Went to Tokorozawa for a short visit to Coco the dog. We went there already on Friday night. On Saturday I took Coco the dog for a walk, which he enjoyed very much… I think.
This time of the year you find semi (cicadas) everywhere in Japan. And Tokorozawa is no exception. Although they are quite small their sound is quite loud.
Coco the dog and I also found out that in Japan eggs are grown on plants rather than coming from hens 😉
Yesterday we got up early. Checked out from the hotel. Walked 200 meters (or so) to the Arlanda Express platforms where we bought tickets and boarded the train bound for the airport.
After 3 hours transit at Schiphol where we did some last minute tax free shopping and a sleepless flight we arrived in Tokyo today. We got on the airport shuttle bus to Shinagawa area and got off at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. From where we took a taxi back home, arriving around noon.
I was exhausted and Chie had also not slept well on the flight so the first thing we did was to take a 1.5 hour nap. Then we were ready to unpack, do laundry and… Well, get used to being home again 🙂
By 6 pm we were starving and went to Tatsuharu, a Chinese restaurant a few hundred meters away. It was yummy!
Another long day of shopping and walking. We had lunch as a sushi restaurant in Hötorgshallen. Then we continued shopping again. We finally ended up buying another bag for me to carry all the things back to Tokyo 🙂
In the evening we made a quick visit to my old work place Eurostep. On our previous visit they had been conveniently located on Drottninggatan in the same building as Zara. But now they had moved to Alvik. Though this was not far away from the Piren Bar where we had a reservation at 6 pm. Eurostep’s new location though not convenient if you want to borrow the bathroom while shopping had a great view of the water. And a very nice and large balcony for the few warm summer days 🙂
At 6 pm we entered Piren Bar. They had mixed up my last name so we almost did not get a table (which was not easy to book in the first place). The whole thing with Piren Bar is their location. Along the water in Kristineberg. A great place to watch the sunset while having something to eat and drink. Though the eating and drinking is just so so (Helena, you really don’t need to go here for dinner – Mancini is almost the same price but lightyears better).
After dinner we hurried back to the hotel where we packed for our return to Tokyo the next day. By luck, once we had packed all our bags full, we found yet another shopping bag behind the curtain in our room. We squeezed the content into our bags, jumped on them and zipped them up 🙂 Good night!
Chie and I spent most of the day shopping. Robban (my brother) came down from Uppsala to have lunch at Vapiano.
After lunch Robban joined us for shopping. Though Chie did most of it while Robban and I talked 🙂 Later in the afternoon we were all tired and returned to our hotel for a drink. Chie had a beer while Robban had a mineral water and I a cup of tea. At 4 pm Robban had to get back to Uppsala to prepare for his 24 hours work shift the next day, starting at 8 am.
At 5:30 pm we met Jimmy and Emma in the hotel lobby. From there we walked to Mancini on Tunnelsgatan, about 50 meters from where Olof Palme was murdered in 1986.
The dinner was delicious :-P. The best during our vacation! We had two wonderful starters – parma ham and carpaccio. YUMMY!!!
Besides the dinner it was also fun to meet Jimmy and Emma again. They visited us during their honeymoon two years ago. When we were done eating we took a taxi back to our hotel as it had started to rain. We took some drinks at the hotel and talked some more before Emma’s father picked them up at 10:30 pm.
In the morning we packed the car and went first to Uppsala to drop Robban off, and then to Stockholm. In Stockholm we unloaded our bags that the Clarion Hotel Sign, returned the car to Hertz on Vasagatan and went shopping.
At 4 pm we returned to the hotel to prepare for dinner. We were meeting Pip & Gnäll at restaurant Kungsholmen… We thought. But Per-Ã…ke had made a reservation at Mäster Anders instead, and forgot to tell us. We met Robert Noack in the hotel lobby (he had forgotten his phone and SL card and was contacting us by email) and walked to restaurant Kungsholmen. There we had a beer and coke in their bar Orangeriet while waiting for Per-Ã…ke and Helena. Once they showed up we all walked to Mäster Anders where Magnus was waiting.
Once we were all together we had a wonderful time. Eating and talking about everything and nothing. And complaining about life in general (it was after all Pip & Gnäll ;-)). After dinner Magus and Robban had to go home, while Helena, Per-Åke, Chie and I went back to Orangeriet for a few drinks before we walked Helena back to her home (just around the corner from Orangeriet), and Per-Åke walked us back to our hotel.
It had been a long but very nice day 🙂