Japan. A guide to vegan places in Japan.

 

I am back from my recent trip to this oriental country - famous for delicious sushi and cherry blossom in Spring. We missed the blossom and gained the rainy season. LOL. The last two weeks have gone very fast, as we travelled from Tokyo to Mount Fuji then to Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nara and back to Tokyo. This trip was "a dream come true", it marked my big birthday and delivered unforgettable cultural and culinary experiences. In Japan, the past meets the future, food is beautifully presented and even deers "bowing" for Shika Senbei crackers. I packed our vitamins and paid for the Happy Cow App to help us find vegan friendly eateries. Bless my friend, Michelle, for giving us vegan chocolate bars, which helped us on the first day- jet-lagged arrival in Tokyo- manage the tiredness. Breakfasts were the only difficult meals as hotels would not cater for vegans. Lunch and dinners were not only fine and we have always eaten like kings. We also met other vegans en route who encouraged us to try other vegan friendly places.For breakfasts, we bought rice and seaweed triangles with a pack of Japanese pickled veggies (o-shinko), from the local Lawson Supermarket or Natural Lawson.

Starbucks was helpful in Japan, as I could get a delicious soy latte every morning. Unfortunately, this was was the only vegan item in this American franchise which came at a hefty price. We found that restaurants were very good at providing information about the ingredients in their dishes e.g. if fish stock (Dashi) was present in the Miso or not. We would eat soy soup with Soba (buckwheat) noodles and vegetable Tempura, rice and pickles, which really made for a delicious feast. 

We have always found at least one place with a vegan option or two. Tokyo has the 'Japan Vege Project' map of vegan and vegetarian friendly places, which I found helpful.The fully vegan places like Ain Soph Ripple and Ain Soph Journey, or T's TanTan were full of tourists like us - as well as locals. The first ones were more burger places with great desserts (tiramisu!), the second served the best Ramen ever! We came back for more as we really enjoyed it.Before our journeys on Shinkansen (bullet train) I tried to purchase vegan Bento boxes but I failed. They all looked very nice, but all contained egg, fish or a piece of meat. I have bought instead soy katsu sandwiches in T's TanTan.What really surprised me in Japan, was the amount of pork, dairy and bread in everything. Toast is "in fashion" nowadays, served with butter in a little cafe-style places. Even Okinawa island changed its diet with the influence of American industries. Since the American troops presence on the island, the locals incorporated pork into their daily food. The influence of Buddhist monks continues to allow some non-meat dishes.I was so grateful for the rice, bean and seaweed wraps, so good on-the-go from the local supermarkets.Fruit is usually sold in prepared pouches in chunks (pineapple and satsumas), Only in Osaka's gourmet supermarket did I see fresh fruit. I loved eating bananas for a snack or as part of my breakfast. I missed blueberries so much.Vegetables in Japan were truly delicious. We ate seasonal cabbage (stewed as a part of a meal), edamame, okra (in a Japanese curry, in Coco Ichibanya), cucumber (in a vegan sushi), spring onion (in Ramen), mizuna, spinach, daikon radish and aubergine - which melted in my mouth in my vegan curry. 

Vegan tempura was just 'out of this world', mushrooms, Shiso leaf (very pretty, is used to make Japanese style pesto), aubergine, sweetcorn and pumpkin slices were served with rice, Miso, Soba noodles and soy sauce on the side -I had gone to a culinary heaven. Our favorite meal was one made for us in 'Ninja Tempura Restaurant' in Kawaguchiko, near Mount Fuji.

On the'Philosopher's walk' in Kyoto, we had the best culinary experience in a ryokan, in a very traditional setting. We ate, while seating cross-legged on the mats and we watched our tofu being boiled on our table-top-cooker. 'Kisaki' is definitely a top place of our culinary memories. Kyoto is a Tofu capital. We ate in Kisaki restaurant - a vegan set: rice, miso, soy sauce, tempura and stewed vegetables with pickles on the side. Fresh ginger, spring onions and nori. Wasabi nicely tickled my senses. Tea was absolutely delicious, served from beautiful teapot into a pretty cups. Oh - how much I enjoyed it after long walk in a beautiful surroundings on a very hot day. I mentioned the walk, so I would like to share a sweet, heart-warming story. We have met a lovely man during our long walk in nature, who gave us three beautiful handmade bamboo boats decorated with tiny flowers. He asked us to drop these in the stream nearby like "Pooh Sticks". We had such a lovely encounter- one of many - with very beautiful and kind Japanese people.He also gave our daughter a four leaf clover packed in a sweet teddy bear bag. Moments like this don't happen every day in the West. This brought a happy tear to my eye.I found that sometimes, it is better also to have a look around the city and it is possible without help of the phone app to discover a new restaurant with a vegan option. It happened to me and my family in both, Japan and Geneva, lately. In Kyoto we had an amazing dinner by the bridge, in a place called Amagawama, which was beautifully presented. The meal was composed of home-made tofu, wheat gluten dish, Miso soup, vegetable, aubergine and mushroom Tempura. It feels more like being a traveller and not a tourist following instructions and not allowing any spontaneity into your life. My recommendations are the following:1. Natural Lawson Supermarket (few vegan snacks from New Zealand, dark chocolate).2. Lawson Supermarket/ 7-11 ( rice and seaweed sandwiches).3. T's TanTan ( Ueno Station branch in Tokyo has even panda ice-cream made with rice and soy milk). Ramen (white sesame, golden and black sesame ramen). Gyoza were wonderful. 4. Ain Soph Journey and Ain Soph Ripple for a delicious chocolate cake, Mexican wrap and great avocado burger. 5. Chipoon Burger and noodle (Harajaku based vegan friendly eatery), we enjoyed the tofu burger, ramen and plum and almond dessert. 6. Engine Ramen has on offer two vegan dishes, vegan zesty spicy ramen and bean ramen. The apron protected our clothes while we slurped our noodles. ;)7. Coco Ichibanya in Tokyo and Osaka offered fantastic vegan Japanese curry, with plenty of choices. My favorite was mushroom and okra. 8. AkushuCafe in Hiroshima had lovely salad with veggies and rice.9. Nara had many places with vegan options, like Udon and Soba noodles with vegetables by Todaiji Temple and Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Marukome by Todai-Ji Great Buddha Hall.10. Gonpachi, in Asasuki, in Tokyo, near a Asasuki Shrine, by Sumida River, we ate in a very trendy setting, interior was all copper, the walls were full of pictures of erotica with Geisha and Samurai. The staff explained that they had one veggie option and it was fabulous. Came with a great view!11. Kyushu Jangara Ramen, Akihabara Honten. Good vegan Ramen. There was a queue outside. :) I found personally that you can eat vegan in Japan and with a bit of planning you don't have to compromise on your principles. I truly loved the food in every place that I have travelled to. I am just getting hungry from looking at my photos from Japan and writing about my culinary experiences.The next step will be, to try to recreate all this beautiful dishes that I have consumed there. I have a fantastic book by Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner "Japanese Cooking Contemporary and Traditional", which promises simple , delicious and vegan recipes, which I shall use soon. She is very right, in Japan the old and new mixes very well! If you would like to see my pictures from my Japanese travel , please look them all up on my Instagram , blackcoffeeanddarkchocolate@patriciamrees). You can see that we had a beer with a Geishas during very spectacular festival in Kyoto. It was so unexpected and not ordinary in the slightest. So until the next blog.:)