Tokyo Vegan Meetup Group

In Tokyo there is, like in many other large and small cities, a group on meetup.com for vegans. In my experience, these sorts of things can be very hit or miss, but we decided to check it out since we didn't know many people in Tokyo, or any vegans for that matter. This particular group has 1 or 2 meetings a month at the various vegan restaurants around Tokyo, plus a montly all-you-can-eat at the Pink Cow in Shibuya.

Our first experience we met some really nice people, but had some meh kind of food at Ohana Brown Rice Cafe. Unfortunately, nobody there we spoke to was vegan, mostly vegetarians and omnis, so we thought that was kind of weird. Fast forward another 2 weeks and we go to the Pink Cow for the monthly buffet, which was delicious although a bit expensive at Y2800/person. Again, we meet some really nice people but only vegetarians and omnis! It seems like this is one of the biggest and most active meetup groups, so I think alot of expats and Japanese alike just attend for that alone.

So another month goes by, and its time for another Pink Cow buffet. We sort of hemmed and hawed about whether or not we should go, but I decided we could since things have been working out pretty well lately with our finances. Success! We meet another vegan and he is almost as shocked as we are. We also met another guy who was interested in switching from omni to vegan, and hopefully we can get together and I can educate him on the process.

I think I learned that it is important not to be too judgmental about where people are on their path to veganism. Its true that we were both vegetarians not all that long ago. Although in some ways vegetarians can be a vegans worst nightmare, as vegans, it is our job to gently nudge them along the way. I wish someone had been there to give me that nudge, maybe it wouldn't have taken me nearly six years to figure it out! (thanks Vegan Freak from my local library).

Restaurant Review: Pure Cafe

Pure Cafe has already become one of my favorite places in Tokyo. It is located between Shibuya and Harajuku just a block east from the corner of Aoyama-dori and Omotesando. It shares a building with Aveda, so it is pretty easy to find.

From what I can tell, it looks like their lunch menu offers a three sandwiches that change monthly. For August there is a fresh veggie sandwich, grilled veggie sandwich and a sweets sandwich. Dan and I have already tried all three. My favorite is definitely the Yomogi Sweets sandwich (I think I mentioned it in my previous entry). It's pretty much just bananas, tofu whip cream, raspberries and caramel sauce sandwiched between two pieces of french toast. I would recommend getting this for dessert, however, rather than lunch :)



In addition to sandwiches, they also have homemade muffins (flavors change daily) and an assortment of desserts (including things like cheesecake and fruit tarts). They also sell fresh loaves of bread. You can get a loaf of vegan rye bread for about $8. This evening I went there to pick up some bread and I discovered that they have a pretty delicious looking dinner menu. I will be sure go in the evening next time I go there to eat!

Usually when I visit, there is someone there who speaks English. Although, the first time I went to Pure Cafe, no one working knew any English.. so ordering was a little difficult. But not too hard, since the item names are in English and they have pictures you can point at.

Vegan Healing Cafe in Shibuya

After some sight seeing at Kaminarimon and Sensoji Temple early Friday morning, we traveled to Shibuya to do some window shopping and eat at a vegan restaurant we heard about called Vegan Healing Cafe. Punk You Japan wrote about it awhile back and we didn't really know of any other vegan restaurant to check out, so we headed there. The menu was small and there was only one person working who was the waitress and cook.. but the food was decent. Dan had the falafel burger and I ate fried soy meat. Both came with a big serving of brown rice.





For desert we had soy whip cream cake, which was absolutely delicious. The staff didn't speak very much English, but I was able to get out enough Japanese to find out about a book they sold called the Japan Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide. Luckily, it was bilingual (English and Japanese) so we bought it. It turns out there are over 50 vegan restaurants in Tokyo alone. We cannot stress enough how important this book is for any vegan coming to Japan. Not only does it have locations and maps of all the restaurants, it even has info on what things are safe to buy from the convenience stores and useful phrases. All the restaurants in the book are rated and the author visited each personally. There is also another list of restaurants at the back of the book that the author has yet to visit. You can buy the book at Vegan Healing Cafe and also at Deva Deva Cafe. We only paid 1050円 for it at Vegan Healing Cafe.

After eating lunch we walked around Shibuya checking out all the stores. First we stopped at a small record shop named Guhroovy. They specialize in hardcore techno... and we picked up a flyer for a free show called Day of Hardcore. Among Japanese hardcore fans this is somewhat of a legendary party which coincides with the yearly release of the Day of Hardcore CD. Dan used to get up early to listen to a webcast of the show in America. He is very excited to see it live this year. :)

Just down the road from Guhroovy is a huge Tokyu Hands. It is almost 10 floors, and each floor is divided into 3 sections. It has pretty much everything.. from bicycles to lumber to stationary to cooking utensils and more. But not in a crappy Target style way were everything is cheap. They carry high quality products with equally high price tags. There was even a section that had fabric and sewing machines. I kind of described it as Home Depot meets Ikea.. but they have so much more than that. Definitely a must see if you are in Shibuya.

We also visited Parco, Uniqlo, Shibuya 109 and some smaller boutiques that were in the back alleyways. Shibuya 109 was having a one day only sale and it was jam packed.



We both felt really old among the swarms of high school students. Nonetheless, it was definitely worth seeing.