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Being vegan in Japan is this emotional rollercoaster, being stuck between the two extremes of hunger-weighted frustration that there's nothing to eat, and wallet-weighted frustration that there are too many good things all in one place all at the same time, which are all really expensive.
A lot of Japanese food is vegan by default, including loads of desserts made from rice (mochi!), tofu, or agar agar. A lot is mostly vegan. In the latter case, restaurants either can't or won't substitute ingredients upon request, if they understand what you're asking. Plus things that look vegan probably have secret fish in. Similarly, grocery shopping is fine; buying staples is easy. But there are loads of super interesting looking unfamiliar things that I want to eat but I don't know what they are... they're probably soy, or vegetable, or seaweed, or bean... but I can't be sure. I carried around a list of all the kanji I needed to look for to read ingredients lists, but this is exhausting enough in English.
First I googled the problem, and found pictures of things that the internet said are definitely vegan, and hunted some of those down. This includes this brand of soy milk, and these azduki bean ice creams:
Then I obtained the services of my brother's Japanese girlfriend, J, and took her grocery shopping so I could point at things and ask what they are. I got all sorts of treats (descriptions on hover):
I learned other things like:
I blogged separately about making gyoza and deep fried soy meat.
Vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants in Tokyo are not too hard to come by, but also clustered together, and pretty expensive (like everything else I guess). But they're also fucking good. I had to decide this was just something I was budgeting for.
There are a bunch of these around Tokyo, all with different hippie names like 'Journey' and 'Ripple'. Ain.Soph has some poor reviews on HappyCow for being very expensive but with very small portions. J and Dave picked this for me on my first night in Tokyo (to the same branch I'd been to for dessert when I was last in Tokyo, in fact) and I warned him on the way about the small portion reviews (he's a hungry growing boy). But it turns out we needn't have worried. I had a taco salad which was huge and delicious. Dave had a green curry, which was plenty of food for him, and J had fried soy meat and rice, and as a dedicated fried chicken eater, was suitably impressed. We split two desserts between us - the lemon cheesecake and chocolate cake. The chocolate cake was hypnotic.
This came to just under 60,000 JPY (~$60) in total (which I paid for because I'm an awesome big sister).
A modified version of this review posted to HappyCow.
On one of my first evenings in Nerima, I set out to hunt for groceries. Came upon this place by chance near Nerima station and as I was peering at the menu in passing the waiter who stuck his head out to invite me inside was so friendly that I went in. I'm so glad I did. This is mostly South Indian, and serves meat, but with a decent array of vegetarian options. The waiter was happy to point out which are vegan (I expanded 'vegan' to 'no milk, no butter, no egg' just in case, which I think helped), and we also chatted about where I'd been in India and how much I like Indian food.
I was unfamiliar with a bunch of the curries on this menu though, as I know less about South Indian food in general. This was exciting. I picked one at random, which was Rasam (600 JPY) and accompanied it with coconut rice (500 JPY). For an extra 150 I was offered Indian rice instead of Japanese rice, but I had to break the news that I actually enormously prefer Japanese rice. I was able to ask for it hot, and the waiter reassured me that the rice would be fried in oil not butter. I'm not sure if the default is butter, but this is nice to confirm.
The food came really quickly, and I ate it just as quickly. It was really good. The rice plate was huge, and the curry was hot and tomatoey and full of delicious. I just managed to finish it all.
I came back a second time with Dave (he loves curry) and J, and they both had something with chicken and enjoyed it. J's naan bread was enormous. Dave spilled his curry all over the table. I had aloo bondy to start (deep fried spicy potato balls) and chapati with avial, a coconutty curry full of veggies. All up to standard.
A modified version of this review on HappyCow (pending).
This is proximate to Roppongi station, and all of the art exhibitions and museums and park thereabouts, so really handy if you're visiting that area. The first time I went was tipping down with rain so I didn't wander around much. I also didn't fancy splashing out for the museums. But this was worth the trip alone. I wanted everything here. So much.
They have four burgers, six or so rice bowls (most topped with not-meat of some kind), a selection of desserts, and various sides and accompaniments. The burgers seem to be mostly made of hemp. The first time I went I had the teriyaki burger, and a side of fried soy meat. Both super delicious. The bread itself was pretty incredible, and the burger patty was made of some kind of beans, and smothered in sauce and salad. It could have been bigger, but maybe I got used to US portions. It certainly left room for dessert. The burger and side together came to 1,490 JPY which is pretty steep. But it was good.
The second time I had a slice of chicken mayo pizza, more deep fried soy meat, and hemp milk almond pudding (1,544 JPY). The pizza slice was small and fine, but nothing to go crazy for. Man I love the soy meat though.
Veganic has free wifi, but not much seating so I wouldn't feel comfortable bedding in here. They close at 5 on some days, which isn't a big deal if you're there in the evening, as you can just pop across the road toooo...
... which is open til late. And also has an incredible menu, of ramen and not-meats and massive, hearty looking dishes.
The first time I went (immediately following Veganic) I had a soy latte and the chocolate gateau made with rice flour, accompanied by soy ice cream. Dense and totally satisfied the chocolate craving I'd been accumulating. This set me back 540 + 750 JPY.
Has free wifi too (which works better than Veganic's) and much more space, plus a few power outlets if you look in the right place, so I can stick around and work here without feeling guilty for taking up space.
I returned to try the ramen, and loved the Soy milk tantan, which is a decent 800 JPY. I didn't get the set, but tried a couple of other peoples' sides and they were great. Get a set if you're really hungry, but otherwise the ramen alone is a decent portion size.
This review adapted for HappyCow.
This isn't a vegan restaurant, but a 'healthy' one, and seems to always have one vegan item on their set lunch menu. If you order this, they also check with you about whether to make the miso soup with dashi or not. The set I ate was vegetables in broth, and tofu, plus sides of pickles, soy beans and seaweed, miso soup, mushrooms, and tea. It was really delicious, and very authentically Japanese. The space is cosy - not really suitable for big groups, though you could take over the whole of the upstairs. The lunch set is 1,080 JPY.
I first tried to go to the one in Kichijoji, but this turns out to be the main kitchen (though it also appears to sell doughnuts) and it's open between the odd hours of 8pm and 2am. I was too early.
I went to the outlet in Lumin Est, right outside Shinjuku Station instead, and got to try two: maple walnut and cranberry. Great! The larger doughnuts are 350 JPY, and they have a huge array of other flavours (containing dairy, though not eggs), with smaller ones starting at less than 200 JPY.
This place was busy when I arrived, and it turned out there was a special event on. There were crochet things and bags and jewelery for sale, but not lunch. Nonetheless I was welcomed with friendly smiles and a little English by customers and staff alike, and got two small cakes and some really delicious black soy bean tea for 500 JPY. The cakes turned out to be enough to fill me up for a few hours, so a real lunch wasn't missed.
I went to Commune264 for Cori vegan food truck, but it is closed on Tuesdays. Fortunately right across is another food truck with a vegan plate for 1000 JPY. It consisted of a variety of exciting vegetables, beans and pickles, brown rice, and fried soy meat. Lots of food, good value, friendly service. Came with a bottle of water too.
Commune246 is a covered outdoor seating area with a whole bunch of food trucks, and a really nice vibe. Part of it is Wired cafe, which provides wifi, power and plenty of seating - a great spot for digital nomadding.
I went back on not-Tuesday, and ate the vegan plate from here too (1000 JPY). Points because they gave me an actual plate instead of disposable stuff. The food was a mix of the usual salad, pickles, fried soy meat and mushrooms but also included the best scrambled tofu I've ever had. It was squishy and creamy, possibly the closes to eggs I've come across. It was only a small amount, but worth trying the plate for that I think. They have lots of other options too, and some interesting drinks on the menu.
This review adapted for HappyCow.
Brown Rice is about a 5 minute walk from Commune246. They serve lunch until (last orders for food) 5pm, and are open til 6, so I squeezed in an early dinner here. They are all vegan, and have three main plates plus a special. I chose the curry, which was full of beans and pulses, and pretty good (1,300 JPY). It came with brown rice, and a drink (I had hojicha). I also had a pumpkin soup with mochi for dessert (700 JPY). The food was filling and the space is nice, but nothing to rave about.
This review adapted for HappyCow.
Not actually Tokyo, this is a seafront Hemp cafe in Kamakura, a short walk from Hase train station. It serves fish, but is otherwise vegan. It's very clear which dishes contain fish. Everything has hemp involved somehow. I had a plate with breaded tofu, and the usual selection of rice, pickles and vegetables, miso soup, plus a hemp coffee (tasted like normal coffee). They had a few interesting desserts, but I was full from the plate and short on time. The food was tasty, people were friendly, and the sea view is excellent.
This review adapted for HappyCow.
All vegan!
Also not Tokoyo but a five minute walk from Fujisawa train station. I was on my way back from Kamakura, but I'd recommend visiting Fujisawa just to eat here. It. Was. Spectacular. I had actually changed the day of my visit to Kamakura so I could go here (it's closed on Tuesdays) and I thought I was being silly, but this was a great decision. It's a really tiny space (maybe ten or twelve seats) and it's not cheap, but boy is it good. Did I mention it was delicious? I would normally be hesitant with these prices, but thanks to their free wifi (password: harukucchii01) I found out the US election results after a day of being offline and decided to just drown my sorrows in gourmet vegan food.
The menu is not available in English, but the waitress gladly translated every single item for me. There are loads of options, and really interesting ones that I haven't seen elsewhere. I had spicy edamame, which came with a warning from the chef: "this is too spicy. That red one is danger. Be careful, okay?" It was perfect (I love spicy food). I didn't eat the red chilli that sat on top because I didn't want to destroy myself for the rest of the meal, but I did lick it. I had also ordered rice milk, which was rich and creamy and a great compliment to the spice. I also ate fried potatoes, which were simple but perfectly seasoned and cooked, plus deep fried konnyaku, which came with lettuce and a little dish of salt to dip. Everything just tasted incredible. I followed up with hojicha, and matcha 'tiramisu'. I don't like tiramisu, but in my experience so far Japan's idea of tiramisu is varied and unusual, and I'm game for anything with matcha. It was a green, creamy layered sponge in a dish. Good stuff.
I was seated at the bar so I could somewhat see into the kitchen, and chatted with the chef and waitress. I paid just over 4,000 JPY for the meal in total, which is more than I would normally pay for dinner, but for this quality of food and service was totally fine.
This is probably my favourite so far, second maybe only to Aju in Osaka.
This review adapted for HappyCow.
Another one a bit far from Tokyo. Out in the remote fields nearby Keio Shonan-Fujisawa University campus, this is a very traditional feeling Japanese restaurant, which uses all local produce and has a homey vibe. There are a number of vegetable dishes, and they were able (upon request, in Japanese) to make the dashi for the mushroom hoto noodle dish without fish. It was a big, hearty noodle soup, full of veggies and mushrooms, which came with beans on the side and tea. We scoured the dessert menu (which is in Japanese), and it appears that most of them are likely vegan by chance, including both tofu and soy ice cream. There were several things I'd never seen before, and I ended up choosing kurogoma pudding, which is a black sesame seed jelly, very smooth and creamy. I also tried amazake, which is a thick, sweet drink made from fermented rice and something to do with leftovers from sake production.
They also have a little corner for doing calligraphy.
This review adapted for HappyCow.
Lima is a little cafe inside a health food shop in Shinjuku. They have all vegan food to go, and some seating. I tried the veggie burger, which was a good size and came with salad, miso soup for 900 JPY. I also tried soy ice cream and a super dense chocolate brownie.
This review adapted for HappyCow.
Tully's, Doutor and Starbucks are everywhere and all have soy milk options for their drinks, including matcha lattes. I didn't actually go to a Starbucks, but I read they take it very seriously to the point they give you a special 'soy' card to avoid mixups. Wired cafe also has a few outlets, and also have soy milk (cafe au lait though, not latte).
Convenience stores in Japan really take convenience to a new level. Not only do they contain a wide array of food at sensible prices (in contrast to the UK, where the closest equivalent to convenience stores are like double price compared to supermarkets), but they usually have free wifi. A surprising number have desks where you can hang out and work, and some of these even have power outlets. They also have decent hot coffee (freshly ground beans) and a selection of ready-to-go hot food as well.
When on the move, I was relying on combini, like 7-11, Lawson and FamilyMart, for easy to grab onigiri (they have ume and seaweed flavours) and sushi (natto maki and inari), as well as lots of mochi. Sometimes you'll find bananas, and they have a lot of nuts, crisps, and dried fruit too. I never had chance to scrutinise the hot food until I was in Tokyo, and could see from the photos that they definitely had some steamed buns that look vegan - only they never had any left, whether I was there late or early. Finally I had chance to try one: a bun filled with sesame paste from 7-11. It was pretty great, warm and doughy. If you like that kind of thing. They also had a sweet potato one.
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Working from Commune246 today, a cute hippie food court nestled in what appears to be a pretty upscale neighbourhood in Omotesando. It has vegan food, coffee, wifi, power (courtesy of Wired) indoor and outdoor seating with lots of laptop/notebook space, and a much better playlist than most public places in Japan.
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After minor face explosion due to wisdom teeth over the weekend, I eventually decided I should go see a dentist rather than try to wait it out until after my upcoming trip to the US. I am extremely thankful to Mike and Nao for taking me to their local dentist, and translating forms and conversation for me. It's nice to have W3C family all over the world :)
We dropped by about 3.30 in the afternoon, without calling ahead, and I was seen within about five minutes, after filling in (or mostly, as it was all in Japanese, Nao filling in) a form. They estimated the prices upfront (without being asked) and to check that I was okay with it, promising for sure less than 10,000 JPY. This is about what I expected following extensive googling yesterday.
First was an xray. The xray machine played like 8bit elevator music, and I had to stop myself from laughing. Then some waiting around, and then I was seated in a dentist chair. Then more waiting around. Everything seemed to happen at a very leisurely pace, but staff were friendly and smiley and chatty (in Japanese). The dentist talked to Nao for ages while I was in the chair, and Nao periodically gave me one-sentence summaries. I was reminded of the "moar... intensity" scene in Lost in Translation, and again had to stop myself from giggling.
The xray was produced, and I got a detailed explanation of everything wrong with my wisdom teeth. My left side is infected right now, but the right side is just as at risk. The dentist noted that were she to be removing them, she'd take the top ones first. She showed me the best angle at which to clean the emerging tooth, and put some gel on it.
She produced antibiotics and very strong painkillers. Yay! And if I'm still in pain on Thursday, I'm to go back.
This came to 7,790 JPY - less than expected, though not something I had budgeted for. I'm going to see if I can claim any of that back from World Nomads. I was in there for probably just under an hour.
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J taught me to make gyoza today. We even found soy meat in Seiyu (Walmart/Asda). The gyoza wrappers are on the top shelf in a fridge full of packaged meat. It never would have occurred to me to look for them there.
The soy meat was not dry, but in a packet of liquid, and needed draining.
All of the vegetables get finely chopped and mixed together, plus ginger paste, garlic paste, and sesame oil.
Add filling to skin, wet around the edges, fold, squeeze, crimp.
Ta da!
And fry.
And dip! In a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, and chilli oil. Delicious!
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This is what I talked about at the W3C TAG developer summit in Tokyo tonight.
東京で2016年11月3日にて開催されたW3C TAGデベロッパー・サミットにて話した内容となります。
I am one of the staff contacts for the W3C Social Web WG. I also co-edit a couple of specs in the group, and procrastinate from finishing my PhD thesis by implementing the group's specs as part of my own website.
まずは自己紹介から、 W3C Social Webワーキンググループのコンタクトを務めています。また、そのワーキンググループにていくつかの仕様についても共同編集者をしてたりもします。そのグループの仕様を自分のサイトへの実装がPhDの論文がなかなか終わらない理由だったりします。
I'm a strong believer in owning your online presence and social data on the Web. What this means (to me) is: making data accessible through a URL that you have authority over - either you own it and host it yourself, or someone you trust does. It also means having control and choice over how and when you express yourself; working against censorship and being free to share as much - or as little - about yourself as you want. This is particularly important when we think about a how social networking works today. Big systems like twitter and facebook - silos - are hoarding the data, and creative, expressive content, and livelihoods, of millions of people. And they're mining it and using it in ways that most people are completely unaware of. If twitter goes down tomorrow - and it could, they just shut down Vine - what happens to your history and interactions? We have this huge hoard of collective digital history that we, as societies, have aggregated over the last decade, and we just gave it right up. The culture of a generation is completely out of the hands of the people who created it, and who it's important to. This could disappear at the whim of an investor, or a glitch in a data center.
私は自分自身のオンラインにおけるプレゼンスとソーシャル・データを所有することについて、強い信念を持っています。(自分にとって)どういう意味を持つか、というと、自分がオーソリティを持っている(たとえば自分自身が所有しているか、あるいは自分が信頼する誰かが所有しているような)URLからデータをアクセス可能にすることを意味します。また同じく自分自身がどう表現させるかについて制御したり、選択したりできることも含んでいます。検閲から逃れたり、自分自身のことをどれだけでも多く、もちろん少なくでも自由に共有できることも大切です。 現在ソーシャルネットワークサービスを鑑みると、非常に重要なことだと考えています。TwitterやFacebookのような巨大でサイロなシステムは何百万人ものデータや創造物、くらしそのものをそのシステムに飲み込もうとしています。その上、ほとんどの人が気づかない内に、データは使われているのです。もしTwitterが明日無くなったら(可能性はもちろんあります、何しろVineは終了するのですから)、あなたの履歴や他者とのインタラクションはどうなるのでしょうか? 我々が社会全体として、この10年間ほどで集約してきた巨大なデジタルの歴史達をただ諦めることしかできないのでしょうか。この世代の文化そのものがそれを生み出した人たち、そしてそれらを貴重だと思う人たちの手から離れて、インベスターの気まぐれやデータセンターのちょっとした不具合によって、消え去ってしまうかも知れないわけです。
This is part of what motivates me personally to work on decentralising the social web. In the SocialWG we are creating open standards for:
その事実こそが、私自身がソーシャルWebを分散させようとするモチベーションとなっています。Socialワーキンググループでは以下のような標準を作成中です。
The idea is that people implementing our standards using completely different technology stacks, and without any discussion between themselves, can build systems which talk to each other for some of these kinds of interactions.
標準が異なる技術で実装されようと、お互いの議論もなく、以下の様なインタラクションを行うシステムを構築できること、というのが全体のアイデアです。
Now we know not everybody can have their own website to replace social media. We also know that the big social networking sites are not going to make it easy for people who want to move their data around, or for developers to create decentralised competitors. There have been people working in this space for a looong time, and it's been an uphill struggle the whole way.
すべての人がソーシャルメディアの代わりとなるウェブサイトを持つことはできません。また、巨大なソーシャルネットワークサイト達がユーザのデータの持ち出しを簡単にしたり、開発者が分散化した競合を開発したりすることを簡単にさせてくれることもないでしょう。これまでにもこの領域でとてもながい間働いてきている人もいますが、その間は長い闘いの歴史しかありません。
Our specs are building blocks for different pieces of the social puzzle. It looks like we have a lot, but they're small and modular to help developers pick and choose the parts they need. Rather than having to implement a whole "social network", you can decide to integrate say decentralised comments into a site you're working on, without worrying about subscription or content creation or even account signup and data storage.
我々が作成している仕様は、このソーシャルなパズルを構成する様々なピースです。多くのことを成さなければならないようにも見えますが、それぞれは小さなモジュールとなっているので、開発者たちが必要なパーツを選べるようになっています。『ソーシャル・ネットワーク』そのものを実装するのではなく、例えば分散化したコメントを、登録やコンテンツ作成、アカウントの作成やデータストレージのことを気にしないで、サイトに統合したりできるような形を目指しています。
We're not aiming for adoption by major social networking players (none are involved in the group) but by individual developers and smaller business for whom collecting social data is not their business model, but rather can be an enhancement for their customers of some other product or service.
我々は著名なソーシャルネットワークサイト達(グループ内にはどのサイトも関わっていません)に導入してもらうことを目的とはしていません。その代わりに各個人の開発者や、ソーシャルデータを集積をビジネスモデルとしていないものの、それらのデータを使って彼らのカスタマーに対するエンハンスメントとして利用するような、小さなビジネスに導入されることを期待しています。
Our specifications are JSON based, and use JSON-LD for extensibility. If you're not familiar with Linked Data, this basically just means using a URL as a globally unique identifier for everything, including relationships between things (which would for example normally just be plain text keys in a JSON object). Sharing URLs this way helps us know when we're talking about the same thing as someone else on the Web, so that we can integrate data across diverse sources, without having to know anything about the other data sources beforehand.
我々の仕様はJSONを基幹とし、拡張性を保つためJSON-LDを利用しています。リンクト・データとは、URLをすべてのデータ、例えば、何かと何かの関連性(JSONオブジェクト内のプレーンテキストのキー名だったりすることが多いでしょう)に対するグローバルな一意の識別子として利用することを指します。URLをこのように扱うことで、あるものが別の人が示したものが同じものであると認識するのに役立ちます。こうすることで様々なソース間でお互いのことを知らずとも、データの統合を行うことができるわけです。
(This is vastly oversimplifying things, see https://json-ld.org to learn more)
(この例はデフォルメしているので、詳しくはhttps://json-ld.orgを参照)
We still have a way to go, and we'd love your feedback as developers. This was a pretty high level overview, and if you have any specific technical questions about the specs up here, I'm happy to answer them.
他にもやり方はあることでしょう。皆様のフィードバックを楽しみにしています。今回共有したのは、非常にハイレベルな概要ですので、もし仕様に関する技術的な疑問などあればいつでも質問してください。
Finally, the WG is finishing at the end of this year, but we're keeping the momentum going with a Community Group which anyone is welcome to join, whether you're a W3C member or not.
最後に、このワーキンググループは今年で終了となりますが、この流れ全体はW3Cのメンバーであってなくても、誰でも参加できるコミュニティグループとして、継続していきますので、興味ある方はぜひ。
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