Vegan Japan

july 2007

2007        july 1

sunday

Today finally the Vegan Japan website is launched on the internet. It is going to be an up-to-date website with vegan events and vegan news, weather it is Big News or news on a personal vegan level.

Had a vegan party? Send some photo's and share it with us! it is Fun! Anything else "vegan" you want to share? let me know and i put it on the website! :-P

2007      july 2 - july 8

monday　　

Today i got email from "Mikko" from Kanagawa. She is vegan and new volunteer for the Vegan pocketguide. Because she is a new volunteer i did put her photo with the rest of the volunteers on the webpage. (i removed her photo) But, o my, she is so shy! "please change my name in "Mikko" and "please hide my eyes!". Finally she wrote "can you put the photo of my dog instead? She (my dog) wants to become famous!"

"Mikko" even sends photo from Moki ! O my G....D, what a cu--te dog, and so sweet with flowers in her hair and a "I Love PETA shirt"! :-P

          vegan dog

wednesday

"How to write VEGAN in japanese"

As you probably know, "Vegan" is written in Katakana, and there are various ways of writing it. Both ヴィーガン　and ビーガン are equally used by japanese people, and are also both correct. Just check with Yahoo or Google to see the equal massive amount of webpages both ways of writing generate.
As you can see on the webpage and on the cover of the Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide, i use the ビーガン variant of the word Vegan.

Since yesterday the new volunteer bugs the shit out of me. In detailed emails she strongly "advices" me to use the other way of writing Vegan.

"i advice you to use more correct japanese"
o thank you so much for your advice!

"japan has a lot of people who can't use correct japanese"
so you mean all those japanese people who use ビーガン instead of ヴィーガン are all completly wrong?

i write her back and in a friendly way i explain why i did choose for this way of writing vegan, and not the other way.
oooooooh my, she becomes angry because i don't follow her advice.

"you totally don't understand what i say at all!"

thursday

Got e-mail from mister Ohashi from the Chu Chu Cafe in Kyoto. Due to bad health unfortunately the place will be closed. So unfortunate! This was one of my favorite vegan friendly places in Kyoto, cool unique place to relax, and have a tasty vegan meal prepared by friendly Ohashi and his partner.
I wish Ohashi much luck and hope he will open again some cool place in the future!

2007 july 9 - july 15

monday

today got email from "Ellen and Jim". This Vegan couple is touring all over Japan, with the Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide in their hands. They gave me new restaurant information about a veggie restaurant in Hiroshima. And in Kyoto they enjoyed Cafe Peace, and did find Chu Chu and La Siesta closed, and couldn find the MikoAn, even with the help of the local police! Anyone who ever did visit MikoAn knows this isnt a big surprise.
In Tokyo they visited many of the Vegan Pocketguide restaurants, and they recommend the vegan friendly Ginza branch of Gaya, as opposed to the hardly vegan Shinjuku branch. I certainly will check it myself next time.
thanks to Ellen and Jim for their Update!

Tuesday

Meet the new volunteer! Mariko from Chiba is going to be a great help with the "Happy People Vegan People" Pocketguide! She and her husband are both dedicated vegetarians.



wednesday

I got mail!! nooooo, not email, i mean real paper mail! From Japan i finally received a copy of Kansai Scene, a free, very populair english magazine in the Kansai area.
Before the interview took place, the people of Kansai Scene promised to send me a copy. After the magazine was published, i asked them to send a copy to amsterdam, they were shocked :
"it is too expensive to send it all the way to amsterdam!!" "it must at least cost 1000 yen!!"
(actually it just costs 480 yen to send it to Holland!)
oooh, what a cheapskates! That company must be very poor, to make such a fuzz for a louzy 480 yen...
Anyway, it took some trouble, but somebody else was so friendly to send me a copy. thank you!
the Interview

tuesday

Last week the glossy magazine HANAKO # 902 had much attention for Veganism. This issue featured various vegan restaurants such as Vegan Healing Cafe, Brown Rice Cafe, and der Akkord. A full page featering Vegan Hollywood celebrities like Pamela Anderson and Toby Mcguire (Spiderman!). (photo under)
Besides, the Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide was recommended.
It is very positive to see Veganism in such a stylish magazine, and in such a positive way.


                      full review and more photo's


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2007 july 16 - july 22

monday

Last week i got various emails from people offering to do some volunteerwork. Thats great because there's lots to do.
One volunteer from the States unfortunately strongly dissagreed with text from this website i asked her to translate. "bye bye!!"
Wew, why did she ever wanted to volunteer, i ask myself...

Luckely others were more helpful.

Kanae is from Kanagawa prefecture. She is helping with the second edition of the Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide. She is vegetarian since 7 years and since two years a strict vegan. She is a great help.

wednesday

Recently i did get various interesting emails from Noriko. She tells me that she became vegan out of compassion for animals. Also she talks about the negative energy that eating meat causes to the human body, and the world in general.

" I am really interesting to subtle energy.
It makes phisical body, human relation, money, love, everything.
It is important what kind of energy we take from food and environment.

So that's why I decided to eat no animals.
Animal meat contains much fear, sadness and every negative energy. "

We are now slowly realising that the hormones and other bodily chemicals that are released under the influence of emotions such as Fear and constant Stress, can be considered as harmful as any other chemicals in our food.

saterday

Noriko from Kyoto did send me information about a new Vegan Restaurant in Kyoto.
This is one of the many new vegan restaurants that will be in next years edition of the Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide.

look at the marvellous website, and please visit if you are in the neighborhood.

Organic Vegetarian & Vegan restaurant SUNNY PLACE

sunday

Yesterday a new president was chosen in India. Not only is she the first female president of India, she is also vegetarian.

The vegetarian president of India : miss Pratibha Patil

Another vegan president is Dr. Janez Drnovsek from Slovania. interview

2007 july 23 - july 29

tuesday

Yesterday was "Yoshi Veggie Talk & Dinner" at Cafe Kotokano, Tokyo.
Here is a small report of the event by Rieko Fujioka

Ms.YoshiVeggie’s Dinner&Talk Show with recipes took place at Cafe Kokotano on July 23rd. About 20 people attended.

Ms.Yoshi Veggie studies vegetarianism ＆ macrobiotics. She carries out a wide variety of events.

Menus are brown rice, summer vegetable soup, sauteed eggplant and veggie meat in miso, tomato and cucumber salad with mulukhiya sauce, watermelon and rice-flour dumpling dessert (flavor of coconut).

Her lecture on vegetarianism ＆ macrobiotics was full of intelligence and kindness to all living creatures. Her lecture makes me feel mild and peaceful. Her explanation about her recipes is easy to understand. I think that it enables beginners of vegetarian & macrobiotics dishes to try to cook them.

Her “colorful sumptuous dishes” recasts public image of vegetarian meal, plain and abstemious meal. Both my mind and body were satisfied with the dishes.

wednesday

This year in februari i did buy in Kinokuniya bookshop a shojin ryori cooking book by Mari Fujii. this book, written in english language, is such a wonderful book. As you know, like true shojin ryori it is completely vegan, and the recipes are delicious, healthy, made with easy-to-get ingredients, and clearly explained by the author.

Today i find a webpage with books written by the same author and her husband. Please take a look and if you have a change buy one.
The author and her husband have a shojin ryori restaurant in kamakura.

shojin ryori books (one is in english, rest in japanese...)

thursday

i was very surprised when i did hear that the new employee of Alishan Cafe his name is Martin. Why was i surprised? well, i know about 4 foreign male vegetarians in Japan and 3 of them are called Martin! Is it coincidence or....
Maybe if you have a child and want him to be vegetarian you should name him Martin! :-P

Martin's Blog