Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Tokyo | Day 2

July 1, 2014


Tokyo has a beverage machine tucked around every corner and Michael happily made use of them, often hunting down a self-heating can of coffee first thing out the door.


We spent much of our second day with Michael's family, first strolling through Meiji Jingu. Michael and I had been there before, and in spite of our many fellow sightseers it was a pleasant, relaxing place to be - cooler in the shade of the trees and surrounded by positive prayer cards at the Shrine. Even so, we were thirsty and aching for a seat within a couple of hours.


Matt led us to Sakura-Tei for lunch, where we were seated around a hotplate to cook our own meals. We chugged down iced drinks to stave off the plate's radiant heat and ordered a bowl of okonomiyaki ingredients each. Matt helpfully ascertained with our waiter that there was one genuinely vegetarian option among them (1150円 ~ AU$12.10; there was something fishy going on last time we tried this) so we set to work gently folding together cabbage, onion, cheese and eggs into a nobbly batter and arranging it on the plate. I proudly pulled off a neat flip, though I made more of a mess of my fried egg and cheese topping. My 'yaki might've been a little overcooked but there was no faulting it once the brown sauce and mayonnaise were slathered on.


We sought out another uniquely Japanese experience for dinner that evening, gathering at an izakaya in Shinjuku, ordering our snacks and drinks directly from an ipad at the table. Honestly, the food at this one wasn't great so I won't bother naming the venue - the edamame were unruly and starchy, the avocado was brown, and Michael and I found ourselves pushing fish flakes off several dishes that had looked vego on the menu. (On the upside, I had a lovely yuzu-flavoured soft drink.) There are numerous other excellent izakaya around Tokyo, and it's well worth giving them a go.


We finished the evening timidly exploring Shinjuku Golden Gai, a cluster of tiny bars that usually only welcome friends-of-friends. Even without an in, we could feel the quiet intimacy of this neighbourhood in stark contrast to the huge intersections and looming cinema-screen adverts only a few minutes' walk away.

9 comments:

  1. I don't even drink coffee but love the idea of self heating coffee. Not as intriguing-looking as those custard cubes though! Urgh about the fish flakes :/

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    1. Hi Veganopoulous! I have come to accept that the odd fish flake is part of giving stuff a go in Japan, particularly when you know as little of the language as I do. The custard cubes make up for it. :-D

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  2. Hey.

    I've been to Sakura-tei too, but that was in 2011 and I think they changed the menu after that. It used to be more vego friendly.
    The best okonomiyaki I've had in Tokyo was at Tsuchiya in Nishishinjuku. They speak some English and are on the ball about which sauces contain bonito dashi stock. It's run by very lovely people. Cheap and delicious too.

    Check out VegOut Tokyo for accurate, yummy recommendations. She doesn't update anymore but I've had great success at visiting the same locations. Also - her language tips for ordering vego food are really spot on.

    Chabuton also do their Begiramen and Begigyoza too - cheap and filling delicious fare. They seem to setup with Yodobashi stores - I've been to the branches at Yodobashi Akiba and Kyoto. Very nice.

    Enjoy!

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    1. Hi JayBeeGeeBee! Thanks for sharing your favourites, they all sound terrific. Unfortunately we're now back home in Melbourne and don't have an immediate opportunity to check them out. Here's hoping they're still open next time we make it to Tokyo, and that any other vego travellers might come across this post in the meantime.

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  3. I have really been enjoying reading your travel adventures! And I love Japanese vending machines - self-heated rainbow coffee for life!

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    1. Hiya Sarah! Glad these posts provided entertainment for more than just the two of us. ;-) I was enthusiastically on the vending machine bandwagon by the end of this trip too.

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  4. Hello,

    Any tips on which izakaya are good at offering/understanding vegetarian food. We've found it a struggle in the past but are very keen to try and find one on our trip next month.

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    1. Hi Anon - we went to a good one in 2010, but it seems we didn't note down its name unfortunately! I think we were also relying somewhat on the Japanese skills of Michael's brother.

      It's not exactly an izakaya, but we thoroughly enjoyed drinks and vegan bar snacks at Hang Out this time around - we'll post about them soon.

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