This year has been a great year of food for me! I enjoyed so much delicious food on my long summer trip, it was quite hard to select a top ten. A couple of local spots in Prague make the list too, they have served me faithfully this year. There are a lot of Tokyo eateries on this list – no wonder I’m already planning another trip! In no particular order, here are my top ten food spots of 2024.
Indelicious, Prague
This has fast become my favourite eatery in Prague. It’s not fully vegan, but they have loads of vegan options and are constantly adding more and trying new things. The sev puri is the stuff of dreams! More here.
Vegan Ramen UZU Kyoto, Kyoto
This is one of the places we were most looking forward to in Japan, and we still reminisce about it on a weekly basis. Being forced to rub essential oils on your hands is a bit much for me, but the art and atmosphere were really fun, and the food was amazing. This ramen was unlike any of the other ones we had in Japan, and Dr HH had an incredible Sichuan dish you can read about here.
Wheat Allergy Baking Studio, Taichung
We went to some good bakeries on our summer trip, and this was the best. This croissant was delicious, and the savoury breads were just as good.
Kung Tak Lam – Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong
This place had such an exciting menu and we loved the selection of dishes we ordered. The lovely view across the water didn’t hurt either!
Vegan Bistro Jangara, Tokyo
In a year of delicious ramen, this is way up there with the best. We ordered two different types of ramen, and both had really flavoursome broth and tasty mock meat. Full review here.
Dosa Dosa, Prague
I can never resist a dosa, and this all-vegan restaurant has at least three options on the menu. They also do vegan lassis, which are otherwise unheard of in Prague, and have an excellent selection of cakes. The banana bread is a favourite of mine, for its massive chocolate chunks. More on Dosa Dosa here.
Isakaya Masaka, Tokyo
A rare, non-ramen spot from Japan! We had a sensational mapo tofu and some of the best vegan chicken I’ve ever had in this casual lunch place in a mall food court. And I’ve had a lot of good vegan chicken! You can read more about the dishes here.
Yang Shin, Taipei
Yang Shin will always hold a special place in my heart as the place where I was first introduced to stinky tofu. What a revelation! Our numerous other sharing plates were also full of interesting flavours and textures. We went twice in Taipei, and I’d love an opportunity to go again!
Hip Pun, Taipei
Another Taiwanese, all-vegan bakery! We tried almost every dish they had in this bakery, it catered to us for multiple breakfasts, packed lunches, and desserts. The black pepper with tofu bun was truly the stuff of dreams!
Saido, Tokyo
The menu we chose here contained far too much food for me, but it was really fun to try loads of the traditional dishes of Japan, veganised. It’s hard to choose a favourite course, so peruse the full review here to see what we got to try.
Here’s hoping for more delicious discoveries in 2025!
Our second and final stop in Korea was Busan, where we encountered generally better weather than in Seoul, much to our relief. The vegan scene was not quite so thriving, but we did pretty well here, though we only stayed a few nights. Here’s what we ate in Busan.
Soban Vegan
This restaurant is really highly rated on Happy Cow, so we were keen to give it a try even though the menu didn’t really wow us.
We both got the spicy soft tofu jigae, which was a stew that came with a pot of rice and five banchan dishes (more on those below). It’s difficult to find a dish where the spice levels satisfy both me and Dr HH, but this basically did the job, even if it was a little spicier than I would have really wanted. It contained plenty of nice soft tofu, and the rice was nicely seasoned. We did have our usual complaint in Korea that the only flavour of anything is chilli – this had chilli heat, but no other flavours really.
We also shared a plate of fried mushrooms in sweet and spicy sauce. The mushroom were juicy shiitakes in batter with a nice sauce on the outside. I was hoping the batter would be a bit crispier, but there was a lot of sauce which perhaps ruined that texture. This dish was more expensive than the stew, and wasn’t really worth the extra money for us.
The banchan were really good! We got kimchi, mock beef with mushrooms, sauteed aubergines, cabbage, and a fifth item that we couldn’t identify. Dr HH loved the kimchi, and I was very impressed with the mock meat. These were certainly the most creative and delicious banchan that we had on our trip.
The restaurant also has a selection of vegan products, which was handy as we were struggling to find vegan snacks in convenience stores. I was absolutely delighted to get a couple of bars of Vego chocolate to keep me ticking over!
Sulgodang
I am not always keen on eating at non-vegan restaurants when I’m travelling, in case the language barrier means I mess up my order and I accidentally get meat dishes. Sulgodang is not all-vegan, but it did a great job at alleviating my concerns. There is a clearly labelled vegan section on the menu, and after we ordered the staff asked if we were vegan so they could be sure to bring the correct banchan selection. We were so satisfied that we went back a second time as well.
On our first visit, Dr HH ordered the Korean ramen and found it a bit underwhelming. It didn’t really have a lot of flavour beyond being mildly spicy – our usual issue. It contained noodles and a few vegetables, but nothing particularly fun like tofu or mushrooms. He did get a small dish of rice with the meal, which he chucked in to the leftover broth at the end for a slightly different finish.
I ordered the tofu steak and it was an absolutely gigantic portion of tofu (500g according to the menu). It came with a pot of soy sauce with sesame seeds and spring onions in it. I also ordered a portion of rice to go with it. The tofu had a nice searing on the outside and the texture was fine but it didn’t really have much flavour. It could be so easily improved with smaller pieces of tofu (so you get more of the seared edges) and a bit of extra seasoning. Both of these dishes felt very much like a non-vegan’s idea of vegan dishes.
Nevertheless, we did make a second visit, and had quite similar feedback. I had japchae this time, which was solid but not amazing.
And Dr HH tried the fried rice. It was solid, and he enjoyed adding the various side dishes to it, but we were still not totally bowled over.
The banchan were more impressive, and provided some of the flavour and texture that was missing in our mains. Dr HH was especially thrilled to get some tteokbokki. You could ask the staff for refills of any of the dishes, which was also appreciated.
This restaurant was really conveniently located for us, and we generally liked the look of the vegan options. The banchan were great, the rest of the dishes were filling, and it was pretty solid.
Vegan Food
For something completely different – we were thrilled to spot a gigantic “Vegan Food” sign while wandering around Gamcheon Cultural Village (more on that below). Everyone around us seemed to be having colourful and fun looking drinks and treats, and I was really happy that we didn’t have to miss out.
This is a takeaway only stand which just offers one dish – a brightly coloured mochi with some fruity syrup. We could choose which colour mochi we wanted from an assortment of bright options. I think they all tasted the same though, based on the two we tried. Then there was a choice of a few different fruity syrups. We both got strawberry and mango, which were sweet and refreshing. It was colourful and cute!
Caffeinated
I am always thrilled to find a vegan breakfast available at an early hour! We were so delighted with this spot that we went three times during our stay in Busan. The only vegan options are a smoothie bowl (green or berry) and banana bread, along with plant based milk for drinks.
We enjoyed the berry smoothie bowls, though on one occasion Dr HH got some chunks of frozen fruit that he couldn’t get through. The coconut was a tasty topping, and the coldness was refreshing in the heat and humidity.
The banana bread was nice. It was served warm and in some sweet syrup, which made the dish a little too sweet overall for my personal tastes. But it was a nice light sponge with plenty of banana, and we still enjoyed it.
The hot drinks were good too, and it was quite a spacious and light spot, perfect for a leisurely breakfast.
Rainbow Crust
We found yet another all-vegan bakery in Busan, after Seoul being inundated with them! We got an assortment of bread to takeaway for breakfast or packed lunches, and we were generally pleased with everything.
The cinnamon bagels were generously spiced and really tasty.
The red bean paste buns were generously filled and had just the right amount of sweetness. I’ll never be a huge fan of beans in a dessert, but this was fine.
The vegetable cracker loaf had a good savoury taste which we enjoyed, though it was still quite subtle.
In all cases, the bread was extremely soft and pillowy, just what we wanted. I definitely recommend this place if you’re looking for some picnic food!
Activities In and Around Busan
We had a fun afternoon at Gamcheon Culture Village, which is a fun part of the city with lots of colourfully painted houses, street art, and fun things to spot. We paid for a map to make sure we didn’t miss any of the attractions, but you could easily just wander around.
We were delighted to get outdoors again for the Igidae Coastal Trail. This was a really pleasant walk of a few hours along the coastline, with beautiful views out to sea and towards the city. I would recommend good trainers or walking boots, because there was quite an array of terrain and some of it was muddy and slippy. There were lots of steps too. The travel blogs I’d read suggested it was more of a paved walkway by the beach, and it was not that at all! It was a great walk though.
We also took a day trip to Gyeongju where we spent some time exploring Daereungwon Tomb Complex, where we saw lots of ancient burial mounds and learned about the burial traditions and botched excavations over the years. We also took a bus out to Bulguksa Temple, which was really impressive, and Seokguram Grotto. It was a bit tricky to plan all our bus times, but worth it if you can make it work.
During my vegan research of Seoul, I was thrilled to find that it has loads of vegan bakeries. I envisioned us eating decadent desserts every day. We picked up a few sweet treats, but it wasn’t quite as indulgent as I’d hoped. Here’s what we tried…
Asheville Bakery Cafe
A lot of the bakeries turned out to be bread heavy, rather than dessert based. We returned to this bakery several times to pick up bread buns to takeaway for breakfasts the next day. It is also a cafe serving hot food, which looked tempting too.
We tried a few different ciabattas from here and enjoyed them all. We tried fig, chocolate and cashew, cranberry and pumpkin seeds, olive, and mushroom and potato. The fig and cranberry ones were probably the best because the fruit added a nice juicy hit, which was very welcome and prevented the buns from being too dry. The chocolate and cashew bun was a bit dry from the cocoa powder on top, but it was so decadently chocolatey that I didn’t care too much.
All of the flavours were generously provided – you would never struggle to remember which one you’d ordered because they were all bursting with the relevant ingredient. A few of the buns were a little overdone in patches on the top, which gave a slightly bitter taste, but mostly the buns were excellent.
O.verte Donuts
Trying to find that good dessert we were craving, we visited a mostly-vegan donut place. We got a box of six doughnuts to takeaway: two black sesame and cream, a peanut butter and jelly, an earl grey and almond, a matcha crumble, and a garlic cream cheese.
The black sesame and cream one had a fantastic taste and the cream was a good sweet addition to balance out the sesame.
The peanut butter and jelly was good, but heavier on the jam than peanut butter. That may not be a problem for you though!
The earl grey and almond was perfect, a really subtle flavour and delicious cream.
The matcha crumble was a little dry, I would have loved a slightly stickier icing on top, but the flavour was good.
The garlic cream cheese was a sweet donut with a savoury topping, and Dr HH assures me that it was really well balanced and tasty. I didn’t take its photo because I was so nauseated by the idea of it – but it’s in the middle of the bottom row in the photo above.
We ended up going back for a few more treats later in our week in Seoul. This time we tried the raspberry pistachio, which had a sweet, sharp raspberry glaze and nice crunchy chunks of pistachio.
The tiramisu had quite a sweet glaze and didn’t taste strongly of coffee (although, Dr HH always says this about coffee-flavoured desserts and when I dare to take a bite as a coffee hater, it is extremely strongly flavoured!). It seemed like this one would lend itself very well to some cream on top, based on the components of an actual tiramisu, so it’s a shame it was one of the few without cream.
Finally, the chocolate donut was very sticky, sweet, and tasty.
In general, we found the dough pleasant enough. The flavours were fun and unusual (for us anyway, with a now fairly disappointing vegan donut scene in Prague), and I appreciate the creativity.
I understood that all the donuts are vegan, but not all of the drinks are – I think it’s clear on the menu though. It looked like when we ordered, the staff took six plain donuts and decorated them based on our order, so it wasn’t immediate service, but didn’t take long at all. That’s useful to know because it means that you might be able to order a donut from the menu even if there isn’t a sample one out on the counter.
mtl cafe & bakery
This is not an all-vegan spot, but it reportedly has a few vegan options which are clearly labelled. We went in on a Saturday afternoon and they had two muffins and one chocolate torte out in the case as the vegan options. We got a couple of banana bread muffins to take away for breakfast the next day.
The muffins kept well for the next day and were tasty. They were moist and dense (but not in a bad way), making for quite a hearty breakfast treat. They were topped with some oats and chopped nuts for texture. There was also a sweet sticky sauce drizzled on top which was a nice addition. They were really good muffins, so it’s a shame the vegan options were so few.
Cafe de Fessonia
This café is located inside the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (more on that below), which means it might be convenient to visit. We went here quite late in the afternoon to pick up some snacks for the following day. There were chocolate chip cookies and fig cookies, so we tried both. They were all quite tasty, but none of it was mind-blowing. Vegan items were clearly labelled with a vegan sticker.
Coconuzm
It’s not a holiday until you have some ice cream! We were delighted to find this all-vegan ice cream shop, and on a rare sunny day in Seoul too. There were about ten different flavours to choose from, and the ones we tried all had good creamy textures. We got a couple of large double scoop cones from here and they were delicious.
Dr HH got earl grey and salted caramel. The earl grey had a nice citrusy flavour, but he didn’t pick up much tea from it. The salted caramel flavour mostly came from the sauce drizzled on. It also contained some bits of almonds, which were fun for texture.
I got mint chocolate chip and chocolate hazelnut. I consider mint choc chip to be one of the all time great flavours, but vegan versions are few and far between. The mint and the chocolate chips were good. The chocolate hazelnut was nice, but the coconut flavour was a bit overpowering in this one.
If you do for the double scoop cone, be aware that it is not very stable! Poor Dr HH was trying to tentatively scoop at his ice cream and sent it all tumbling off the cone. Fortunately (and quite incredibly), he caught the flying ice cream scoops in one hand and was ready to carry on eating from a cup. The staff member kindly made him a new one which he was even more tentative with and successfully ate it all. It did make for a significantly more stressful experience than I like to have with an ice cream! Get a cup if you go!
Activities in Seoul
And in this post I’ll share a few activities in Seoul that are neither a palace nor a temple! (See last week’s post for those highlights.)
Dongdaemun Design Plaza featured on all the Seoul itineraries I looked at, so we made a visit too. The DDP is the world’s largest atypical building, however you might define that. It was fun to look at from the outside, but we had a hard time trying to understand what is actually in it and how to get to the parts that are accessible to the general public. We settled for finding the famous staircase. If you’re an architecture enthusiast or if there’s a good exhibition on, you might want to spend more time there than we did.
Bukchon Hanok village also featured prominently on blogs about Seoul. Our map app took us there in a roundabout way, but ultimately it seemed like there was just this one street of old timey houses that is the big tourist attraction. It felt like a bit of a tourist trap to us.
Speaking of tourists traps – struggling to find another indoor activity to get us out of the rain, we made our way over to Starfield Library at the COEX Mall. Just looking at these shelves you can probably identify some difficulties you might have in accessing the books. This library looked to me like it exists just for social media. At least it was out of the rain and we got to see some top notch posing!
While I was bedridden (I had a mild cold), Dr HH spent a few hours at the National Museum of Korea, which is most famously home to a helmet from some ancient Olympics. We wouldn’t have gone to this museum were it not for the rain, but he said it was fine.
He also stopped by the Leeum Museum of Art but was a bit underwhelmed – though he did enjoy the fun lighting and mirrors in the stairways.
Finally, we did manage to get into the great outdoors on one occasion! We got public transport to the outskirts of the city to Namhansanseong fortress, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. We didn’t pay to go in the fortress, but we did take one of the hiking trails around it for a gentle walk. It was a hazy day, but we still enjoyed a pleasant view of the city. It was good to get some fresh air and feel the sun again!
My first ever trip to Korea was a bit of a mixed bag. I knew that we would be there in rainy season (July), but I lived in Vietnam before, I thought I could handle rainy season – one big, well telegraphed downpour per day, but otherwise clear to be out and about. Alas, Korean rainy season is quite intense! The main problem we had was that the weather forecast changed constantly, so we never had any reliable information about when we should schedule indoor or outdoor activities. If the rain was scheduled for 10am-1pm, we’d not set our alarms, enjoy a lie in, and plan to be out and about in the afternoon. Then of course by the time we woke up, the rain had changed to early afternoon. Then it changed to late afternoon. And on and on and on. It did rain, and a lot, we just never really knew when it would happen, which was a bit frustrating. We had a full week in Seoul, so we did manage to get out and about and see things, it was just all a bit trickier than planned.
Our rainy trip to Korea started in Seoul, so let’s dive in to the vegan scene there. I had been really excited about trying Korean vegan food. We go to a vegan Korean restaurant in Berlin that I absolutely love, so I was hoping for dishes like the ones we get there (find out more here). But to be honest, my overall finding was that the food was either packed with so much chilli heat that I couldn’t bear it, or quite bland. There were certainly some good dishes though, and as a big fan of vegan chicken I was in heaven on that front.
Vegan Insa
Vegan Insa was set up slightly strangely – there was a main building which was full, so we were seated in small room across the courtyard which just had two tables in it. Happily, it was air conditioned. We ordered from a machine in the main restaurant building and paid while ordering, and the staff brought the food out to us when it was ready. We ordered the Korean fried chicken, tteokbokki, and bulgogi with rice.
The Korean fried chicken had a fantastic flavour. It was spicy without being too fiery (despite my complaint above). However, the texture wasn’t quite right. It was quite soft and didn’t have enough bite to it.
Dr HH ordered his favourite Korean dish, tteokbokki, which was served with mandu, fish cakes, and fried vegetables. He enjoyed the spiciness of the tteokbokki and thought the mandu was a great addition with a really nice filling. The fish cakes didn’t taste of fish, unfortunately. The batter on the vegetables was a bit heavy, but still good. The menu said there would be fried shrimp and it was just vegetables, which was a shame.
I ordered bulgogi, which I had never tried before, and it was fine but not really for me. Everything in the dish was quite soft. Every bite had the same texture and the same (quite mild) flavour, so it was not a very exciting meal. I don’t have any other bulgogi experience to compare it to, so I’ll assume that I just don’t much care for this dish in general. I’d definitely visit again but order a different dish.
Maru JaYeonSik Kimbap
We tried to get as much Korean food as we could, rather than going for western options like burgers, so this spot was high on our list. It’s more of a market/food stall place with seating than a sit down restaurant, which means seating is quite limited and it may not be the perfect location when it’s raining. Fortunately we were there when it was more of a drizzle, so we just about got away with it.
We shared the ham gimbap, which were quite tasty. The soy ham was good, but was maybe a bit lost among the vegetables which had sharper tastes and crisper textures.
I also got the mandu. They had the perfect texture and were really well fried, but the filling was a little bland for me. They really relied on the dipping sauce for flavour – and the dipping sauce was excellent!
The bibimbap had a good variety of vegetables and a really flavoursome sauce. It was a hearty potion, but Dr HH was up to the challenge! He’s not that bowled over by bibimbap as a dish, but was quite pleased with this one.
Service was fast, friendly, and easy to understand as a foreign tourist.
Plantude – I’Park Mall Yongsan
One day Dr HH was flying solo because I stayed in the hotel suffering with a cold, so he took the opportunity to go for some fusion cuisine and get an exciting tteokbokki dish he’d been eyeing up.
He got the truffle sea trumpet cream tteokbokki and really enjoyed it. It was interesting to get this dish with a creamy sauce that had a good taste of the sea from the herbs and seasoning, rather than the usual spicy sauce that comes with tteokbokki. The rice cakes were longer than the ones you get in the typical dish, more like a very thick noodle. The fried enoki mushrooms added some good texture too. He was a big fan of this dish.
He also got some garlic bread on the side, which was largely fine but reportedly a bit sweet when he had a bite of it on its own without a dunk in the sauce. What a shame!
Vegan Kitchen
We came here twice while we were in Seoul, and got takeaway as well on the night I was too ill to go out, so you can surmise that we were pretty satisfied with the dishes we got.
Dr HH of course got the tteokboki. The portion was hearty and the sauce was tasty with a good level of spiciness. There were a few bits of vegetables in there but nothing too exciting.
I had the japchae, which sounded like a suitably non-spicy dish. I enjoyed the sesame taste and the texture of the noodles, which were good and slippery. The vegetables in the dish added some decent texture too.
We shared a plate of fried chicken too. This was reminiscent of good chicken nuggets. The coating was really crispy and well seasoned. The texture of the chicken was good and it tasted like chicken too (to two people who have not eaten meat for over 25 years).
On our second visit, Dr HH got the kimchi fried rice. The rice was a bit unexciting, unfortunately. It didn’t have a lot of flavour and he felt the best spicy and sour notes of kimchi weren’t really there. It was also very much just a rice dish without much else to make each bite interesting – but that’s always the problem with fried rice.
He also had the chicken in spicy sauce. The sauce on the chicken was good and sticky, a bit sweet and a bit spicy, but not as packed with chilli heat as he hoped. Obviously it was too spicy for me.
Craving some vegetables to fend off my cold, I got the bibimbap and quite enjoyed it. There was a good range of textures from the vegetables, and I liked the flavour from the seaweed and the sauce.
There was also some banchan (complementary side dishes), the same dishes both time we dined in the restaurant. The cold pasta dish was a little unpleasant for me, but otherwise these were good.
And we were served by a robot! What a novelty! The restaurant wasn’t very busy when we were there, so the robot could easily cross the room to get to us undisturbed. To continue to reduce human interaction, we also ordered from a tablet on the table. Cutlery was secreted away in a drawer under the table. Overall, this was our favourite spot for Korean food in Seoul.
SanChon Korean Temple Cooking
This restaurant was recommended even in the non-vegan blogs and itineraries I was reading, so I thought we should give it a go to try some classic temple food. I’m not disappointed that we went, but I do think it’s ultimately a classic example of non-vegans thinking that something is a really great example of vegan food, and vegans very much disagreeing. It was fine, but not as good as any of the other Korean vegan restaurants we tried on this trip.
We ordered a set meal for two, which provided us with a lot of food.
The first thing we got was a cold pine tea, which had a very strong fermented flavour and tasted alcoholic. We also got a pot of mulberry tea which tasted much better. After that we got a few plates of little starter bites and a couple of soups. Everything was generally fine but unremarkable, though I really didn’t like the taste of the dark cracker thing in the bottom right corner. The highlights were probably the little bits of mushroom and radish topped with a white powder, in the top left corner. We also got a cabbage pancake, which was incredibly oily and therefore a little unpleasant to eat.
The main course consisted of a whopping 16 different dishes along with a pot of miso soup and a bowl of rice each. The soup was tasty, and I approve of how much tofu was in it (the more the merrier, for me). The rice was in a stone pot, so there were some nice crispy bits around the edge, which we both loved. The waiter seemed to be advising us to pour some of our tea into the rice, but he was so quiet that we couldn’t be sure what he said and didn’t want to make fools of ourselves. I tried to discreetly observe our Korean neighbours, who did look like they were pouring tea into the rice bowl, but we weren’t confident enough to go for it. What if it was an elaborate prank?!
Everything from the mains was fine. Nothing was really bursting with flavour, with the exception of a few things that were very spicy (generally anything in bright red sauce was spicy). Some of the greens in the middle had a nice sesame and chilli taste to them, and there was tofu with some bits of seaweed that tasted good. Dr HH enjoyed the spicy stuff, and we both thought the japchae noodles were quite good.
Overall, it was a good experience but the food was not mind blowing. It was fun to be able to try lots of different dishes, but unfortunately nothing really stood out and made us want more.
Camouflage
We did eventually break from all-Korean places to go to this vegan American Chinese restaurant. We came here without really having a sense of what American Chinese food is, but the menu looked like it had some interesting options so we decided to give it a go. In terms of portion size, it definitely aligned with my experience of American restaurants anyway!
Dr HH had the orange chicken with fried rice. We both decided to pay a little bit more and get the ‘real crispy’ option for the chicken. We were happy to report that the coating was indeed crispy, even after a coating of sticky, sweet, and spicy orange sauce. He enjoyed the flavour and found it a well-balanced dish. The texture of the chicken was not good though, it was incredibly tough and chewy. It took a long time to chew each piece, and there was one he just couldn’t bite through.
I followed suit with the teriyaki chicken (real crispy) with fried rice, but I thought that it didn’t taste of very much. Dr HH had a piece and thought it was great, so maybe the coating of the sauce wasn’t very even or my cold was messing with my taste buds. The texture of the chicken here was the same as the orange chicken, and not particularly enjoyable.
The fried rice was fine, it had plenty of vegetables in it but wasn’t really seasoned unfortunately.
We also got a plate of shrimp to share. They had a good bouncy texture and nice crispy coating, but didn’t really taste of much.
All in all, we were a bit disappointed by the textures and some of the seasoning. But maybe it was an off day or we ordered poorly.
Vampire’s Chicken
Dr HH had his eye on Vampire Chicken from the first moment we arrived in Seoul, so we had to give it a try even though it was nowhere near where we were staying or any attractions we had lined up. It turned out to be well worth the detour!
We placed our order on a piece of paper at the counter, but the staff warned us that that the spicy BBQ chicken we wanted might be too spicy for us. They recommended the spicy hot pot chicken instead, so that’s what we got, along with a peanut and chilli sauce. I just got the plain chicken.
The chicken was delicious. The coating was excellent, really well seasoned and very crispy. The texture was enjoyable. It wasn’t really trying to imitate chicken, it was clearly a well made piece of seitan that was enjoyable to eat. The spicy hot pot sauce was perfect for Dr HH, it had great flavour that at first didn’t seem spicy but the heat grew. The peanut sauce was also very good and was milder, with a little chilli kick to it. The food also came with some pickled radishes, mustard, and salt.
It’s a small place with only about 6-8 seats so be prepared for takeaway if it’s busy. It used to be all vegan, but apparently quite recently it started serving meat as well, so make sure to specify if you’re ordering vegan or not. I would definitely recommend this place if you’re a fan of vegan chicken!
Activities in Seoul
There are lots of palaces and temples in Seoul, and we saw just a few of them, which I’ll recap here (other activities to follow in the next post). On the palace front, we were most impressed with Deoksugung Palace, probably because we saw it under a beautiful blue sky rather than rain clouds.
The palace grounds also contain the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which had a sensational embroidery exhibition on when we visited. We initially expected to just have a quick scoot around the museum, but we were absolutely engrossed. I feel inspired to try embroidery now!
The only other palace we visited was Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was absolutely full of tourists. It’s generally considered to be the best palace in Seoul, so it’s no surprise that it was packed. As you can see, the weather was a bit less favourable on this day, so the colours weren’t quite as popping as in Deoksugung Palace. It was really great to see hills in the background in one direction and the modern cityscape in the other.
We also saw a couple of good temples. Jogyesa temple had a very similar look to the palaces – we saw a lot of this green while we were in Korea! At first it was really refreshing and fun because it’s so different to the colour schemes in Japan, and completely unlike anything in Europe. But every palace and temple used the same colours, so it didn’t stay quite so fresh.
And we went to Bongeunsa temple on an extremely rainy day. This is famous for the huge statue you see here, which did keep things nice and interesting! This is just a small sample of the many palaces and temples in Seoul, and we were impressed with what we saw but not necessarily dying to see more.
I don’t know how I used to make it through one cookbook every month! This year we have quite slowly worked our way through a lot of East by Meera Sodha, and I feel it deserves a blog post. I got this book for Dr HH for his birthday this year because he’s a big fan of Meera’s weekly vegan recipes in The Guardian and I thought it was about time we gave her some money for her good work. Sadly, this book is not fully vegan (it’s vegetarian), but a lot of the recipes are clearly labelled vegan and some others have a vegan option. The book is a real delight, and we’ve made really good use of it throughout the year. Here’s what we’ve made from each section.
Snacks and Small Things
Wild mushroom miso broth
I’m rarely wowed by a miso soup, but this was actually a good one. The mushrooms were fun and the spring onions were a good addition. The broth on its own was not amazing, it needed the additional bits for balance and interest. It produced quite a small portion, serving four only as a side. The taste improved overnight for me, but that’s possibly just because I portioned out the mushrooms poorly so the second day was more bountiful.
Sweet chilli cashews
These were quick and easy to make, though I didn’t get a very even coating. They’re perfectly pleasant, but they suffer a bit in comparison to some Nigella ones I have made a lot which use oil to ensure a better coating, plus rosemary and garam masala for more flavour.
Onigiri
This recipe was not too reliable for me. It didn’t call for the rice to be cooled before forming, which seems essential, or for the rice to be seasoned, so it was lacking in flavour. The paste was hard to make in my blender without adding water. It was also quite sweet, so I added more miso and salt to make it more savoury. The rice helped neutralise it too. The overall taste wasn’t quite for me, but Dr HH was a bigger fan.
Salads
Tomato ponzu salad
This was a simple and effective salad that I served alongside the onigiri. The citrus flavour wasn’t too heavy but there was a nice sharpness. The predominant flavour was sesame, which I loved. I’d definitely have this again.
Burmese mango salad with peanut and lime
I loved the flavours in this, but found the dressing was so abundant that it made the salad a bit soft. I added some fried tofu for protein so this would work as a standalone lunch.
Noodles
White miso ramen with tofu and asparagus
This caught Dr HH’s eye because it was ramen (obviously) and because we had recently tried the dish that this recipe was based on. The soy milk broth was thick and delicious, although he made the mistake of not buying unsweetened soy milk (it still didn’t taste too sweet, in my opinion). The asparagus and edamame added some nice textures and are certainly better than whole boiled bok choi. The tofu on top is not in the original recipe, this was Dr HH’s own pretty standard tofu where he coats it in cornflour and black salt before frying it.
Caramelised onion and chilli ramen
I worried this would be too sweet, but it was not – we both really enjoyed it. I added some fried tofu as it was a bit light on toppings and protein (you may notice that adding tofu is a common theme for us, always trying to fend off the “but where do you get your protein?” crew). I also added a runny cashew egg (the recipe calls for an actual egg), which really enriched the broth. I feared the broth would be too sweet and European, but the Japanese flavours added at the end did come through and the egg helped with the savoury taste. The silky pieces of onion were excellent.
Ben Ben noodles
Shiitakes are quite expensive in Prague, so I used a mix of shiitake and chestnut mushrooms, but it made such a small portion I had to add tempeh. (I’ve read that the ‘meat’ on top is supposed to be more of a garnish than anything, but I can’t serve so light a portion!) I could not get the mixture to crisp up, so the texture was definitely not right. It was good, even though the Sichuan pepper flavour didn’t really come through as strongly as I’d hoped. It felt very savoury and umami. I’ve never had the dish before, so I’m not sure how successful it was.
Curries
Leek, mushroom and kale subji
Dr HH made this without the kale. It was pretty easy to put together and he found it good without being spectacular. I was a bigger fan, as this is quite an unusual combination of ingredients for us and I enjoyed the novelty of it.
Aubergine katsu curry with pickled radishes
What a treat! The curry sauce was quite thick and tasted authentic to us. Dr HH’s go-to katsu curry recipe is one of Tim Anderson’s, and it was interesting that the two recipes are quite different but produce the same excellent taste. The pickles were a great addition. I needed to use less panko than recommended for coating the aubergines, which were nice and soft. The second time I made it, I used tofu instead of aubergine, and it also worked perfectly.
Jersey royal and green bean istoo
I thought this was a nice simple curry, because I love potatoes and it is absolutely packed with them. Dr HH found it a bit underwhelming and disappointing, because there was no real sauce – just a very thin, coconut milk-based sauce with was immediately absorbed by the rice when I served it. I probably won’t be making this one again, but I still recommend the recipe if your household is a bigger fan of this kind of curry.
Rice
Coconut rice with aubergine and pickled cucumber
Dr HH made this one. When he tried the individual elements here he wasn’t too sure about it, but it worked as a whole dish. The pickled cucumber added a nice burst of sharpness, freshness, and a bit of crunch (enhanced by the peanuts too). The aubergines were lovely and soft and well seasoned. We don’t remember a lot about the coconut rice but we think it was nice change to just regular rice.
Congee
The recipe calls for black venus rice, which is something you cannot get in Prague. I read that it’s a bit similar to arborio rice, so I got that instead, which makes a less dramatic looking dish than Meera’s, certainly. The first night I served it, I didn’t let it cook as long as necessary, so it was basically a mushroom risotto, which was perfectly passable. The second night I cooked it down longer, and the texture was more congee-like, but that made me miss the bite of the rice. It felt like overcooked rice, just a bowl of mush! The pickles were fun, and I served it with a tofu dish (more on that below) which brought some more flavour, but unless I can find the correct rice, I won’t be trying this one again. It’s possible that I am just not a congee fan.
Aubergine larb with sticky rice and a shallot and peanut salad
This was sensational, one of my favourites from the book! I’d never had larb before, so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. The aubergines were cooked to perfection, so soft and melting away. The sticky larb dressing was sour from tamarind, it was delicious. The shallot and peanut salad across the top was amazing – I would double the amount of it next time though, it felt a bit of a light portion.
Sweet potato and tenderstem bibimbap
This one is not listed as veganisable, because no alternative is available for the fried egg that this is supposed to be served with. I decided just to skip the egg. It was a bit underwhelming, unfortunately. The sauce was fiery and tasty, and the seasoning on the vegetables was pretty good, but it still just felt like a fairly boring bowl. It’s not the kind of dish that ever really dazzles me, to be fair.
Beetroot and yoghurt rice
I had a pot of yoghurt to use up, so I decided to give this recipe a try even though I’m not crazy about beetroot or rice dishes. Surprisingly, it exceeded my expectations! The sweetness of the beetroot was balanced out by the seasoning. The spicy coconut across the top was a really fun addition, and the cashews added some nice texture. This was easy to make, and very good.
Tofu
Tempeh with pak choi and tomato sambal
I had to cook the tempeh for longer than recommended to get a good colour on it, and I’m glad I persevered. It ended up with a nice crunch at the edges. The sambal was really tasty too. I’m a big fan of tempeh, so I will certainly make this again.
Akuri scramble
This won’t be replacing my regular tofu scramble recipe any time soon. The silken tofu was fun and slippery, but I think I might actually prefer a bit of texture in my scramble, as you get from firmer tofu. The seasoning was a bit bland as well, unfortunately, I would double everything in the future.
Silken tofu with pine nuts
This was tasty! Again, I loved the slippery texture of the silken tofu. The dressing packed a lot of flavour. We didn’t have pickled chillies so I made do with a fresh one, and it tasted fine. We served this as a side along with the congee, and it added some really good flavour to that dish. We’re big tofu fans, as you can see, so we’ll certainly have this again.
Mushroom mapo tofu
Dr HH made it first following the recipe more or less – he just used silken tofu instead of regular firm tofu, to replicate versions of the dish he’s tried before. He added it at the early stage suggested in the recipe, and it swiftly fell apart long before making it to the table. We enjoyed the diced shiitakes as the mince element, but obviously it requires a lot of chopping time.
I have made it twice since, using vegan mince instead of mushroom and sticking with the silken tofu upgrade but adding it later in the process. It is so tasty! In the book, Meera refers to eating this every week in her household, and I do not blame her!
Chilli tofu
Dr HH made this recipe, which Meera has adapted from a paneer dish. The sauce was great, with tomatoes, chillies, and peppers with lots of seasoning. It made for a delicious plate of food. Poor Dr HH sadly only got to eat one portion as he cooked it just before having some dental work done that left him unable to eat solid food for a few days. Fortunately, he had reined in the suggested amount of chillies to make it suitable for me to enjoy solo!
Flour & Eggs
Kimchi pancakes with a spinach salad
The first time I made these, I served us one each as a side dish alongside the bibimbap described above. Despite how small they look in Meera’s photo in the book, they are actually supposed to be 15cm wide, so they are quite large and made for much too big a meal as a side. We’ve now switched to having two each as a main meal, and that feels perfect. I am not a big kimchi enthusiast, but these might just have converted me. They are amazing! The other ingredients in the pancake (tofu, spring onion, bean sprouts) are so neutral that they help to keep the kimchi in balance. The dipping sauce is flavoursome, even the salad is quite refreshing. These are becoming a regular fixture for us!
Aloo paratha
These breads were delicious and relatively easy to make. Dr HH is the breadmaker in our family, so he handled this one. In the past, he has always cooked the tempering for the potato filling, but here he followed Meera’s guidelines and threw the onions and spices in as they were without cooking. After adding flour to the seasoned potato filling, it all came together quickly and easily. He did of course fry them in vegan butter rather than the recommended oil. They were really tasty, and it seemed like one of his least stressful attempts at making this dish, so I think this may be a winning recipe.
Pulses
Quick coconut dal with tomato sambol
Quick was definitely an apt description for this dish, tackled by Dr HH. This dal came together quickly and still delivered plenty of flavour. The coconut and tomato sambol was delicious, it added some good textures and some freshness and zing from the citrus in it.
Sides
Sichuan aubergines
These aubergines contained plenty of the delicious ingredients that go into mapo tofu, so Dr HH was powerless to resist trying it. The aubergines were fried in a good amount of oil to make them delicious. They were definitely on the spicy side. He served them with some short grain rice to make it a whole meal rather than just a side.
Tamarind shallots
This was a tangy and tasty side dish, which I served with the potato curry as suggested by Meera. We were both more impressed with these shallots than with the curry, so that’s probably a good sign.
Sweet
Salted miso brownies
These brownies ended up not quite as salty or miso-y as I’d hoped, but it’s always quite a fine line adding a strong or savoury flavour to a dessert, isn’t it? They also ended up with a far too oily texture – I’m not sure if the amount of coconut oil listed in the recipe is just wrong, or if the use of chia seeds as an egg replacer factored in somehow – I’ve never used them before and it had a really weird slimy texture. I had to throw these away because they were so oily they were just inedible. Not recommended!
Banana Tarte Tatin
This was my first ever attempt at a tarte tatin! My tin was small, so I used half the amount of pastry and banana…but I panicked and used the full amount of caramel, which resulted in a big caramel flood. It was nice, the spices were quite subtle but definitely there to elevate it. On the second day it was slightly too bitter for me when we reheated it, but Dr HH was still happy with it.
Doriyaki Pancakes
This one is not listed as veganisable, but I was intrigued enough to try it anyway. I followed the pancake recipe as provided, but instead of the eggs I used 70g of silken tofu and blended it with the (plant-based) milk – based on a vegan recipe I’d found online. I needed to add more milk to thin the batter, but otherwise this was an easy switch. The pancakes were very sweet and very pleasant. I followed the blueberry cream recipe exactly as provided, just with vegan mascarpone. It was delicious, but it was in no way the thick spread shown in Meera’s photo – the cream just oozed out onto the plate. It was very tasty, but not at all the correct dish in the end. Maybe vegan mascarpone has a very different texture to the dairy version and scuppered the recipe? Perhaps that’s the reason Meera didn’t try to veganise it!
Conclusion
We really love this book and will be continuing to make good use of it! Even though it’s not fully vegan, we still definitely got our money’s worth from it. Some special ingredients are required in places. We already had quite a lot of Indian and Japanese ingredients, but still had to make a few trips to Asian supermarkets to make sure we had the right seasonings and sauces. The dishes are really flavoursome, and there are plenty of every day dishes that don’t exhaust you to cook, which is great. Definitely recommended!
We originally only planned to spend one night in Osaka, as a convenient base when travelling to the Kumano Kodo. But as some of our Korean plans got rained off, we were back for a few more days and we really enjoyed the vegan scene there. Overall I think Kyoto has more charm and the better vegan options, but we got to try some really fun dishes here too.
Mercy Vegan Factory
Dr HH and I both ordered the deep fried vegetables and kurumafu curry. Kurumafu means wheat gluten or seitan, in this context. The curry sauce was delicious, it was well spiced and full of flavour. There was a good selection of vegetables which provided a pleasing variety of flavours and textures. The star of the show was the fried seitan meat chunks. The coating was so crisp and they were the perfect texture! I absolutely love a Japanese curry, and this was a very good one.
It was actually the promise of a dessert counter that lured us in, as I’d seen this place listed as one of the best vegan dessert spots in Japan. Honestly, we were underwhelmed by our options. Dr HH got a caramel and banana tart and said it was fine. The flavours were good but the pastry was a bit soft.
I had the chocolate cake, which had a good bake and flavour, without being too intensely chocolatey. It was nice, but I’ve had better chocolate cake, and it was nothing mindblowing, as some of the reviews and posts had suggested.
We also got some melonpan to takeaway for breakfast the next day. We’d been on the lookout for vegan melonpan but failed to get one so far. This was really good, the bread/sponge part was chocolate and the outer biscuit layer had a nice crunch to it. They kept well for the next day too. These were better than the cake and tart. Despite being a bit disappointed by the cakes, I’d still happily recommend this place. I want to try to recreate this melonpan too!
Vegan Ramen by Playpen Friends
This was one of my favourite ramen spots in Japan. It’s an all-vegan spot with six ramen options on the menu. I had the tomato tonkotsu ramen. The broth was absolutely delicious, really savoury, creamy and rich. There were plenty of noodles, so it was a filling dish. The fried tofu was also good. There was perhaps a bit too much sweetcorn for my taste, but generally it was fantastic.
Dr HH had the syoyu tonkotsu, which also had a good creamy broth. There were a few different seaweed textures and the tofu was tasty. For both of us, the broth was the star of the show, really delicious.
We enjoyed that these were quite different from any other ramen we had in Japan, the tomato broth especially. It’s always fun to see someone trying something different!
Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka
It was tricky to find this place, as Google Maps took us to entirely the wrong location. Try to follow the instructions on Happy Cow to ensure you find it. This place goes by a different name (and serves a different, non-vegan menu) during the day, and is listed in the mall directory under that other name, so try searching for ‘The Second Room Cafe’ to make things easier.
The selling point during the day is that rather than one large dining room, it’s divided into small private rooms so that people can use them for breastfeeding. We were quite surprised to arrive and be taken to our private room with a giant TV and a sofa and coffee table, both of which were a bit too low for my personal liking. It’s supposed to recreate the comfort of dining at home, but it wasn’t that comfy for me, and I suspect other tall people might struggle similarly. But fear not, the discomfort was worth it! We were really excited by the menu which gave us the chance to try some veganised versions of local delicacies, and we were really pleased with what we got.
We really enjoyed the okonomiyaki. It was a decent size and saucy, but not totally swimming in sauce. The cabbage and meaty chunks had enough bite to keep the texture interesting. I really want to make a good okonomiyaki at home soon, hopefully I can recreate this magic!
We also tried takoyaki for the first time ever, and we were impressed! The server gave us some advice that we appreciated on how to eat it without burning our mouths (poke a little hole in it with your chopstick). The texture was nice and gooey inside and it had a good savoury flavour. It was a fun dish! Neither of us has ever tried the original octopus version of this, so we can’t really comment on its authenticity, but we loved it.
And we tried kushikatsu for the first time. I didn’t know before that this is simply deep fried skewers with meat and vegetables, which sounds good to me. The coating was good and crunchy, while the vegetables and mock meat were tender. This one was a bit difficult to share between two, but we enjoyed it.
For two not super hungry people, we shared the okonomiyaki, five pieces of kushikatsu, and ten pieces of takoyaki (you can select on the menu how many pieces you want), and we were very satisfied with that amount of food. Surprisingly, we found it more expensive than Tokyo. Ultimately, it was worth it to get the fun local dishes we wanted in a convenient location – even with that low sofa!
Oko Takoyaki
We couldn’t resist another chance to try takoyaki, this time in an all vegan spot that specialises in this very dish. As always, there are no reservations. Happy Cow reviewers warned that the queue gets long, so we were there right at opening time, and we still had to wait as we were only third in line.
This place is staffed by one person and it is tiny. The queue is down the stairs, because there’s no room inside to wait. When you are called in by the staff, you step up to the counter and place your order, then pay and get a number. You take a seat in one of the few seats available (maximum ten, I think) and wait for your number to be called. I really can’t emphasise enough how crowded it is. If you want to try to get to the self-service drinks area, you need to hope there’s nobody sitting at the bar. When you’re clearing away your dishes at the end, you can’t reach the bins if there’s anyone at the counter placing an order.
We ordered two versions of takoyaki, one with the standard sauce (pictured above) and the other with spicy sauce and vegan cheese (pictured below). The takoyaki was served with miso soup and a red cabbage salad as well – the soup was really tasty.
Unfortunately the takoyaki was quite burned. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to have a kind of caramelised or charred effect (the one at Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka did not), but it did just taste like it was burned. That was the predominant flavour, as the standard sauce was unremarkable and the balls themselves were very bland. Inside they had a texture that was reminiscent of supermarket veggie fingers from the 1990s – soft, bland potato and small pieces of carrot and pea. Dr HH reported that the spicy sauce added some flavour, but the cheese was unremarkable.
The kushikatsu was better. The mushrooms in particular were juicy and flavoursome.
Between the food, the wait, and the cramped space, this was a real let down. The reviews on Happy Cow are absolutely glowing though, people love it and insist it’s worth the queue, which can reportedly be a full hour. A lot of people seem to be fans of “the vibe” (as the youth say), which I think means the graffiti on the walls and counters. Honestly though, after a long, sweaty day, the last thing I wanted was to be crammed in next to strangers amongst chaotic decor. Good food would have cancelled out those things, like the food at Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka balanced out the uncomfortable seating, but alas, none of this worked out for me.
Riccio d’Oro, Kobe
We took a day trip from Osaka to Kobe, which is not far away at all, and the only food we ate there was an ice cream. It’s not really worth creating a separate post for one spot, so I’m adding it in here for ease.
This was an all vegan ice cream place. There were 12 flavours to choose from and it was a good mix of classic flavours and more exciting options. The ones we tried were all very creamy and I was very happy with the texture.
Dr HH got the green tea and brown rice flavour and the cheesecake flavour. The green tea wasn’t quite for him (not a big green tea fan in general) but it was okay and he liked the nuttiness from the brown rice. The cheesecake was very good, it was a bit lemony and had some biscuit bits as well.
I played it a bit safer (as always!) and got the chocolate and the ricchococream, which was a vanilla flavour with chocolate biscuity bits. The flavours were very enjoyable. The chocolate wasn’t very decadent, but it made for a good treat.
We also enjoyed that there was a hedgehog theme here, it was very cute!
Activities in Osaka
We saw adverts around town for a teamlabs installation at the Botanical Garden, so we snaffled some online tickets and made our way there after dark (it was only open 8:30-10pm in summer, so you can see everything lit up). There were lots of fun light-up, egg-shaped objects that you could interact with, plus various other video mapping and light displays. If you enjoy teamlabs, it’s good fun.
I’d never heard of a quasi national park before, but this was the second one we visited in Japan – Minoh Quasi National Park. We eyed up a fairly gentle but still uphill walk from the train station into the park, stopping off at Ryuanji Temple en route to the big waterfall. It was a much easier walk than some of the more ambitious and exhausting ones we’d done elsewhere on the trip – the intense heat and humidity were getting to us by this point!
We took a day trip to Kobe from Osaka, hoping to do a fun hike and see some other sights as well. From the train station, we hiked uphill to see the Nunobiki waterfalls and reservoir. The waterfalls were excellent, but it was a punishing climb on a brutally hot day. We made it to the Nunobiki Herb Gardens and needed some rest and rehydration! Fortunately, there was a ropeway back down the hill.
We then took the bus over to the Mount Maya cable railway station, and made our way up the mountain to the viewpoint. It’s reportedly one of the top three night views in Japan, and was not shabby in the day time either!
And here’s the miscellaneous, non-ramen, non-breakfast meals we had in Kyoto. It covers an exciting array of traditional Japanese dishes – we certainly ate well on this trip!
Saga Tofu Ine
This restaurant is located in Arashiyama, close to Tenryu Ji and the bamboo forest (more on that later), making it perfect for when you’re exploring that part of the city. When we visited, the main store was closed for reconstruction, but we were met with a sign telling us we could go to the north branch just 100 metres away, so that’s what we did.
There were five set meals on the menu, one of which is labelled vegan, so we both went for that. We got a lot of little dishes, most of which were tofu based. If you’re not into tofu, this is not the restaurant for you! I love trying all the different ways tofu can be prepared, so this was right up my street. We also enjoyed the opportunity to play our favourite game in Japan: asking one another if a certain dish is sweet or savoury, and concluding that’s it somehow both and neither at once.
There were some tempura, a few pieces of vegetable and one piece of tofu. It was all very tasty but the batter was a bit heavy and greasy and not as light as we would have liked. We enjoyed the matcha salt that came along with it.
There was a pot with yuba in what seemed like a soy milk broth. It didn’t taste of very much besides soy milk, but we made use of the dipping sauces to add some flavour. The yuba texture was really fun, and as don’t really get yuba anywhere in Prague, it felt like a treat.
There was a pot full of a big block of silken tofu simmering away above a heater. It seemed like it was just simmering in water, so there was not a great deal of flavour, but the dipping sauces livened things up again. The texture was great, silky smooth but still robust enough to not just completely disintegrate.
We also got a cube of black sesame tofu, which was very enjoyable. The texture was firmer than the silken tofu and it had a good sesame flavour. The aftertaste was a bit bitter though and that let it down.
The warabimochi (in the bottom left corner in the photo of the tofu pot) was probably the highlight. It was a sweet, gelatinous mochi covered in kinako (roasted soy bean flour). The sweetness of the mochi was really well balanced by the savoury nuttines of the kinako.
The red lid in the top photo is hiding a portion of rice, which had some red beans in it and was well seasoned. There were some radish pickles as well, which helped to boost the flavour of the blander dishes.
Underneath the tempura in the bento box, there were a couple of things that looked like lollipops that had a bit of a gelatinous texture and not much taste. They came with a sweet and sharp dipping paste, possibly mostly made of tamarind. It was not as exciting as it looked.
While not every dish was a knockout, we were really thrilled with the opportunity to try so many little dishes and enjoy some high quality tofu. We won’t get meals like this in Prague, so I’m glad we made the most of it!
Mimikou
We were really keen to get some curry udon while we were in Japan, and this place did not disappoint! It serves meat, but there’s a vegetarian page in the menu which clearly states that all vegetarian options are vegan, so there are quite a few things to choose from.
We both tried the vegetarian curry udon topped with soy nuggets and tempura. It was delicious! The udon noodles were thick and slippery. The broth was really well flavoured, with that classic curry seasoning giving a nice gentle heat. It was also very thick in places, which I loved. The soy nuggets were very good indeed – the coating was crispy and even retained some bite while sitting in the broth, and the meaty texture was good. The tempura was nice, but it was basically one giant tempura fritter with multiple vegetables in it, and I lack the skills to easily eat that when it’s sitting on a hot broth. As it got soggier from the broth, it disintegrated into it. So if you want to enjoy the batter, tackle it as soon as possible! We didn’t see a lot of vegan curry udon options on our wanders, so this was a great find.
Kyoto Soba-Morihei
And here’s another Japanese classic we were desperate to try! We were looking for somewhere to eat close to the train station and this did the job nicely. It’s on the first floor of the station building, in the Kintetsu Mall section, so if you’re stepping off the train after a long day trip, this is the perfect place to eat. There were four vegan options on the menu. You order from a tablet on the table and there is a clear vegan section, so everything went smoothly.
Once again, we both ordered the same dish, the rice bowl and tempura. It came with a side noodle salad where you can choose between soba or udon noodles. We both went for udon. The tempura bowl was good, with a variety of well coated vegetables. Some were hot and crispy but some were already a bit cold and soggy. The rice in the bowl was dressed in a sauce so it had a bit of flavour, which prevented the dish from getting too bland.
I never thought I’d say this sentence, but: the side salad was excellent! We got plenty of noodles, some sliced onions, a flavoursome green leaf, and crispy noodles on top, all dressed in a well balanced sweet and sharp dressing. Perfect!
All in all, it was quick, convenient, and tasty!
Gion Tanto
Yet another Japanese classic to finish off Kyoto! It’s an extremely popular restaurant that doesn’t take reservations. It serves meat, but there are a few solid vegan options. The restaurant is really small, only seating about 20 people. On the advice of other reviewers, we got there about ten minutes before opening and a queue formed quickly behind us. There were only two free seats just after opening and they were filled quickly too. You take off your shoes and sit on the floor at teppenyaki style tables. We were sat at the long bar and when that’s full you’re sat shoulder to shoulder with others which isn’t really what I want at the end of a long hot day.
I ordered the soy meat okonomiyaki, and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I only got a couple of pieces of meat. They were quite big and had a good flavour, so it’s a shame there were so few of them. The sauce was really flavoursome and delicious too. The pancake itself was crispy and hearty.
Dr HH got the soy meat negiyaki, which is not a dish I’d ever heard of. We weren’t really sure what the difference was going to be when we ordered, and when it was served we found that it had a lot more spring onion in it and on top of it, and no sauce on top. We were provided with bottles of vegan sauces so he could easily add as much sauce as he wanted (the sauce bottles provided on the tables are not vegan, but if you order vegan food they take them away and bring labelled vegan alternatives). He really enjoyed the flavour and texture of the pancake too, but he found the soy meat chunks not very tasty, unlike me.
When we left after about 50 minutes, the waiting area was full with more people looking in from outside. They have a sign up saying vegan food takes longer to prepare, so even though we ordered first, two other tables for their food before us. I enjoyed the food but I don’t know if I’d have been so glowing if I’d had to wait a longer time for it.
Activities in Kyoto
We recreated a day trip to Arashiyama that we took in 2019, with the added bonus that this time we did not get lost on the way! We started the day with a quick train ride to Arashiyama and arrived at our first stop of the day, Tenryu Ji. This is a pleasant temple and garden. It was the busiest of the temples and shrines we visited today and to be totally honest, the least interesting. But it’s still a worth a look around. It’s also close to Saga Tofu Ine (mentioned above), so we stopped there for some lunch before ploughing on through the bamboo forest. The bamboo forest is absolutely packed with tourists, many of whom seem quite annoyed that they can’t get the crowd-free video they wanted for their social media.
Through the bamboo forest, you emerge at Okochi Sanso Garden, which is a private villa with very lovely grounds you can pay to walk around. It’s much quieter than the first stop of the day, and has better views.
From there, it’s a short walk to Jojakko-ji, where you have to climb up this fleet of stairs to reach a nice little complex of temple buildings and greenery. It’s very picturesque, and my favourite of the sites so far.
Now there’s a longer walk to Adashino Nenbutsuji, which is famous for these stone buddha statues. It’s an impressive sight.
And then on to the main destination of the day – Otagi Nenbutsuji. The grounds have loads of these little statues, each one a completely different character. It’s so much fun to wander around and see them all. When we visited in 2019 hardly anyone else was there, and it seems a lot more popular now. The statues were just as fun as we’d remembered!
It’s just as hard in Japan as in Europe to find a breakfast spot that opens early. We did find a couple of solutions to that in Kyoto, and I’ll supplement the post by telling you about some of the more widely available breakfast options on the go in Japan.
Breakfast Udon
This place opens at 7am! Rejoice! When we arrive in a new location, Dr HH likes to filter Happy Cow to places open at 7:30am, which is how we found this spot. There is a sign outside the restaurant identifying that there are vegan options. Ordering was a little tricky – there are no menus on the tables, you have to go up and read the menu and order at the counter, making it difficult to take your time over it. You can ask for most of the dishes to be made with vegan broth instead of meat – this is all explained in English on the menu. You pay when you order, and have to go and pick up your order from the counter when it’s ready. You’ll hear the staff shouting when it’s time.
We both ordered the kitsune, which had nice spongy bits of tofu and lots of spring onions. The broth was a bit disappointing though, it wasn’t strongly flavoured at all. Even when we added two different types of pepper from the assortment of seasonings, it was still quite bland. But the noodles were thick and delicious, and the tofu was good too. Also, the food was ready in mere minutes. The benefits of having a small menu, I suppose! This place is only open 7-10am, so you do need to get there early. The same restaurant opens later in the day as an Italian restaurant. I was initially confused by all the bottles of wine on display!
koe donuts
I may be cheating a bit by including this, as it opens at 9am. We stopped by around 6pm to get some donuts to takeaway for breakfast the next day. They have three vegan doughnuts you can either eat in or take away, and one that is eat in only – a fancier “dessert” donut, if you will. The menu changes every month. One option was sold out when we arrived at 6pm, so there were three to choose from.
We both chose coconut chai donuts to take away. The topping was quite generous – a bit heavier on coconut, but there were some nice spices in there too. The dough was good and fluffy. They were a little small, but tasty. Definitely a fun breakfast (or dessert) option to have.
Convenience Store Breakfasts
Moving on to some non-Kyoto specific options. For most of our breakfasts (and packed lunches, when we were on the go) in Japan, we relied on onigiri from the convenience stores.
It turns out that the only vegan onigiri option in the main convenience stores (7-11, Lawson, and Family Mart) is the salt rice ball. Dr HH found it a bit too boring, but I think it’s quite pleasant for a totally neutral breakfast.
It’s never too early for something sweet though! We like to supplement our rice ball with one of these delicious snack bars, available in all the main convenience stores. It’s a puffed rice bar with some nuts and dried fruit in, coated in dark chocolate. It is absolutely delicious!
Starbucks Breakfasts
We never go to Starbucks at home, but when we’re on holiday it’s hard to argue with the convenience. Also, Japanese Starbucks is amazing for vegans.
They always label the cups for each plant-based milk in a very reassuring way. There’s always a menu on the counter when you go up to order, so it was very easy to point at the drink and milk we wanted to ensure there was no confusion due to the language barrier. I drank a lot of matcha lattes on this trip!
In summer 2024 there was a vegan sugar donut on the menu. Vegan food items are clearly labelled with a “plant based” sign in the cabinet, and we also confirmed the options on the official website in advance so we knew what we were looking out for. The donut was very sweet from the sugar glaze, and very sticky too, but it was perfect for a breakfast on the go. We did a lot of day trips, so it was convenient to pick up some donuts and drinks at a Starbucks at the train station and eat on our journey.
Dr HH was a fan of the blueberry bagel. I was worried it would be too sweet, but he insisted it was well balanced. This does not get heated up in store, you buy it already spread with vegan cream cheese.
We agreed that the mushroom keema curry hot tortilla was delicious! This one was heated up so the cheese melted. The mushrooms were good and meaty and it was really tasty.
The lemon cube cake was not very breakfasty, but I’ll include it here anyway. The sponge was good, and it was really sharp with lemon.
All in all, a good range of vegan options and perfect for when we were on the go. I know Japan has a reputation for being tough for vegans, but we found the convenience store and Starbucks options to be significantly better in Japan than in any of the other countries we visited on this trip (Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia). It’s good that there’s demand in Japan at least.
Activities in Kyoto
Kokodera Temple was a bit of a last minute addition to our itinerary. Dr HH had learned about it from a TV programme about moss, and sure enough it is an extremely mossy place, with over 120 different variants. It was very green and very beautiful! There’s a short loop to walk through the grounds, but there’s no limit on how many times you can walk it. To protect the grounds, there are limited visitors per day and reservations are necessary. We made our reservation online the day before (apparently you used to have to send a postcard requesting to visit and await a response – I’m relieved that things have changed!). It’s a bit pricey, but we really enjoyed it. When you arrive, you are encouraged to try some Japanese calligraphy to clear your mind. I always smudge my writing, so I found it extremely stressful! Fortunately the gardens helped me relax again.
From there, we took the bus to Daikaku-ji which is another temple with some beautiful nature connected to it. The buildings were pleasant, but it was all about this beautiful pond for us. With a ticket, you can walk around the lake and enjoy the spectacular views. So peaceful!
We originally planned on only staying in Kyoto for two days – a shame, as we love Kyoto, but necessary if we wanted to spend more of our three weeks in Japan enjoying the outdoors in Hokkaido and on the Kumano Kodo. But we ended up spending a bit longer there in the end. As the weather in Korea was such a washout, we abandoned our final week there and flew back to Japan for a bit more time in Kyoto and Osaka. That means a lot of good food to review! Let’s tackle the ramen first, as always.
Kyoto Engine Ramen
We often reminisce about how great the food was here on our last visit. Back then we hadn’t eaten a lot of ramen and this has since stood out in my mind as one of the best I’ve had. Now that I’ve eaten a lot more ramen, I wasn’t quite so dazzled any more – but still happy enough! Engine Ramen is not all vegan and it’s very popular. They don’t take bookings. We went for an early dinner and got in without any problems, but we did have to sit at the bar, which I’m never a fan of. There were two vegan options on the menu, so we tried one each. In fact, the options were exactly the same as back in 2019, and we each chose the one we did back then.
Dr HH tried the zesty vegan ramen and thought it was delicious. The broth was thick and creamy and has an almost cheesy flavour. There was a little bit of chilli heat that built up slowly, but it wasn’t particularly spicy. Nor was it particularly zesty though. It was topped with lots of green onions and various other vegetables. These all added some different textures and taste, but weren’t too exciting.
I got the beaning vegan ramen and the broth was very similar – I said to Dr HH that it reminded me of a mac and cheese sauce. The fried buckwheat topping provided a good toasty flavour and crunchy texture. The black mushrooms on top were really nice, and I would have enjoyed a few more. It was tasty but overall a bit too rich for my liking.
Overall, we enjoyed our meal but it doesn’t hit so high on our all time ramen rankings anymore.
Uno Yukiko – Gion Soy Milk Ramen
We almost removed this place from our Kyoto wishlist because we thought the ramens didn’t sound too exciting. I’m glad we gave it a try though, because at least one of them was delicious! In fact, we ended up going twice. On both of our visits there was no wait for a table and it was fairly quiet (as always in Japan, no reservations possible). We had to access the menu and order via a QR code (there’s a password available for the wifi), and service was very quick after that.
We tried the steamed soymeat dumplings, which were very meaty indeed, The wrappers didn’t stick to the filling at all though, they just slid right off. They were tasty, but tricky to manage!
I had the soy milk dandan noodle gekka on both visits. The broth was creamy from the milk, as expected, and the chilli oil gave it a lovely warm hit and depth of flavour that developed throughout the meal. The boiled gyoza maintained a decent texture, and the tofu was really good. The menu said there were 15 vegetables in the dish and to be honest, that’s a few too many for me, though I did enjoy some, particularly the beetroot crisp. However, there were a lot of some kind of green stalk that was a bit too tough for my liking and not very enjoyable to eat. Besides that, I was very happy. One slightly odd thing – according to the menu, this dish is “very popular along women”, which just seems unnecessary to mention and like it might deter certain men from trying it.
Dr HH had the soy milk ramen yuki zuki, because the menu said it included some Kyoto specialities. He found the broth pleasant but a bit bland, and relied on the seasonings provided on the table to balance it out. He thought the addition of a rice cake sounded fun in theory, but was actually a little difficult to eat in practice, and the large chunk of radish was difficult to deal with too. He liked the mince for texture and taste, and the bamboo. It wasn’t one of his favourite ramens of our trip to Japan, but it was fine. On our second visit he switched to the one above and much preferred it.
For dessert, we both tried the creme brulee. The top was beautifully caramelised and it was nicely sweet and flavoured with vanilla. Unfortunately though, the texture below the surface was more like a custard, it hadn’t set. We may just have been unlucky, but we didn’t risk it on our second trip. Despite a couple of dishes we were lukewarm on, we were overall quite impressed with this place.
Vegan Ramen UZU Kyoto
I saw a few social media accounts raving about this as the top vegan ramen spot in Japan, so I was very keen to visit. Throw in the fact that it’s connected with the teamlab art project, and I was even more excited. Reservations are required for this restaurant, and are available exactly one month before your chosen date. And I do mean “exactly” – when I tried to make my reservation for 7pm, I had to wait until exactly 7pm before the table was available to book. There’s just one big table and it seats I think a maximum of 16 people, so definitely don’t leave it too late to book if you’ve got your heart set on it.
Much like the tea house in teamlab: Borderless in Tokyo, it’s a big dark room with digital calligraphy art. The art reflects on the dark table, and the walls are mirrored, so it looks like everything is constantly in motion. I have very poor vision in the dark, but it was totally fine for eating and chatting, nothing to worry about. When we arrived, before being shown to our seats in the main room, we were asked to hold out our hands which were then sprinkled with essential oil. We were told to hold our hands close to our faces, close our eyes, and inhale deeply a few times. We were ready enough to be impressed by the art and the food that we didn’t really need this additional bit of theatre, but we played along and got into the spirit of things.
The menu was pretty small, but it was still hard to decide what to get – everything sounded quite interesting and unusual.
We shared a couple of starters. We really enjoyed these gomi no yuba rolls, which had good savoury flavours and a fun slippery texture. The shiso sauce that came with it helped elevate it further.
We also shared the sushi, which Dr HH enjoyed but were too wasabi-heavy for me – the entire topping you can see above is a pale green wasabi cream. I’m not a fan of wasabi, so I was hoping it would be quite subtle, but it absolutely was not. If you like wasabi, you’ll probably like it!
Dr HH had the tsukemen dipping noodles and it was the first time he’d had or really seen a dish like this. We googled this dish beforehand to try to understand how it was supposed to be eaten and if it was worth foregoing a proper ramen. In short: it was worth it. The sauce had lots of Sichuan and sansho peppers so it gave a good tingly mouthfeel. There was miso, shiitake and more chilli, so it was spicy and savoury with great depth of the flavour. The noodles were also excellent, flatter and thicker than regular ramen noodles. As they weren’t submerged in the sauce, they kept their texture better. When he finished the noodles, the staff topped up his bowl with dashi to turn the leftover sauce into a drinkable soup. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen him so happy!
I got the green tea ramen and absolutely loved it. The broth was good and savoury and didn’t taste like green tea (which I was happy about). The spiciness of the whole dish built as I ate more of it, but it was never too spicy. The noodles were the same flat, thick ones as Dr HH had above, and they kept enough bite for me. The only downside is that there were huge onion rings (not battered ones) on the top which were quite tricky to eat without splashing hot broth all over my face.
We had room for ice cream too! Dr HH had the kinako ice cream, which is roasted soy bean flour. It had a nutty and slightly savoury taste and was served with a sweet brown rice sauce. It was really creamy and very enjoyable.
I went for chocolate ice cream and this also came with the same sauce. As someone with a big sweet tooth, I enjoyed the chocolate flavour and sweetness of the whole thing, but it might be a bit much for some people.
This was our favourite spot in Kyoto. The dishes were unlike anything else we had in Japan, and it was such a fun experience. It’s a shame the cost and reservation requirement meant that we couldn’t go again! Also, in classic Japanese style, they’re only open four days a week, so you have to make sure you’re there during the week to even stand a chance!
Activities Around Kyoto
We did a couple of day trips while staying in Kyoto. First, we planned a three hour hike between two towns on the outskirts of the city, Takao and Hozukyo. After a one hour bus ride, we climbed a very steep hill up to a temple, Jingo-ji. The temple is in some really beautiful scenery, but I would not recommend visiting when it’s 39 degrees, it’s quite exposed and we were dripping in sweat from the climb!
We descended again and began the hike proper. It was a largely flat and straightforward three hours walking alongside the river, meaning that we saw a lot of beautiful scenery. There were a few trickier sections where we needed to use a provided rope for support scrambling up a few rocks, but generally it was very pleasant indeed.
Another day trip was to Nara, a very popular tourist destination. A lot of people go to see the deer, which wander freely around the city. We saw some extremely bad behaviour from tourists towards the deer (which we stopped), and I don’t really like that aspect of Nara. Deer are fine, awful tourists are not. Anyway, we were focused on visiting the main temples, starting with Kohfukuji, which was surprisingly almost deserted when we visited.
It was quite a long walk through deer territory to Kasuga Taisha shrine, which I loved for its many lanterns.
And then another walk to Todaji temple which is home to a giant Buddha statue. This was the busiest of the three spots. They were all very different, and well worth a visit.
One of the highlights of our trip this summer was the five days we spent on the Kumano Kodo. This is an ancient pilgrimage route in Japan, similar to the more famous Camino de Santiago in Spain. While we are not spiritual, we wanted to walk some of the trail in order to get some hiking in and enjoy nature. When I was planning this leg of the trip, I really struggled to find information about how vegan-friendly it would be. I’m hoping this post will help others to plan their trip or at least manage their expectations of it. For reference, I took my trip in July 2024.
It is possible to book places that have kitchen use so you can take supplies (there are very few shops along the way where you could pick up anything useful) and fend for yourself. We wanted to have catered meals because I was worried we’d be too tired to cook every evening, and concerned about where we’d find supplies along the way. I really wanted us to be well fueled for all the walking. The accommodation with meals that we booked was expensive, probably the most expensive of our whole two month trip, but for me the money was worth it. There were hardly any shops along the route, just one convenience store in each village usually (except for Katsuura, which is much bigger, and Takahara, where there was nothing at all), so it would have been a struggle. Plus convenience stores don’t always have vegan options. I considered bringing instant noodles, but I wanted us to be getting enough protein and calories. This was definitely the right approach for us.
On that note, I’d also recommend taking your own snacks along. We were armed with a load of Clif bars and jerky from home, plus a few chocolate bars for a sweet treat in the evenings. It really is slim pickings for vegans on the trail itself.
Also, it’s a very long trail. We did not walk the whole thing, not even close, and there are lots of different sections you can do. This is certainly not an exhaustive guide! Our route was Takijiri to Takahara, to Chikatsuyu, to Yunomine Onsen, to Katsuura.
Official Kumano Travel Website
We booked our accommodation and luggage transfer service on the official Kumano Travel website. The big disadvantage for me is that you have to submit your accommodation booking request all in one go (in my case, four nights of accommodation requests at the same time, including back up choices) and it can take them up to 30 days to get back to you with an approval or rejection. It took almost the full 30 days for my booking to be approved, which was a bit frustrating because I never really understood how it could take that long. Definitely don’t leave it till the last minute to make your booking, bearing that in mind.
The main advantage of this is that it’s the local community service and the one that visitors are encouraged to use. And another key advantage for vegans is that you can filter your search just for guesthouses that cater to vegans. The system is based on five different types of vegetarian diet, with vegan being Type E. The official site makes it very clear that you cannot just turn up on the day and request vegetarian or vegan food, it has to be organised in advance. It also kind of suggests that you will have a much easier time if you agree to eat dashi (fish stock) because it’s in everything. But don’t be discouraged, vegans! I booked everything under Type E vegetarian and we had no difficulties on the trip.
While booking our accommodation, I also booked us the luggage transfer service. This meant that our big backpacks got picked up each morning from our accommodation and were waiting for us when we arrived at our new guesthouse in the afternoon, so we could just take our day bag out on the trails with us. We did see a few people walking the trails with their massive backpacks, but I know I would have been miserable. The luggage transfer went really smoothly for us. I believe it has to be booked in advance, you can’t just turn up and request it, so this is definitely something to consider while you’re planning.
In the end, we got all of our first choice accommodation except for the last night. Here’s where we stayed and what food we got.
Suzushiro Rental House, Takahara
On our first day, we travelled from Osaka to Takijiri, the official start of the Kumano Kodo (or, one of the starting points), and then walked a few hours uphill to Takahara, where we were rewarded with spectacular views. Our accommodation here was our favourite of the entire two months we were on the road. We had this private cottage all to ourselves, and here you can see the view from the deck. It was absolutely incredible!
We were a little unsure what to expect from the food. I thought it would be pretty basic and unimaginative, but as long as I got some rice and protein I wasn’t too worried. It very much surpassed my expectations.
The guesthouse owner brought our dinner over at a pre-arranged time. Most of it was ready to be served: a hearty dish of rice, and a bento box each. This contained some fun pickled vegetables, noodles, and tempura, which was really exciting. We also had a kind of mushroom hotpot which had to be cooked for ten minutes over a little burner. The host made sure to tell us that there was no dashi in the stock, which I appreciated. It was fantastic! Everything was tasty and well seasoned, and we loved the variety of ingredients.
Breakfast was also delivered at a pre-arranged time, and this time no additional heating was required. We had some miso soup, salad sandwiches, pickles, salad, and nuts. I’m not a salad lover, so the sandwiches were not a big hit for me – I would have preferred some fried tofu in there for protein and sustenance. But the bread was excellent, and the other components were good too.
On our way from the cottage back onto the Kumano Kodo trail, we picked up our packed lunch from the owners. We’d been a little concerned about how big the lunch boxes might be, but we could comfortably fit two of them in our 20 litre backpack, so that was a relief. This one contained rice, mock meat, potatoes, and vegetables. Once again, we were very impressed with the seasoning, nothing was bland. This wasn’t just fuel, it was proper food!
Guesthouse Sora Chikatsuyu, Chikatsuyu
After the privacy of our own cottage, we were now into guesthouse territory. It was a tough day of walking to get to Chikatsuyu, so we were ready for a good rest and good meal.
This was a lovely place to stay, with hosts who clearly deeply care and take great pride in what they do. They helped us to adapt our plans for the next day, when rain was forecast, and arranged breakfast times based on that.
Our evening meal and breakfast were communal with the other guests. We’re quite introverted by nature so it is not my favourite dining arrangement, but it was great to hear from other travellers and our hosts about the trails and life on the Kumano Kodo. The hosts also kindly took us out on a short walk after dinner to show us fireflies, which was really special.
The meals were also good! Our dinner was fried tofu, mushrooms, pickles, and rice. The fried tofu was beautifully seasoned and one of the best things we ate on our Kumano Kodo trip.
For breakfast we got some really thick and delicious bread, along with tasty tofu and salad, which was all quite filling – it was my favourite breakfast of the trip. As always though, I believe salad has no place on a breakfast plate!
Our packed lunch included two rice balls, a spring roll, and some vegetables. The hosts told us they grow a lot of their own food in their garden (although monkeys do try to steal their vegetables). Again, it was filling and tasty. I definitely recommended this spot for vegans!
Onsen Minshuku Wadama, Yunomine Onsen
We limited our walking en route to Yunomine Onsen, because heavy rain was forecast in the afternoon. We took the early morning bus from Chikatsuyu to Hossinmon-oji and walked eight kilometres to Hongu, which is home to a large shrine complex and the world’s biggest torii gate. There was not very much climbing on the walk, so it was a very pleasant morning indeed! Just as we finished exploring Hongu, the heavens opened and the rain commenced, so we got the bus to Yunomine Onsen and settled in for some relaxation and food.
This was a really special place to stay, a very traditional old building. To be honest, I felt a little too large and clumsy for it, like I was thundering into everything! The bedroom was really spacious. Best of all, there was a private onsen, which we enjoyed very much. Public baths are very popular in Japan, and especially in this little town, but we are a bit too British to embrace public nudity. This private one was just what we wanted!
For dinner, we had seven small dishes of vegetables prepared in different ways, plus some soup, rice, and a curry. There was plenty of food and we were really full afterwards. The dishes were well seasoned too, this felt like the work of someone who knows what they’re doing with vegetables. Each dish tasted different, there was a good mix of spicy and not, it was just really well balanced.
For breakfast we had a soup, cooked vegetables, salad, banana, apple, a bagel, and a kind of creamy tofu that was a bit like cottage cheese. It was an eclectic mix for us personally, but the bagel and tofu were highlights and definitely helped to keep us full.
This guesthouse does not provide packed lunch, but through the reservation system we were able to request that someone else provide it for us instead. Our lunch boxes were delivered nice and early to our guesthouse, while we were having breakfast. It was a hearty lunch, with rice, mock meat, potatoes, and vegetables. It was good and filling, and once again we were impressed with the seasoning. My expectations were so low, honestly – in Europe I think if you request vegan options from places that don’t specialise in them, you’d probably get boiled vegetables and maybe a bit of unseasoned tofu!
Hotel Urashima, Katsuura
The rain continued to pour, and we were worried our outdoor activity might be rained off, but happily that was not the case. Through the reservation system, we had booked a boat journey from Michi-no-Eki Kumanogawa (which we reached by bus from Yunomine Onsen) to Shingu. We were well bundled up in waterproofs, and it was a pleasant time despite the rain. Shingu was home to a colourful shrine which we enjoyed. All our planned walking for this day and the following one had to be cancelled due to the downpours, so we pushed on from Shingu to Nachi to see the last shrines of our trip, including an impressive waterfall. Finally, we got the bus from Nachi to Katsuura and our hotel for the night.
Hotel Urashima was not our first choice accommodation – we wanted a small guesthouse with vegan meals, but they were fully booked so instead we got this massive resort with a buffet with labelled allergens. It was not really the experience we were looking for, but it was perfectly fine. This is your encouragement to get your booking request in early if you want to ensure you get your first choices! The hotel was a bit inconvenient to reach, as you have to take a ferry out there. But on the plus side, the ferry was shaped like a turtle! The hotel is actually a huge resort, and it’s such a maze that we were actually handed a map on arrival, but staff explained everything well at check in. The room was nice and quite large, and had a lovely view of the sea.
Meals are provided at the buffet in one of the hotel restaurants. Each dish is labelled in Japanese and English with allergens. According to the allergen labelling, vegan options at the evening buffet included rice, boiled vegetables, pickled vegetables, vegetable soup, fries, sweet potato and pumpkin tempura, and burdock chips. At breakfast there was rice and fruit. All the cereal was Kellogg’s, which I think is never vegan. I was a bit too tired to do much investigating of the options, so I just took comfort in a plate of beige food: tempura and fries! It was quite the change from the nice homemade meals of the previous nights, but it had its merits, and there were more varied options available.
Hiking the Kumano Kodo
As I said, before setting off on our hike I really struggled to get a sense of how vegan-friendly the Kumano Kodo would be. I also struggled to understand how challenging it might be and what level of fitness was required. Everything I read suggested that any “reasonably fit person” should be able to do it, but that’s so vague. The official website is helpful in this regard as it does show the profile of different stages of the trail, so you can easily get a good sense of how it compares to hikes you’ve done previously. The area is also tolerably well connected by bus routes and I don’t think it’s that common (or certainly not in July when we were there) to attempt the entire trail – you can pick and choose your sections. We encountered people of many ages along the trail, from teenagers hiking with their parents to couples in their 50s. Most people looked pretty fit and had decent hiking gear (hiking poles, etc – though we didn’t have poles and we got on fine, but would have struggled if we’d attempted to walk in the heavy rain). We do a lot of walking, and we made sure that none of our daily routes were more challenging than any walks we’ve done in the past, and we managed everything comfortably.
It was also pretty easy to navigate. We downloaded some maps from the official website and checked each morning that we knew where we were going. We also had our online maps on the go in case of emergency. Honestly though, the paths are so well signposted it is quite hard to go wrong – there are these handy “Not Kumano Kodo” signs on any off shoots. The paths are well maintained too.
The walks were so beautiful, mostly wandering through forests and enjoying the sounds of birds and insects. There were lovely views across the hills, and forays through tiny towns full of greenery.
And the shrines were very impressive! Some were just small shrines on the trail, and others were huge complexes. We saw ancient trees, waterfalls, pagodas…everything was beautiful and interesting.
Even if you are, like us, not walking the trail for spiritual reasons, I think it’s still well worth it for nature lovers. The scenery was spectacular, and it was great for us to connect with a whole different side of Japan. And now you know that vegans won’t starve on the trail either!
Herbivores' Heaven 