Off topic: TOKYO

TOKYOTori (gate) to the Imperial Gardens. The gardens, like most of Tokyo, were incredibly beautiful.

This will be the first “off-topic” blog post: a trip to Tokyo. Off the Taiwan topic only that is, as much of my weekend was spent finding and eating vegan food.

Japan is by no means veggie (let alone vegan) friendly, with few vegan options anywhere, and a culture of accepting things how they are, and when it comes to food, that's usually with fish. Whilst living in rural Japan a year ago, I needed to cook virtually everything I ate, and carry my bento (Japanese lunch box) everywhere I went, or live on Inari Sushi and rice balls from convenience stores, and even then, the inari sushi sometimes came with 'surprises'.

My first meal in Tokyo on the way to the Imperial Gardens: a "Zen" meal from the Loving Hut. It was, at the time if not now, the best Japanese meal I had ever eaten.

Firstly, another plug for Herwin's “Vegan Japan Pocketguide”. This book saved me hours of time searching for places online, finding their addresses etc, and allowed me to find so many restaurants and tie them in with important sights in Tokyo, virtually hassle free. I found and enjoyed three or four vegan meals a day, met Japanese vegans, and for the first time, except perhaps for one vegetarian Japanese restaurant in Bangkok, got to taste 'real' vegan Japanese food.

The "Japan Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide", from which I found my way around the Tokyo vegan scene, including of course everything shown here, and many more left for next time.

While I must say that I have usually described the Japanese food I have managed to find as bland at best, for the first time on this trip I felt that I discovered the charm of Japanese food: through the simplicity and delicate sauces and condiments – and Japanese might even say presentation – subtle flavours of rice, vegetables and fake meat come out, making it pleasantly palatable and, usually, delicious. I'll still pass on the natto, though.

A Japanese macrobiotic curry. It was delicious.

As to be expected for Tokyo, everything was expensive (especially compared to Taiwan) but food was much less so that I had expected. My cheapest meals (including rice and/or a drink) usually ran at 1000 – 1500 Yen, and my most expensive – a sour plum (really sour) and tofu entree, tempura, beer and dessert at Non, a traditional vegan pub - hit me for almost 4000 Yen. Still, how often does one get to experience a traditional Japanese pub, all vegan?

My entree (very very sour plum and tofu and a beer at Non, a traditional Japanese pub (except for it being vegan). Unfortunately I forgot to photograph my tempura or dessert.

The only other downside (than cost) is that meal portions are rather small, and sometimes after one meal, I felt that I could eat another straight afterwards, and did just that. By the time I had navigated Tokyo's superb but somewhat overwhelming subway system and arrived at my next restaurant, I felt as if I hadn't eaten at all. Of course, the upside to that was that I could try more restaurants in a day, and with 40 odd in the Vegan Pocketguide, there were plenty to choose from. Sometimes it was necessary two fit in two lunches and/or dinners close together, as like in Taiwan, many restaurants close between 2:30 and 5:00.

Channa masala from Nattaraj Aoyama Branch. I think Taiwan could really do with a branch of Japan's Indian vegetarian restaurant chain, as most “Indian” restaurants in Taiwan are run by Pakistanis, who not surprisingly cater much better to the Halal clientele than vegan clientele (or should I say than to me?). I've stopped going to them after a few lied about what was vegan.

While availability of vegan food in Japan doesn't even come close to Taiwan for convenience – there are almost as many vegetarian restaurants in Hsinchu (population 400 thousand) as in Tokyo (population 12 million) one thing the Japan vegan scene wins hand down on is variety of vegan food available, and this made for a welcome change to someone who eats one or two typical Taiwanese veggie meals most days. In two days in Tokyo I had a Japanese “Zen” meal at the Loving Hut, a macrobiotic Japanese curry, two Indian meals, breakfast at a French-style cafe, organic pies and pizza from an organic vegan bakery, several vegan cakes and muffins and a three course Japanese pub meal.

Breakfast at a French-style cafe, one of the few vegan restaurants open for breakfast.

Taiwan has a few 'Thaiwanese” restaurants, and the Loving Huts serve a few “International” dishes (read Inter-Asian, plus French fries) but that's about as far as it goes.I hope someone will open either a vegetarian Indian restaurant (such as Nattaraj as mentioned above) or a Thai restaurant somewhere in Taiwan (probably Taipei). Given the number of vegetarian restaurants here, and other (non-Taiwanese/Chinese/Japanese) ethic food restaurants, I think such a restaurant would be very, very successful, especially of placed near a large Buddhist temple.

This "Farmers Market" was an unexpected find in downtown Tokyo, and more pleasantly surprising was that some of the too-processed-to-have-come-straight-from-a-farm products, such as cookies, were vegan.

I can't recommend Tokyo enough for a weekend trip from Taiwan, or longer. Sayoonara.

My meal on the plane - brown lentil patties. It was the first time I'd eaten brown lentils in years, and they were great. Eva Airlines aways serve good – and always vegan – food (code VGML) and unlike KLM (who fly to Bangkok) never “forget” or “lose” the vegetarian meal order. For anyone reading this blog and considering coming to Taiwan, I highly recommend the independent, Taiwanese-owned Eva Air – besides the vegan food, staff are friendly and efficient, and perhaps more importantly, they have never had a fatality. To the contrary, the state-owned “China Airlines” have one of the worst records in the developed world (seven times the international average of [fatality] incidents), and only last year a plane burst into flames and burnt up on the Tarmac in Japan (fortunately they got everyone out in time). Travel agents, through whom China Airlines seem to do most of their business, generally try to sell China Airlines flights first (with the selling point always being “their air hostesses are so beautiful” - suppose it's nice to know when you crash into the sea) but I always insist on paying a few dollars more for EVA Air. Their online booking system is also very good, and usually returns the cheapest fare anywhere in Asia, with the only exception being KLM to Bangkok (but take your own food, as they “forget” the vegetarian meal requests at least half of the time).