Living in Japan can be a little tricky if you are vegetarian or vegan, but it is far from impossible. In general you don’t get products that are specifically targeted at vegetarians. So no veggie burgers at fast food chains, no veggie symbols on packages of food, no spicy bean burgers or anything by Linda McCartney. There are  veggie / vegan restaurants but they tend to be quite rare and, until recently, it was difficult to find out where they were.  For the opening evening at Cotonoha I asked a local vegan restaurant, Salon Cuttho, to provide half the food. They made samosas, spring rolls, bruschetta,  croquettes and ratatouille. The guests thought the  food was delicious, and it disappeared fast (too fast in fact – didn’t realize that an international crowd require far more food than an all Japanese crowd of the same number). The next day, while settling the bill at Salon Cuttho,  I saw they were selling a Japan Vegan Restaurant Pocket Guide. Written by Herwin Walravens it gives information on over 100 …

Box just arrived from Amazon.com with a couple of books, a couple of cd’s and a movie I’d ordered. One of the books was A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia by Tadao Shimba. I’m most impressed by the book. Colour photography throughout , over 600 species, a little bit of a description on each bird, and its geographic range. The photographs range in quality but still give you a good idea of what the birds look like. One problem I have already noticed is that the book has the English name and the scientific name of the bird but not the common Japanese name. If you  buy this book and plan to use it while in Japan (which would be most people I imagine)  having the Japanese name would allow you to ask locals what a bird was or confirm your guess. Until the photographic guide came out the standard book (in English) of Japanese birds was A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan by the Wild Bird Society …