tea and azuki pie

Double chocolate pie

We even took some time off for lunch for going and buying some knives in Kappabashi. That took much more time than we thought it would and we (I!) made a mess with the trains on the way back. 

Kappabashi 

We of course had lunch on the way back, stopping at Asakusa. We probably messed up the order somehow because we got just singular dishes instead of the meal with rice and pickles. So, some of us went out very hungry having had just some sashimi...

My fish (was it grilled mackarel?)

Aubergines and Gyoza

The other thing that I forced down my colleagues (and has been my obsession since forever) is taiyaki. They didn't dare to get the ones with azuki jam, but of course, I went classic and wasn't very much disappointed.

The taiyaki place in Shinagawa

Very happy!

For lunch, we managed to eat in the strangest places. One was a very tiny place, where the daughter of the lady cooking food was speaking a fantastic english. We didn't know what we were ordering, but at the end we got served something that was possibly fried chicken?

The mysterious chicken dish

The last day, I was busy thinking of what to buy for the dear ones home and I stumbled upon some things that I was very very very tempted to buy... 

Lady Oscar make up!!!!!

Sailor Moon make up

Finally, the last evening we decided to go to Shibuya. One of our Japanese colleagues joined us after our exploration of the Tokyu Hands store in Shibuya.

Shibuya. Hachiko is on the left

Thankfully we had our colleague. Otherwise it would have been taking us forever to find where the sushi place that we were aiming at was. It was almost impossible to find it!

The sushi we ate there was from another world and I got so full I was rolling out of there...

My sushi

Sushi

Almost pure tuna sushi

Sushi

Sushi

Sushi

Sushi with mackarel

The only problem with this trip is that I gained a couple of kilos. Strange, since we were walking for half an hour to the office every day.... :-)

Kids beauty products

No, I am not paid to promote certain products over others, but this one I like a lot and hence, I will highlight it here.
I have tried to find some good products for kids, that are mercyfull to their skin, easy to apply (depending if it is a lotion or what) and good for the environment.
When I find something that doesn't contain too many bad chemicals and it is promising for all the other characteristics I am looking for, I usually do not mind the price.

For the kids (and lately also for us, the "adults"), I usually buy Weleda , but I am also very pleased with this below.

Body & Hair wash and Body Lotion

Sophie La Giraffe which is better known for the popular toy (which was also symbol for the babies-mothers group I was belonging with Isabella) is proposing a line of organic certified skin products for kids.
They have a nice smell and they are in general good products (for example, the hair & body wash is very very mild and my kids' skin can tolerate it easily) and they are also gentle to the environment.
We did try also the bubble bath and compared to others that we bought (still organic certified and so on), it was much fluffier and long lasting (and milder) than others.

So, go and buy it, especially if you belong to the "Apriline" group (I can dispatch it from Sweden ;-))