Eating Out

Dining out raw can be tricky in most places that are not California, it would seem. In Japan, however, just getting vegetarian fare can be quite a nightmare, especially if you are not well-versed in reading kanji. Most sauces and stocks are fish-based, so even if you are a cooked-food vegan, you may not end up getting what you think you have ordered. Most waiters tend not to be knowledgeable about the fare they serve. Moreover, although this is fast changing, the basic principles of vegetarianism are not implicitly understood. Even before my journey into raw food, as a vegetarian, I have had to explain a number of times that vegetarians indeed can, in fact, eat rice and bananas. On more than several occasions in restaurants, food had arrived on my table with morsels of meat hiding in my plate after having explicitly explained to the waiter (in Japanese) that animal products are not things that I consume.  I remember having to eluciate to one waiter that yes, the  bacon bits that were sprinkled on my salad were derived form a pig. (Then again, these days the bits are more likely based on some sort of artificial soy compound!) It seems odd that a Buddhist country in which animal consumption was once even prohibited at one point in history should be so clueless, but alas, this is modern Nippon.

However, the good news is that at least in Tokyo, increasingly healthier options have popped up over the years. Locals are becoming more health-conscious and aware of what they eat. Many Japanese are familiar with the slow food movement. There is was one raw food restaurant called Veggie Paradise (in Yoyogi-Uehara) but it has since closed down and word has it is relocating to Yoyogi Hachimon Station, to be renamed Café Alive. In July 2009, some raw foodie friends of mine opened Manna. As of this moment, it is the only raw food restaurant I know of in existence in Japan.

If you can bear a little heat on your produce, then I recommend the Tokyo vegan restaurants below. Chances are there will be raw offerings on the menu. You can always dare to ask if they will prepare something for you if not. This is certainly not normal Japanese customer behavior, but sometimes it works!

Cafe 8 in Meguro-ku

Vegan Izakaya Non in Meguro-ku

Pure Café in Minato-ku (Minami Aoyama)

J’s Kitchen in  Minato-ku

Brown Rice Café in Shibuya-ku

Vegan Healing Cafe in Shibuya-ku

Loving Hut in Shinjuku-ku

Kome No Ko in Setagaya-ku

United Tribe in Setagaya-ku

Deva Deva Café in Kichijoji-shi

For more vegan-friendly listings in Tokyo and beyond, Chiba Prefecture resident expat Herwin Walravens has put together a guide that you can purchase on his Vegan Japan site or  on the Vegan Restaurant Pocket Guide news site. You can always check out the Happy Cow for restaurant listings.

Shopping

Probably the most known place to online shop for organic vegetarian choices is Tengu Foods (Alishan), based in Saitama Prefecture. They have created a new website for the organic center in English.

Less know is Warabe Mura, a small mail order company based in Gifu Prefecture. They offer high-quality vegan whole foods. I really loved their vegan soup stock (not that I’m cooking at the moment). Not unique to Warabe, but nice just the same, is signing up for their weekly box of fresh veggie produce, delivered to your door. The only thing is that it’s really expensive, and you have no say in what goes in the box - whatever is in season, basically. (Once I had no idea what plant I had received or how to prepare it.)

In Ueno, Tokyo, there is a famous street called “Candy Lane” (Ame Yoko) on which a store over 60 years old called Kojima-ya sells raw, dried fruits and nuts. If you can’t get there (but I recommend you go at least once to take in the charming, old-world atmosphere of the area), then you can order online.

In the mid-70’s, and organization called Daichi started up as an NGO. Now it is also a group of companies operating under the principles of the NGO, aiming to support organic farming. It has a food distribution company working hard to create a green market.  Daichi’s homepage is only in Japanese, so get some help if you need it to sign up. It is a great way to have quality foods delivered to your home.

Natural House is a good place to start for organic products, although this site too is only in Japanese. Check out their online store. For a list of stores selling organic and natural foods in the Tokyo area, click here.

As for shopping in your local supermarket, these days organic (yuuki) is becoming more popular, as are product with no preservatives (mutenka). (I cannot present the kanji characters on this blog! I’ve found out that this is probably because I used a little application called Fantastico to set up WordPress on my host, which fiddled with all the the character settings and I simply don’t have enough programing skills to fix it! I could reinstall, but that is almost as painful as learning code. Very frustrating…Don’t use automatic installers- lesson learned.) Anyway, this means you should look these kanji up so you’ll know what to look for. Also look for the green JAS symbol, which indicates that the food is organic. Note that Japanese laws on what constitutes organic may not be strict as in some countries. Ask around when you are shopping. Japanese are jumping on the healthy option bandwagon, so your questions and demands will not seem strange.

If you are lucky enough to live out in the country, surely you have seen stands where farmers leave produce in a little stall by the roadside, and you just help yourself, putting coins in the box provided. Much of this produce is organic, and you can tell from the bug trails and the lack of typical “perfection” found in main market fruits and veggies.

In the upscale basement shopping of many departments stores, you can also sometimes find a small section devoted to packaged whole foods, supplements, and information. Organic produce is often located here too. Of course, you can always order stuff from abroad, but I reckon not the fresh fruits and veggies. The following are sources I have worked with:

Upayan Naturals (My store of choice, as it is Canadian)

SunFood (David Wolfe’s brand- high quality, high prices)

HighVibe (great selection, but wasn’t impressed with their service)

Raw Life (your basic raw food fare)

Alissa Cohen’s Store (This woman rawks!),

Green Barley (where I get extra green supplements)

Mountain Rose Herbs (herb paradise)

Love Street Living Foods (a nice selection of butters)

Navitas Naturals (my first choice for cacao products)

The Raw World (no delivery to Japan, though)

Resources

If you’d like to read about raw food in Japanese, check out Mihoko Sekido and Yutaka Saiki’s Starting a Raw Food Lifestyle (Hajimeyo Ra-Fu-do Seikatsu)

The Tokyo Vegetarian Guide by Hiroko Kato offers information on shopping, useful Japanese phrases, recommended readings, links, as well as dining out. (Check out the Vegan Restaurant Pocket Guideas well as theHappy Cow the  for restaurant listings too, as mentioned above.)

If you’d like to learn how to “cook” from a seasoned raw foodist expat in Tokyo, why not take one of Andi and Angi Wolfgang’s classes? Andi and Angi are two of the many that have transformed their lives with raw food, and now they shares her passion in Nippon! Check out what is on offer on Andi and Angi’s website. After eating raw for a few weeks and finding myself in need of inspiration, I attended a full-day workshop with them and learned oodles of helpful tidbits, including the what’s and why’s of raw food, kitchen equipment, resources, recipes, and renewed enthusiasm to continue on my raw journey.