Day Seven: Mikoan Vegetarian Restaurant

View along the river.

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling very well so we rested most of the day. In the evening, we went out to try to find the vegetarian restaurant Yoshiko had recommended to us. We made our way to the restaurant (with several stops for map checking and asking for directions) via a path alongside the river, that took us most of the way. It was very pretty. We saw a crane, and a man sitting by the river practicing his fiddle. I didn't get a picture, because as a musician, I know how annoying it is when you're trying to practice and people treat you like you are a tourist attraction. But I enjoyed hearing him play. He was quite good.


When we got closer to the restaurant, we weren't sure exactly where it was because we'd misplaced the map Yoshiko had printed out for us with the address on it. We only had a Kyoto map with a dot on it that the hostel staff had marked for us. We asked a local woman for directions, and she didn't know where the restaurant was, but a friend of hers came up the street and she gestured for her to come over and help. The friend didn't know where the restaurant was either. Defeated, we sat down in a nearby cafe in hopes that we might be able to ask for directions there. Jon ordered a waffle with ice cream (I had no idea before this trip how popular parfaits, crepes and waffles are in Japan. They're everywhere! You can even get a waffle filled with noodles. I don't know how I feel about that combination...) so that we wouldn't just be asking for directions to a different food establishment without buying anything (probably kind of rude). Just as we were about to dig into our waffle, the two women from the street came into the cafe. They had found the vegetarian restaurant for us, and had come looking for us to tell us where it is! We are continually amazed by people going out of their way to help us.

Miyoko's Cat.

So that we didn't have to abandon our waffle, I went to find where the restaurant was with the women, and then came back. When we finished our waffle (dessert first? why not) we proceeded to the restaurant (which I think we'd walked by twice) for dinner. The restaurant itself was bar-style, and set back from the street down a little alley lined with plants. Inside, it was cluttered with musical instruments of various kinds, books, and posters all over the walls of cats and peace & animal rights activist events. The meal that we had was, I think, the best meal we've had all trip. We had a dinner set that came with several dishes: Japanese eggplant that had a slightly licorice spice to it; a dense spongey tofu and carrots in a broth, some tofu, seitan (?) and vegetable soup that tasted like chicken noodle; beansprout, cucumber seaweed and sesame salad; some puffed soy seasoned with ginger and soy sauce, drenched in cornstarch and deep fried and of course, rice. The restuarant owner and cook, Miyoko, said that the rice was semi-polished brown rice. It was a perfect compromise because Jon prefers white rice and I prefer brown and this was somewhere in-between :-) We also found out what the soy puffs were by asking her questions in a mixture of English and Japanese. I don't know if we can get puffed soy at home, but we're going to try because it was so yummy! For dessert, I had a piece of vegan sugarless cake, which was sort of like Christmas cake, dense, but moist, and full of dried fruit. The restaurant called itself "vegetarian" but as far as we can tell it's vegan because there was no egg or dairy in anything either. (I don't think they really use the term vegan here).

Our vegan meal.

I really loved the ambiance of Miyoko's restaurant. It was lovely to just sit at the bar and listen to jazz (which seems to be the music of choice for bars, cafes and restaurants) and watch her cat, curled up inside her carrier, which was sitting on one of the bar stools.

After dinner, we wandered around in the shopping arcade near the restaurant. We found a second-hand anime goods store (figures, keychains and the like) all repackaged and organized in endless rows. I even found some Mummi stuffed toys. Mummis are troll-like creatures in a Finnish children's book series and television show, which is also apparently has a following here. (I first encountered the mummi phenomenon in Finland, so it was weird to see them here in Japan!)

Jon in the arcade.