This past week..

We have been up to a lot of different things.. I already had one job interview at an international kindergarten (unfortunately it didn't seem to go very well). It was a large group interview where the owner mostly just talked about her school. The only question she asked me was very well explained in my cover letter. Anyways~ I have another interview in Yokohama tomorrow, so hopefully that will go better.

Dan and I are planning on checking out some game centers tonight. We have been researching about UFO catchers since winning is not as obvious as it looks. Last time we were at one we tried winning a Rilakkuma towel that was in a rectangular box with no luck. So this time we are going to be prepared.

This past week we did a lot of stuff, and ate at a lot of delicious vegan restaurants.. I guess I will do a short day-by-day rundown.

Sunday 8/2
We checked out of the hostel and were picked up by Dan's friend Take and Take's mom. They drove us from Asakusa to Shinagawa (which ended up taking around about an hour). When we got to their house, Take's mom made a huge delicious vegan dinner. We even got to use their nice Japanese bath complete with hot sauna :)



Monday 8/3
Dan and I decided to go out and see Shinjuku. We stopped at a number of stores including DiscUnion, MaruiOne, Innocent World, Don Quixote, and MaruiCurren to name a few. It was really hot that day so we also checked out a few game centers we happened to walk by. When we got back home, we went with Take's family to a vegetable restaurant named めい　(Mei). Take's mom made sure to get us completely vegan food.. the main dish was shabu-shabu.



Tuesday 8/4
Dan stayed at home on Tuesday while I went out to Harajuku to meet up with Tokyo lolitas (as well as lolitas visiting Tokyo). I did PuriKura with them and sat around and chatted while they ate a little cafe on Omotesando. After that, I split up with them to go eat at a vegan cafe called Pure Cafe. I ordered a sandwich and dessert as the same time, which turned out to be kind of a mistake.. since I ordered the Yomogi Sweets Sandwich. The sandwich turned out to be more sweet than the peanutbutter cheesecake I got for dessert. They were both delicious though, just a little too much together. I decided to eat at Pure Cafe because it was right by Natural House. I had to stop there to buy some vital wheat gluten.. it was surprisingly easy to find. It was next to all the wheat flour and the package said グルテン (guruten) on it.

I returned home with the wheat gluten and Dan and I prepared dinner for everyone. We made chickpea cutlets (from the Veganomicon) and lentil soup. The ingredients for the chickpea cutlets were suprisingly easy to find, all though a bit expensive. We decided to try using another cheaper kind of bean next time we make the recipe.

Wednesday 8/5
We really wanted to eat at Deva Deva Cafe in Kichijoji, so we pretty much planned our day around it. The Vegan Japan Restaurant Pocketguide talks pretty highly about it and mentioned that they had vegan mayonnaise-potato-corn pizza.. so we just had to go see for ourselves. The cafe is very small, but cute and clean on the inside. The offer a range of vegan desserts that changes daily. Dan and I shared the "mayo pizza" and a "pork" cutlet burger.





They were both incredibly delicious. I couldn't decide which I like more. Afterward we ate a piece of their peach pie complete with vegan whipped cream on top. We found out later that Deva Deva Cafe offers a free dessert if you visit while it's raining!



After we ate we walked around and found Inokashira Park. It is a short walk from Kichijoji station and is home to the Ghibli Museum.



While we were walking around the park we were lucky enough to come across a guy that was getting ready to perform a comedy routine. It was in Japanese, but it was still really funny :)

So this is turning out to be a rather large entry.. I think I will let Dan finish up with the rest of the week on his next entry :)