Kappabashi-dori is a street that sells kitchenware, crockery, fake food models and other non-food items needed in restaurants.

This gigantic chef's head is the symbol of the street.

We walked here from Nakamise street after lunch at Sekai Cafe.

There are dozens of stores on the length of the street. I think we covered two-thirds of it; after a while every thing looks the same lol ^^;

Yay crockery!

Most of the crockery I saw were quite cheap. I expected to find more wooden boards or bowls but I only saw one shop selling them and they were expensive!

Cooking/baking stuff.

Fake food was what I was most looking forward to see haha!

We only saw 2 shops selling them though.

They're all for sale but it feels like a museum lol

They're not as cheap (at least 600 yen for a small keychain) as those you'd find at stationary stores or 100 yen stores, but they look much more real!

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Nakamise-dori, near Asakusa station, is a really touristy area.

It starts from the Thunder Gate with the iconic humongous red lantern which says 雷門

I forgot to take a photo of that oops.

This is near the Sensoji temple, which is Tokyo's oldest temple. There are lotsa tourists wearing kimonos as there are shops where you can rent them.

I initially planned for us to go to this Hanayashiki Amusement Park, which is the oldest amusement park in Japan. The admission price is 1000 yen but it costs extra to take rides. It seemed small and run-down from the outside (maybe it's meant to look run-down) and the shops outside looked more interesting so we decided not to go!

So cute Japanese ice kachang. Looks like ice and syrup only though.

There's many small snack stalls around. I think the only vegan thing I saw was this - Huge sweet potato fries! Really yummy!

Also got this red bean dango! Lol all the food models on the table looked so real, I thought they were. I bought a dango keychain that looked exactly like this but with 3 pieces instead of 4 at Kitchen Town hehe.

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Korea Town can be accessed from Shin-okubo station. This place is supposed to make you feel like you're in South Korea but it doesn't look very Korean lol. There's lotsa Korean restaurants, Korean skincare/makeup stores and shops selling Kpop CDs (which may be fake) and merchandise.

What I liked most was the Korean Mart! There's Korean marts in Singapore but they don't cook food to sell in the shop. So though they're not vegan, it's nice to look at because it's stuff I've only seen in Kdramas lol ^^; I bought a box of assorted glutinous rice dessert things to try; I don't understand why some pieces were tasteless and hard ._.

I think these places are worth going to have a look! They all have their own charms but out of these 3 the place where I'd most like to re-visit is Nakamise-dori because there's so much to see there! :)

Both Crayonhouse and Sekai Cafe serve meat but have many vegan options. 

Crayon House is located near Omotesando station, and other than having a restaurant, they also sell toys, books, organic clothing and health food at the various levels of the building.

Their health food store sells lots of imported food, but also has local brands.

Isn't this space the prettiest??????

They sell organic groceries too; they all look fresh and gigantic.

We were there at the restaurant (Hiroba) for dinner which starts at 5.30pm. As usual we were early so we had to wait lol.

For dinner there was only the buffet option available. What you see in this photo is the buffet spread. Labels are in Japanese but allergens are listed on the top right hand corner of the label.

Most ingredients used are organic and I really liked the tofu and salad! About 2/3 of the items are vegan but things like the miso soup and dessert (coffee jelly) weren't vegan. So the food I was eating was quite dry ._. I think the menu is different each time though.

Mum and mum's friend really enjoyed it but I think it's not really worth it because it costs 2700 yen (which is nearly the cost of 2 Saturday buffets at Loving Hut) and vegan options are limited. They do have an Organic Vegetarian Night which happens twice a month on Monday though - I think that'll be worth going!

Sekai Cafe is located at a side street of Nakamise-dori, a 4 minute walk from Asakusa station. Their theme is to cater to people with different dietary requirements.

Lunch set comes with a drink or soup, and is only 1000 yen. Also this place has free wifi yay! 

This menu is in Japanese but the menu at the counter is in English (and different from the sign at the door). Also, the waitress knows which are vegan.

Mum's friend has the Salad Plate.

Mum had Yakisoba. Doesn't look like yakisoba to me though lol ^^;

I had Today's Curry. Rice was great as usual, veggies were crisp and the curry was sweet. I like sweet curry :)

I bought the pumpkin scone and pumpkin muffin for breakfast the next day. They were average, the taste and texture was a bit kueh-like.

Overall this is a lovely and affordable place to eat at while exploring Nakamise-dori. I don't think there are many other vegan-friendly places in the nearby area.

The streets of Nakamise-dori and Kappabashi-dori (Kitchen Town) and somewhat parallel to each other, so after lunch it was just a short walk (to the right when facing Sekai Cafe) before we reached Kappabashi-dori.  

Crayon House
Weekdays 11.00am - 11.00pm (L.O. 10.00pm)
Weekends and PH 10.30am - 11.00pm (L.O. 10.00pm)
3-8-15 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
crayonhouse.co.jp

Sekai Cafe
Daily 9.00am - 6.00pm
1-18-8 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo
sekai-cafe.com

We booked this day tour from Yokoso Japan tours because it has 2 things that we wanted to do - see Mt Fuji and pick fruits! I want to pick strawberries but it's not in season at this time of the year (fruits in season are grapes, persimmon and pears).

We met at Washington Hotel in Shinjuku at 7.50 am, which thankfully was a walking distance from our Airbnb. The tour guide was Japanese but speaks good English, and there was an assistant tour guide that's also Japanese but speaks fluent Chinese.

After about 1.5 hours in the bus, we arrived at the 5th station of Mt. Fuji. The peak is to the right of this photo but it was too foggy so we couldn't see it :(

There're lotsa shops selling Mt Fuji themed cookies, crackers, cake, kitkat etc. This place is cold!! Lol the best thing was a standing heater in one of the shops ahh~~

There was 'in-bus shopping' too lolol. There were order sheets we could fill up to buy melon pan that looks like Mt Fuji (which mum bought), grape jelly, towels printed like Japanese money (which mum also bought) etc

Next we went to a restaurant near Lake Kawaguchi for lunch! This lake is to picturesque with the colours of the autumn leaves!

We made a request (while booking) for a vegetarian meal - it doesn't contain egg or dairy too. There's thick and flat udon in the soup and it was super yummy!! The rice was really good too wow! The only weird thing was this wrinkly green jelly lol. I ate until I was stuffed ^^

After lunch we made our way to the Mt Kachikachi Ropeway.

They really pack us tightly into the cable car omg. I was the last to enter so I was like squeezed near the door and I had to look straight and not down because otherwise I would panic.

The door isn't the best place to stand for a good view - all I saw were trees, which are pretty but you'd be able to see a better view at the back window. But everyone crowds at the back window so we didn't get to stand there on the way down either :/

We should've been able to see Mt. Fuji but it was still foggy so nope :( The view of the buildings didn't look fantastic either.

But what was fantastic was this charcoal grilled kushi dango!!

I was so full so I didn't want to eat this but mum insisted so we bought it. And wow I would've regretted not trying this. It's warm, soft and sticky glutinous rice cakes coated with a sweet salty sauce. How come rice cakes can taste so good?? Also the Mt. Fuji stamp is so cute!

I shall learn how to make these soon!

Then, we headed to Misaka Farm to pick grapes for 30 minutes. We could eat as many grapes as we want but we can't bring them out to eat (they give us each a complimentary bunch of grapes afterwards).

I don't know if it's organic but I felt so gross eating grapes without washing them ._. Since grapes have that powdery layer. These felt even more powdery than supermarket grapes. Also since they're not washed sometimes there are cobwebs omg. And this variety isn't really sweet either. So we just shared a bunch and left the grape-picking area.

After the grape farm we went to a winery where there was wine tasting. Mum and I don't really appreciate the bitterness of alcohol; the grape vinegar tastes good though. ^^

We arrived back at Washington Hotel before 7pm, and we walked to the nearby Metropolitan Building to see the night view of Tokyo.

Overall this day tour (9,900 yen per adult) was quite pleasant. The tour guide was nice and we got to do quite a few things! Also it was so relaxing not having to navigate everywhere and think of what to do next (which applies to every tour lol). Plus I got to watch many episodes of a drama on the bus hehe ^^ It'll be nice if we could see the peak of Mt. Fuji better but we weren't lucky enough to go on a clear day!

Hang Out is a small vegan restaurant/bar that's located in Shibuya. 

I Google-Maps-ed us there and we were standing in front of this building when I thought that we were lost - there wasn't a prominent sign saying RIKA building (which is where it's located in). And this is a side road with what seems like apartments/offices at the back.

But yeah it's this building with the disfigured Hello Kitty.

It's only open at night.

The waiter speaks good English and the menu is mostly in English too! Seems like most of the customers are foreigners.

The restaurant is tiny, cosy and has less than 20 seats (including the balcony) I think. It's quite dimly-lit and lighting for all the following photos are from a Japanese cartoon projected on the wall. The cartoon was like a Japanese version of Adventure Time but weirder, more retro and not kiddy lol.

We ordered the Gaudi's Salad which was a special for the day. Isn't this the prettiest salad ever???? Wow it's like a terrarium! 

All the veggies were fresh and there's also a chunk of chilled tofu at the bottom of the bowl - sounds weird but we mixed it all up and it went well together with the greens. The fish egg-looking things are solid and seems to be made of agar.

Fried tofu with tartar sauce. Looks ordinary but omg the sauce was amazing!!! Creamy and yet refreshingly tangy. I mopped all the sauce off the plate haha

The Hemp Cream Pasta was al dente and the sauce (made with hemp seeds?) was thick and creamy. It was quite yummy but because I don't like oily-feeling food (like food that drips oil), I wouldn't order this again.

We only ate these few items because we were eating conveyor belt sushi an hours before lol, but I really liked the food and the ambience. This is one of the top 3 best places we've been to this trip, mum agrees too! There's lots more in the menu I'd like to try and I must eat the fried tofu again!! I hope it's still around (amazing how they can survive when the food is not pricey and their opening hours are short!) the next time I visit Tokyo! ^^

Hang Out
Udagawa-cho 3-12 RIKA Building 3rd Floor, Shibuya, Tokyo
Opening hours for Saturday isn't stated but should be same as weekdays!