We took a day trip to Yokohama on this holiday, the first time we’ve visited it. It’s not far from Tokyo, and easily reachable by train. Our main incentive was to see some (hopefully) less crowded cherry blossom, and have a brief break from the intensity of such a huge city. While researching the day trip, we were pleased to note that there was an all-vegan Japanese curry place in the train station, so we made sure we would be passing through there at a suitable lunch time.

Mother HH tried the spice curry with vegetables, and she was very happy with it. It was a good assortment of vegetables (perhaps less so if you hate broccoli, as she does), and plenty of rice.

It was spice curry with katsu tofu for Dr HH. The sauce was well seasoned and consistent with other Japanese curries we’ve made at home or tried in restaurants, hinting all the right sweet and spicy notes that we’ve come to expect.

I got the Japanese curry with katsu tofu, which was similar but a bit spicier. The katsu tofu was excellent, with a thick, crispy coating. We all got the same little side salad that was well dressed too.

Ginger ale seems to be all the rage in Japan, or at least in the vegan restaurants – we ordered it almost everywhere. Mother and Dr HH enjoyed the ginger ale here. I branched out and got an iced chai which was delicious and quite heavily spiced with cinnamon (a good thing for me).

This restaurant was not the easiest place to find initially but the explanations on Happy Cow are accurate, and once you get yourself into the basement floor in the food court area it’s pretty easy to get to.

We didn’t get to do everything we’d planned in Yokohama because Dr HH was struck down by a sudden illness (he fully recovered, don’t worry). Luckily we’d started our day with the outdoor activities that were highest on our list. We started out at Negishi Forest Park, which had loads of cherry blossom and was less crowded than the Tokyo parks we’d already seen. There were lots of people picnicking and enjoying the scenery, and there was so much blossom, it was really pretty.

We took a bus from there to Sankien Garden, which was quite a sprawling place which we didn’t see too much of in the end. We enjoyed a walk around this lake in the centre, which was lined with cherry trees in full bloom and nice relaxing views. We were told by a guide that there was a lot more to see, but we were trying to keep things moving and were really prioritising the cherry blossom. If you are visiting out of cherry blossom season, I think this garden would still be worth a visit, there was plenty to see and it was really well tended.