Vegan Japan

june 2008

sunday june 29

Delicious Vegan Okinawa

Saterday i arrived at Okinawa. Its very sunny and warm weather, i love it ! >_<
I came to Oki with a list of 3 vegatarian restaurants, but Okinawa vegans have told me several other Vegan restaurants, and the list is now 6 vegan and 1 vegetarian restaurants in Okinawa.

yesterday and today i visited and eat at 4 restaurants. I am so very surprised, the restaurants are excellent and so delicious.

Bio Smile

Today's restaurant is absolutely one of my favourite restaurants. The owner Junko san and some of the staff have studied two years Vegan Macrobiotic Cooking in Tokyo, and then opened this restaurant in Okinawa.

Those 5 ladies are the Cooking Princesses who cook delicious vegan meal for the customers
They are all 100% Vegan. I never have seen 5 Vegan women together, so this is special moment for me. (^_^)

Peaceful interior for relaxing and enjoying meal.

I had Sushi Roll (Nori Maki), it comes with various side dishes. One dish is a typical Okinawa vegetable; Goya. It has a bit bitter and delicious taste.
All dishes are delicious and the whole meal is a mix of well balanced tastes.
If you are in Okinawa, i promise this is wortwhile restaurant to visit.

Bio Smile
11.00-15.00
closed : fri,sa
bus 120, 28

friday june 27

I am a Caketarian !

I enjoyed my last day in osaka with a Vegan Cake Dinner !

Blackberry Wrap Cake as starter, Crumble Cake as Main Course, and Lemon Mousse as a Dessert. (^_^)

Maman Terrace

thursday june 26

Life on the Road

Coming from osaka to Nara just to find the doors closed . >_<
They are having holiday ...for a month. ? >_<
what about the customers ?

wednessday june 25

today, Osaka and Kyoto : 3 restaurants.

Evening, nice relaxing time at the riverside in Kyoto, listening to the frogs and watching a turtle swim.
Going home, enjoyable train ride. :-)

tuesday june 24

Osaka

After a 4 hour shinkansen ride i arrive at Shin-Osaka station, and check in my hotel.
I am glad that i can visit my favourite restaurant in Osaka again! In the center of Osaka is the stylish macrobiotic Maman Terrace. Fresh, good ingredients, French Style cooking, and all prepared with lots of care and served by friendly staff.

Next table a group of three non japanese speaking foreigners. Obviously they are vegetarians and by their way of dubbel-checking with the waitress about the ingredients, i guess that they had non-veggie dietary surprises and difficulties in other restaurants.
As a vegan i helped them and told them that all veggie dishes are really strict vegetarian.

Maman Terrace always has a great variety of delicious vegan cakes.
"Cakes" is one of those things that Non-Vegans (like my mum) just can't imagine that it can be anything as delicious or even eatable without using cow milk or eggs or butter.
Well, Non-Milk and Non-Egg and Non-Butter cake can be very Delicious, and the cakes at Maman Terrace are the living proof.

In Maman Terrace they serve Soy Grain Coffee Cappuchino.

Kobe

Next is Kobe ! i am going to check out the new "H-Cafe", previously this was the Vegan restaurant Veggie Smile, page 68 of the Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide.
The new place looks cool with a a friendly new owner who is an artist and draws me a Name Card.

Unfortunately, the new menu offers besides vegan dishes, also meat dishes, fish dishes and egg dishes.

New Restaurant in Tokyo

This month a new vegetarian restaurant will be opened in Tokyo. And it will be a very very cool and recommended restaurant !
will be continued

monday june 23

Ohisamaya Sendai

Just a ten minute walk from the station is the small and cozy vegetarian Ohisamaya. Watch out with the cookies, they can contain butter or honey.
I had a nice talk with the owner. She did write a Macrobiotic cookingbook and she gave me one as present.

Osaka.

Tomorow i will be off to Osaka ! >_<

saterday june 21

Frederick Pantry Sendai

This shop has no name sign outside, very funny. They serve Vegan food and the rice is one of the most delicious i ate. it's with raisins and little pieces of nuts. Besides being a little vegan restaurant, they sell interior decoration, various foods and herbs, and there is herbal counseling and herbal school.

look! the shop has no sign or whatever.

Frederick Pantry has a two week chanching menu.

thursday june 19

Today i did meet with a Sendai Vegan. It was very interesting to hear about a vegan living in Sendai. She became a Vegan some three years ago because of Animal Cruelty, and because meat production is an inefficient way of producing food and adds up to world hunger.
I was impressed to see her non-leather handbag and non leather lady shoes, because it takes a lot of effort to find them.

tuesday june 17

the Vegan Marathon continues and today i visited...i forgot how many vegan restaurants ! >_<

First time that i visited the vegetarian cafe Melissa, they opened last year. Again, its clear that some japanese people, even if they are vegetarian or vegan, actually dont know exactly about Vegan Ingredients.
"all home made cookies are vegan" but closer inspection (reading the label) clearly identifies "honey" as one ingredient. And "honey" is defenitely not vegan. ;-)

Melissa has not only a vegetarian cafe but also yoga classes, and a shop with aroma therapy things.

lunch in Melissa is cooked with essence oils and water also has essence oils.

telephone conversations

(see poster friday june 13)

Today i was in Mitsukoshi Department store. A woman was calling on the telephone, she was in a corner and tried not to bother people. she was saying ".... ..." (i cannot hear)

Somewhere else in the department store, a guy was walking and talking loudly on the telephone : "YEAH, YEAH, YEEEAAAH, EXACTLY!! うん！！うん！！そうですね～～！！”
Unlike the woman, he didnt care at all about making lots of noise and bothering other people.

Look at him ! Swaggering through the Ladies Department with a Cellular Glued to his Ear !

Sendai~!

Tomorow i take the train to Sendai. I dont know if i have internet connection and if i can upload the webpage.
The 26th i will arive in Osaka and for sure have internet connection.

monday june 16

today 3 restaurants, but no 100% veggie restaurant !

Kamakula (^_^)

today i did go with the Yokosuka line to Kamakula. It's just one hour from Tokyo station.
Kamakula, famous for its temples, has very little oportunity for original shojin ryori cuisine, unlike that other city Kyoto thats also famous for temples and has plenty of excellent shojin ryori (temple food cuisine).
i wasnt able to go and eat there because all the two shojin ryori places need three day advance reservation. Whaaat?
All in all i visited three non-vegetarian restaurants, two of them are vegan friendly and will be mentioned in the next Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide.

After two restaurants i take a swim in the nearby sea. It was so nice that i forgot time and had to run to the next restaurant because it was almost closing time.

I did go to ShinShin because i did think it was vegetarian. I did ask "do you use Fish Stock ?" the kind staff said "noo! we dont use fish stock", only to tell several minutes later, "we use Beef stock, Chicken stock and Katsuo stock." :-P
But the staff was very nice and made a special vegan menu for me. We also had a nice talk.
Anyway, thats my job as Vegan Pocketguide writer, to check very very well if any kitchen uses any animal ingredient.

sunday june 15

today 3 restaurants. tomorow Kamakura.

saterday june 14

today 3 restaurants !

I started with breakfast in Veggie Paradise. I was so very surprised because all Pocketguides were sold out! I did briefly meet with my two ex-classmates from the Living Food Course.

In the afternoon i did have a vegan meal in the vegetarian Mone. This cafe opened 5 years ago as a usual cafe. And 2 years ago the owner and the cafe became Vegetarian. (^_^)

This place is in Koenji, with the Chuo line. It is open until 12 o'clock at night !

the rice is with pieces of Walnut, very delicious

the interior of Mone. The person in the photo is famous Model, but i forgot his name. (^_^)
This cafe always has small art/photo exhibition, that changes every two weeks.

she is the owner of Mone.

Finally at night i go eat two cakes and two grain coffee at Vegan Healing Cafe in Shibuya.
oooooh, what a surprise, my friend Tara from the populair band Sipa Baled Clone is there. And also my vegan friend Miki works there as staff ! >_<

wow, Vegan Healing Cafe is really a place to meet with other Vegans !

friday june 13

Vegan Restaurant Marathon !

Yesterday i did eat in 4 restaurants. Today in three vegan restaurants ; J's Kitchen, Cafe 8, and Vegan Peace Hearts Cafe.

Latest Subway Poster Campaign

"Please do it at home" is a nice request, while the original sentence "家でやろう” is far from friendly but more a rude command ; "hey, do that in your own house!"

People making loud calls is indeed a nuisance. But usually the annoying ones are men having a boring and loud business conversation with their clients on their cellular telephones.
Much more troublesome in the subways are the sexual harasments like touching female ass by men in crowded subways. It's disgusting and i feel sorry if it happens. >_<
I would like to see a poster campaign about that ; "please do it at home to your own wife or your MOTHER!"

anyway, its a funny and nice poster and i wonder what the cute girl is talking about. it must be very interesting. (^_^)

"a Foreigner is Taking Photo's"

When i take photo's for the next Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide, sometimes people STARE at me.

　　　　　　　 Sign at the Bodyshop

How about you, do you buy Cosmetics that are not Animal Tested?

Vegan Peace Hearts Cafe in Ogikubo

Ueno san (left) is regular customer of VPHC and one of customers (buyers) of Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide. Ueno san is not strict vegetarian but interested in vegetarian and vegan food. Especially for people like Ueno san who are not strict vegan but are interested in vegetarian food, i write the Pocketguide and hope they will visit good vegan restaurants and have a nice time and good food.
Another customer in VPHC did come to me and said "you are herwin from the vegan website !!" YES !!! thats me!!! (^_^)

thursday june 12

Yesterday i arrived in Tokyo ! >_<

Today was my first day cruising around , i visited all three macrobiotic restaurants from "Maman" ; Maman Terrace in Aoyama, Little Maman in Shinjuku and the Little Maman in Shinagawa station.
The Noodels in Maman Terrace were deliriously delicious.

sleepy....

thursday june 5

fish !

there is a reasonable change that if a japanese person says he/she is vegetarian, maybe the person eats fish.
the wrong name for such a diet is Pesco-Vegetarian, because vegetarianism is all about NOT eating dead animals, and maybe this is a surprise for some people but Fish are not vegetables. ;-)
If you think "pesco-vegetarian" is a correct name, than why not also "beef-vegetarians" ?
a lot of americans truly could say " i never eat fish so i am beef-vegetarian ! " :-P
the correct word would be, of course, Pescetarian, which correctly describes the diet of a fish eating person without unnecesary linking it to vegetarianism.

Fish are living beings, inteligent, sensitive and living in very complex social communities. (^_^)
Of course, this is hard to see if we see a dead fish on our plate, than a fish looks rather...well, not very inteligent. :-(

The latest decades there is a ecological disaster happening. The seas are completely destroyed by overfishing. Fish are becoming endangered. And also many other sea animals like seabirds, and seaturtles are killed unnecesary.

Some people care about those problems and specifically because of fish become Vegan.

Supermodel Petra Nemcova (yup, that's her on the Sports Illustrated cover !!) is such a warm hearted smart woman who became Vegan after reading about the problems with fish. Hubba Hubba.

Petra Nemcova becomes Vegan because of Fish

Vegetarian Taiwan !

In Taiwan many people are strict vegetarian because of religieus (buddist) beliefs.
In japan also there is a vegetarian Taiwanese community, with several vegetarian Taiwan restaurants, in Tokyo, and Nagoya and Hiroshima.

Here is a nice blog with information of Vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan.

Australia !

Cool review from the Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide on an australian vegan website .
the end of this year this company will publish a vegetarian pocketguide for australia...

Das Reich !!

thats where i am going tomorow for a couple of days meeting with my friend !

Nippon !

and that's where i will be going next week !! >_<
4 weeks of travelling, from Sendai in the north (4 veggie restaurants) to tropical Okinawa (3 veggie restaurants) all the way to the south.

Please visit the JapanVegan blog and read about my Vegan Adventures.
Next update will be end of next week.

sunday june 1

not much vegan news, just a little Pigeon Story...

bye bye !!

After two weeks of staying in my kitchen, the baby pigeon has become an adult pigeon.
It was time to open the door and give freedom to the bird. I opened the door and he slowly walked to the balcony and there are already other pigeons waiting. He starts wapping and wopping his wings, as if trying to fly.
After a while, the other pigeons fly away and my pigeon doesn't hesitate and fly with them.
Bye bye !! >_<

hello~~!!

when it becomes evening i hear a sound in the kitchen.
O~~h! it's the pigeon ! he came back into the kitchen and is now taking a rest. (^_^)