VEGETARIAN & VEGAN RESTAURANTS IN TOKYO, JAPAN. BROWN RICE CAFE & PURE ORGANIC FOODS IN OMOTESANDO, HARAJUKU.
Since Spookyville’s residents tend to be vegan or vegetarian, I’ve visited many meat-free establishments in Tokyo. In between our pirate duties, Naomi and I visited two veggie restaurants — Brown Rice Cafe and Cafe Pure — in Omotesando (a short walk from Harajuku station). Read on to see what we ate…
First, here’s what I wore to the Hangry & Angry fashion show. I’ll be posting exclusive photos and a video interview with designer Gashicon ASAP!
Spooky ghost top: Black Peace Now, from Closet Child Ikebukuro
Black Goth dress: h.NAOTO, from Closet Child
Turquoise long scarf: It’s actually a very long stocking, gifted from Sock Dreams
Fetish mask: from a Camden Market costume store
Makeup: The shimmery turquoise eyeshadow is my new favorite (gifted from Sugarpill Cosmetics by Shrinkle). I created an outline with black eyeliner and blended the edges with white. Glued fake eyelashes over the top for a “big eyed” effect. Pink lip gloss. Done.
Naomi and I finally got to meet Yaz for lunch at Brown Rice Cafe. She’s a hard-working rep for X Japan and h.NAOTO, with a long and well-respected career in the Japan/USA music industry. You can look forward to more collaborations between us!
Brown Rice Cafe takes pride in sourcing seasonal vegetables from trusted Japanese suppliers. Each dish has three “fundamental foods” — vegetables, brown rice and soy — and every bite is intense, fresh flavor. I loved my bento box of veggie delights.
After the fashion show, we met up with some of our favorite people outside another vegetarian eatery, Pure Cafe in Minami-Aoyama.
The indestructible “Sebastian Teamu”: Sebastiano Serafini and I Am Sebastian!
One is a vegan; one requires meat at every meal. Their interaction reminded me of manzai (Japanese traditional stand-up comedy). Can you can guess who’s the “clown” and who’s the “straight man”?
Pink is the new black.
It was around Halloween, so Cafe Pure was serving vegetarian meals that fit the theme… joy!
Kabocha soup, pumpkin sandwiches, organic wines.
I’ll eat anything pumpkin or shaped like a bat or ghost.
You can see more photos of Japanese Halloween foods in this post (including kabocha ice cream and pumpkin pizza).
Do you eat at vegetarian restaurants? Which are your favorites? I’ve been to most of the ones in NYC, LA and Vancouver…
Japanese Word of the Day: Shun = In peak season, ideal time
Song of the Day: David Bowie – Magic Dance. Many of you freaked out on my Twitter and Facebook because I hadn’t seen the David Bowie / Jim Henson film, Labyrinth. I immediately ran out the door to rent it. And it pleased me very much. Evil laughter, sissy fights, codpieces and masques. “David Bowie’s junk is hypnotizing” — indeed!
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LA CARMINA
41 Comments
That last image looks amazing D=
Its almost 1am here, a perfect time to scour the fridge for veggies and left over rice!
Exactly… the prices are reasonable, too. Very high quality.
I would love a taste – that sounds delicious!
Thank you so much for this! I’m worried about staying true to my vegan diet when I go to Japan, I think I’ll end up having to just go vegetarian for my stay there…but I don’t want my tummy to suffer (TT_TT)
But at least this helps! Vegetarian restaurants are usually vegan friendly ^^
My favorite vegan restaurant in Texas is the Spiral Diner in Fort Worth. I love the atmosphere, practically all of the employees are covered in tattoos and have interesting hair, interesting personalities too XD The food is SO delicious! Not to mention the desserts! And they always have new specials every month.
Yes, it’s challenging in Japan to be vegan but some of my friends pull it off! Mmm, the Spiral Diner sounds awesome…
Oooh! Looks good! <3
So good… I want to go back!
There are organic cafe’s XD
I know places like that- tell me next time :p
I know places like that- tell me next time :p
thank you! i’m vegetarian and i’d love to go to Japan, this post was really usefull! ^__^
Me without makeup = REALLY spooky.
Thanks for the info, I’ll deffo go next time I’m in Japan!
d(^_^) -If you could blog a bit more on some of this sort of thing, that would be so cool- people that are vegan or vegetarian are constantly warned about how bad it is to travel to Japan, not to go… but come on, there’s got to be at least a little vegan safe fare available in a metropolis like Tokyo!
I also did this post about Tokyo Veg Fest! https://lacarmina.com/2009/05/tokyo-earth-day-2009-yoyogi-park-japan-vegetarian-festival-goths-vs-hippies/
personally, I find it to be a trendy topic there- and there’s no shortage of good places- especially in the megurogawa areas :)
AH! Great article considering I’m a vegetarian myself. – For those wondering how I do it…well the thing is that I was born a vegetarian pretty much. Most of the stuff my family ate was vegetarian. Once in a while they had meat, but because I was already accustomed to just eating greens…I just didn’t eat meat.
However I do eat seafood products – I’m not sure if that automatically makes me not a vegetarian haha. Oh well.
The food looks great though! It really would bring out taste in every bite. Being a vegetarian the best thing to eat is honestly curry. A couple of times I have some Mediterranean dishes, Chinese, Thai, Indian, and Japanese of course (but so far that’s just mainly with fish products haha).
Now the manzai…umm…hmmm…well…- I guess I’d just compare their look to DOWNTOWN. Who’s Matsumoto and who’s Hamada
Sebastiano san wa tsukkomi desu soshite…I AM SEBASTIAN was boke desu!!!
*BUZZER* – cue to open trap door underneath me leading to a tunnel that never ends.
Hahah the other way around!! For the tsukkomi and boke :)
Indian restaurants in Tokyo are also a good bet. But I love cafes that make veg food their mission.
Yeah, that’s called pescetarianism, not vegetarianism.
I heard it’s hard and a lot of Japanese people don’t really understand “vegan” because they grew up with it and it’s just not something a lot of people know about. But yeah I think vegans can manage, they just have to be extra careful xD I had a friend that orderd and specifically said “I do not want ANY meats” But he got this sauce with shrimp in it ;D
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… I can’t believe that was made in question form. Impossible for vegans who don’t cook themselves except to go to indian places and the few restaurants in Tokyo and for vegetarians (the real ones not the idiots who eat fish and call themselves veggie) it means hard choices about dashi and general carb loading and horrible food choices unless you are rich enough to afford lots of fruits and veggies. If you never eat out you’re fine. If you do it means a hard life with very limited choices. I did it for 9 years but in rural areas there were lots of tears over eating the same things for every meal for up to a week while on vacation
Yeah I don’t think it’s bad if you are in town for a short amount of time but living there is so hard. I’m actually allergic to meat and ended up getting sick all the time because a chef decided to put meat juice in something usually made without. It’s hard in France too, but fruits and veggies are plentiful and cheap here so it’s easy to cook at home.
It’s harder in the sense that it’s not so mainstream to be veggie/vegan in Japan. However, people eat more veggies normally. now that I think about it though, vegan might be really hard because there’s bonito stock or chicken stock in like everything.
I can see Kalamata olives there xDD Totally Greek product, I love olives to death <3
Mmm mmm! We must catch up soon. My editor loves the BSC metal article… it’ll be up soon!
How much vegetarian food ^-^ Absolutely approved *-* one day (in the future xD) i’ll visit these restaurant hihi
Aw~! i love this photo. you look very cute! <3
Sweet vary cool
Looks so oishii. ^_^
Even the most avid meat eater (like myself) couldn’t resist a bite of those dishes.
Veg food doesn’t have to taste like cardboard… especially when pumpkin is involved ^^
I love this !!!
Fab!
I loved the photos
My boyfriend is vegan so Ive been to just about every vegan/veggie restraunt in the whole San Francisco bay area and Ive gotta say that Herbivore in SF is the best! Also, ChaYa (vegan Japanese) has the BEST tempura soba Ive ever had. Love all your food posts X-D
Sounds delicious! I need to spend more time in SF. <3
Hi Mary- got a Q for you- would you be willing to share your pick of San Francisco’s vegan dining establishments? I’d discovered Herbivore there on my last trip (and their German chocolate cake!) and it became a staple on my stay, but I’d love to know other safe spots for me to eat…
That food looks delicious~ ^^ I definitely will eat any tasty vegan food that I can get my hands on… not a lot of vegan stuff here in Florida XD
Even less vegan stuff in Tokyo >_< but there are some good cafes!
I loved your post! Here in Brazil there are so many places, and despite not being a vegetarian, whenever I can, I ask for a menu vega! It is very tasty. And you’re stylish!
Yayy thanks!
Looks cute and yummy! ;)