Murakami Ryu is one of my favourite writers so what a pleasure to be able to meet him when I appeared on Cambria Kyuden which aired on Tokyo TV this week. The co-presenter is so gorgeous she makes me feel like a “blob”!

We opened a shop 10 years ago because I was fed up and embarrassed opening the front door to customers in my pjs and scrambling around for change – people wanted to buy stuff at my home and office – so we decided to open a shop.

Organic cotton symposium in Tokyo last week
People Tree, Avanti and Patagonia are the pioneers for organic cotton here in Japan. All of us have been working in organic cotton for over 12 years and have developed some of the best fabrics and clothes in the international market. This week we celebrated organic fortnight in the UK – so we decided to celebrate in Japan too!

It’s great going back to Japan where People Tree started and being with the team here. This week was extra special because I got to hang out with my favourite organic cotton farmer, Hasmuk Patel from Agrocel in India and my husband James who lives in Tokyo.

With all the celebrations for World Fair Trade Day, I haven’t been able to come up for a breather for the last two weeks. In the midst of all this the New Statesman and Edge Upstarts awarded me the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2006.

Today we cracked open the champagne at 10 in the morning, to celebrate the anniversary of our first shop in Tokyo, together with People Tree’s regular customers. It’s a shame you couldn’t have been with us.

This week has been really busy, putting the pieces together for World Fair Trade Day, before I leave for Bangladesh and India. It’s 2a.m. And I’m still not packed!