Clever little thing

 

I had a meeting yesterday in the cool, somewhat posh area of Daikanyama. I love the area, as there are lots of small but cool cafes, shops and boutiques, without the crazy hustle and bustle of the neighboring Shibuya, for example. There is also some greenery, which makes the area even more enjoyable.

On my way back, I decided to check this small, cute shop called Allegory Bureau. I’m glad I did, as I found a source for many little things that are both useful, but also stylish. The shop sells stationery, small items for home and jewellery. Their ‘sister’ shop is called Allegory Home Tools, where you can find also tableware and home textiles. Both shops are located in Daikanyama.

The clever little things that made my day this time, were small blocks of wood, in different sizes. There’s a small carved slot in each piece, so you can insert postcards, notes etc. in them, and pins behind each piece so it’s easy to to mount the pieces on to wall or a noteboard. I just love them. A simple idea, but makes the room look so much more fun, organised and also stylish. I decided that I *need* to go back and buy a pile of these in different sizes, as I realised they’re perfect for hanging my jewelry as well. Until now, I’ve had them hanging just from regular pins – which really don’t look that lovely.

I’m sure that a crafty person could make these at home easily, but as we don’t have the tools and these weren’t that expensive (prices range only between 108 and 324 yen!), I’ll just stock up from the cute Allegory shop. I was also glad to see they sell a variety of Finnish items: Fiskars scissors, Moomin stationery and Bliw soaps.

The Usual Scenery

 

 

The usual scenery every morning – both on the table and from the window. I do love my ‘office corner’, as we’re situated right next door to a temple. A sparrow family also has a nest on that pole you can see from the window, inside that big lump of electric-what-ever-it-is. Quite lovely, as they often just sit on the wires below the nest and keep on singing.

Me & Koi have taken a habit of making fresh fruit & vegetable smoothies every morning to start the day. A nice, delicious way of getting our 5-a-day. That and a big mug of fresh coffee (which we make from local Yanaka coffee beans) are daily essentials! The fruit we buy also from a local fruit vendor, Mr. Tanaka (+his wife & baby),  as often as we can, as he doesn’t keep the shop open every day. It’s apparently some kind of fruit ‘outlet’, where they sell the fruit they haven’t sold to restaurants etc. Because of this, the price is also often quite cheap compared to regular supermarket prices.

Veggie Food Hunting

It might come as a surprise to some, but vegetarian/vegan ingredients, dishes and restaurants can be quite difficult to find in Japan. They do exist, but with the abundance of products and restaurants offering mainly meat or seafood, they are very rare. Quite often the so called ‘vegetable’ dishes also actually contain meat in some form, like thin strips of ham mixed in with salad.

Historically Japan has been mainly a vegetarian/pescaterian country, as meat eating was banned from the 6th century as a part of Buddhist and Shinto religions. Game was eaten in the mountain areas by professional hunters. It was actually “thanks” to the Western people, that meat eating started to gain popularity in Japan, not that long ago: After the Meiji Restoration in 1867, the new Emperor staged a New Year’s feast in 1872 designed to embrace Western values. The feast had an European theme and for the first time in over a thousand years, meat was publicly eaten in Japan. A part of me still hopes the Meiji Restoration never happened, so that I could’ve experienced Edo as it was..

Me and Koi are mainly ‘pescaterian’, i.e. we love seafood, but don’t really eat red meat of chicken. For me, the reason lies within the unethical mass production and poor animal welfare. I do eat game on some rare occasions for example, as to in my opinion, it has had a good, free, natural life.

I would like to have some variety in the dishes we cook, and therefore wanted to buy some soy meat and couscous for example. It’s been a small hunt, but I recently found a chain of stores selling veggie&natural ingredients: Natural House. I visited one of their shops in Shimo-Kitazawa and bought my soy meat, both as granules, and as strips. It is more expensive than in Finland for example, but in relation to meat prices, I reckon it’s reasonable. Works fine too!

I have also found online shops selling vegetarian and organic food products, and finally decided to try one of them out: Tengu. Other option I was considering is Yoyo Market. The reason I picked Tengu though was that they are also selling my dear, dear, black gold – Finnish black liquorice!! So a few boxes of this addictive black treat were the first things I placed in my virtual shopping cart. Liquorice is even harder to find than soy granules – it’s virtually impossible. Liquorice and Japanese tastebuds just don’t meet. Other things I got were whole wheat flour (also difficult to find, as Japanese flour tends to be very fine, and also very white), whole wheat pita breads, couscous, and some organic whole wheat pasta. The most expensive items were my precious liquorice boxes, but I definitely think it was well worth it. Other than that, I think their prices are quite reasonable, depending on the product. When your order is over 5250 yen, they deliver for free in the Kanto area. I got mine delivered in a couple of days, straight to my door.

On Saturday night we decided to try some of these goods out and have some filled pita breads. We made our own fresh guacamole (heavenly!), bought some fresh ebi (prawns) from the local fish monger, and made a “chicken” filling from the soy strips. Enjoyed these with some small brewery beers, that actually go well with the veggie theme. I love the Buddha bottle, and I reckon it will find a place on our window sill.