Hello all! How goes the day, in one word? Mine I think would be ‘quickly’. I can’t believe I’ve been in Japan for two whole months now - time really does slip through one’s hands like sand through the washing machine. I feel an apology is somewhat owed, however. Despite blogging semi-regularly, not once have I done what most people requested of me before I left the UK. I have yet to really write about interesting cultural tidbits - food, travel, general slices of a life markedly different from those featured in the one I lived back home.
To make a perhaps indirect comparison, in-between all the stress of move-ins and fumbling through bank-account setups in Japanese I have found the process of living here to be rather like the life simulation games I play. There's novelty in food shopping, in bill payments, in waking up each morning and making myself a coffee from my own little kettle. Maybe it’s because this is my first time living alone, but part of me wonders whether the fact that I have to think about the way I live my everyday life to make sure it is done correctly means I end up appreciating my fortune - the fact that I have the money to pay rent, that I have a convenience store outside my house, that the little train that runs by my window throughout the day can carry me to Shibuya Scramble Square in fifteen minutes flat.
I think it’s important to remain thankful for these things, and the least I can do as a writer is open a little verbal window through which my readers can peek into. You may find some novelty in reading about some of my favourite little things this country has to offer. To celebrate my first print publication (!!), Poor Man’s Bruschetta, I’ve decided to write about the emergency meals that now fill that dish's spot in my life. Amongst all the hustle and bustle of moving in, meeting friends, exploring this beautiful city, there have been times when I’ve bundled myself back in through my tiny apartment door, and found that I don’t have anything in for tea. Or that I have the bare bones of ingredients, but lack the time or energy to cobble together a home-cooked meal.
In Tokyo, I would normally say the solution to such a conundrum is to pop downstairs to your local ramen joint. But annoyingly Japan is not the most vegan-friendly place in the world if you haven’t yet found a friendly Buddhist willing to whip you up some shoujin ryori (or ‘food of devotion’ , free from animal products, onion, and garlic).
Don’t worry Mum, most of this is in jest - I am most certainly not wasting away here in Tokyo. Far from it, for even if I can’t drop into a sushi or ramen joint on a whim, there is a veritable arcadia to be found through the sliding doors of my local convenience store. So as a half-advice page for fellow plant crunchers, half-reassurance for my nearest and dearest that I’m not shrinking down to the size of an A5 sheet of paper, here are some of my favourite last-minute meals as lovingly provided by 7/11, Lawson, and Family Mart - also known as the consistent triad of Japanese convenience stores .
Japanese rice, beans, and peas - Otherwise known as rice, natto and edamame. A variant on the Jamaican staple regularly consumed during my time London , you can hardly go wrong with this one-hit ‘K.O answer to ‘where do you get your protein?’ This is a cute little three-ingredient dish. It is very easy to find packs of ready-to-microwave rice, or even ready-to-eat salted onigiris (rice triangles) here, along with ready-steamed edamame beans in triangular polythene prisms. Natto may be a new term to some of my non-Japanese gastronomers out there. The best way I can describe it is as ‘Japanese Marmite’ - not in terms of appearance or taste, but in terms of the civil division it inspires amongst the general populace.
Natto is a traditional Japanese food staple made from fermented soybeans, often sold in sets of three half-cup sized polystyrene packs. To properly eat natto, one must vigorously whisk the beans with chopsticks, optionally adding mustard and a fish-based sauce, until the slippery liquid aerates and takes on an infamous stringy texture. I personally rather enjoy natto, but many people (including my own students) are put off by its slight smell and spider-thread consistency that makes eating it a potentially messy affair. Still, when mixed with the edamame and rice, natto helps to create a very substantial side-dish.
Pickled plum onigiri - Onigiri are small fist-sized triangles of rice packed around a small pocket of filling and wrapped in seaweed. Perfectly-formed to curb any sudden onsets of snackish behaviour.
The majority of onigiri flavours heavily feature fish, roe, or are seasoned with pesky bonito (fish extract) flakes - the ABSOLUTE bane of my little vegan existence. But at least half of supermarket and convenience stores will have one or two ‘accidentally’ vegan onigiri in the form of a natto-filled roll or, the star of this paragraph, umeboshi. Umeboshi refers to Japanese sour pickled plum. It’s difficult to communicate the sweet, salty, sour sensation brought forth by this small morsel of a fruit. Pickled plum most certainly packs a punch, and I wouldn’t want more than one at a time. But when encased in lightly-seasoned rice and a nice sheet of seaweed, this pocket-sized snack is a late-evening/hangover delight. I have one at least every other day.
Baked Yam. Those who know me are probably well aware of my attitude to the jacket potato. They are one of my more irrational dislikes on this earth - I find them boring, bland, and nonsensical in that they take FAR too long to prepare. Don’t get me wrong, I've had a fair number of decent jacket potatoes in my life, but I don’t think I’ll ever love them in the way my British heritage means I should. How surprising is it then, that a baked cousin of the jacket potato might just be one of the biggest lifesavers for a hungry vegan in Japan?
Yams are sweeter than potatoes, which definitely attracts my sickeningly sweet tooth. And the best thing about the humble baked yam is that there is no need for wasting 90 minutes of oven time! In most supermarkets there is a small storage cart full of cooked yams wrapped in brown paper, piled on top of hot rocks to keep them soft and warm. Because of the warm cart, in a pinch you can literally grab a yam and go! By the time I return to the UK I may be converted to a more tubular diet after all…
Wagashi - Continuing on our sweet-treat train of thought, I think it’s about time for dessert. I often find myself wandering towards the baked goods and sweet section of convenience stores to supplement the overly-umami flavours of my main courses. One thing to know about Japanese traditional sweets is that the word ‘sweet’ should be very delicately applied. Much traditional confectionary here is based around a more natural tone of sweetness found in red ‘adzuki’ beans or sweet potato. Of course, you can very easily get gummies, chocolate, and other forms of candy here, but most of them contain gelatin or dairy products. And why would I want to rely on the same old gummy candy I can get in the UK when I can get sweets Japanese people have been serving for millenia?
Mochi, daifuku dango, warabimochi, and yokan are just some examples of wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) that you can find in the local convenience store. And they are all delicious. Special shoutouts go to tricoloured dango on a skewer and mugwort red-bean stuffed mochi. But I couldn't finish this list without giving special mention to the most important man in my life. No, it’s not my partner, it’s:
My sweet red bean paste bun love, the anman. I had to leave this until last, because honestly nothing in my gastronomic life compares to it. Do you remember the hot-rock yam cart I mentioned earlier? Well if you were impressed by that, then you’re going to be practically overwhelmed by the technological advancements found just to the left of most convenience store counters. Approaching checkout, arms chock-full of all the glorious items previously discussed, you will normally always be met with a few hot counters. One is for fried food and skewers (special shoutout to the hash brown), and the other is a multi-tiered hotbox especially for steamed buns. Normally these buns are stuffed with pork, ground beef, or cheese, but on the third row down we find a miraculous sweet treat containing wheat and soy as the only allergens.
This, my dear friends, is where we find the anman. It’s tricky to describe the taste, so far removed from the sweetness of traditional British bakery fare. Earthily sweet red bean paste is either pureed à la 7/11 and Family Mart or (far superiorly, imo) mashed in Lawson style and encased in fluffy white bread. Most bread in Japan contains milk or eggs, but someone saw fit to make my days a million percent better through taking them out of the dough in their steamed buns. If you ever get the chance to have one of these - I’ve had wonderful anman in some Edinburgh and London-based East Asian food joints - then literally jump. Please. You won’t regret it. I definitely don’t - these wonderful pockets of joy probably account for 99.99 percent of my diet at the moment. No word of a lie.
... Almost
And there you are! Locked and loaded with all the ammo you need to survive a vegan emergency in Japan! I know this has been a slightly more indulgent post than normal, but I hope those interested in finding out more about my everyday feel a little more informed. It’s when writing posts like this that I feel most fortunate to be in my current position, waking up in my tiny Tokyo apartment each day. Making myself a coffee before brushing my teeth and walking to work. On the weekends I can explore the city, take a bullet train or night bus trip to somewhere completely new. Take a quiet day to myself and catch up on my writing or language study. Of course, it’s not all roses, and moving to a new country brings with it a whole new type of loneliness that I’m slowly trying to work through one day at a time.
But by god, isn’t it worth it?
I’ll catch you again in a few weeks. Until then, know I’m sending stars from this corner of the world.
Sayonara, Char xxx
Photo 3 provided by: <a href="https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos">Free Stock photos by Vecteezy</a>
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