August | 2023 | Addams in Kyoto

Ah, the long hot summer, with a few typhoons thrown in for good measure! It has remained hot since last we spoke and it still hasn’t been overly humid, except when there are typhoons around – like yesterday. We have had quite a few guests staying with us and some of them have not really enjoyed the heat, especially on those days hovering close to 40C. In fact we had a couple of guests arrive for check-in last week looking very hot and decidedly flushed and flustered recently.

Yesterday we were to have had a full house, just in time for the first typhoon of the season to come close to us. I say were because two of the guests left a day early so that they could get to their next destination, since we knew the shinkansen in this region would be stopped for at least 24hrs. On Monday night we had some very heavy rain at times and the wind was quite gusty during the day yesterday, but not with the consistent fury we experienced when the typhoon passed directly over us in 2018. We ended up having around 125ml in the 24 hrs of Tuesday, and nearly 170ml from late Monday through to early this morning.

Being so busy with guests coming and going, we haven’t had overly much time to do anything other than our jobs (ie cleaning, serving, check-in and outs, shopping, etc) and this has been exacerbated by a couple of slight issues – Craig hurt his back and then I broke a toe (yes, again) on the last day of July. As a result, the only outings we have had in this period actually occurred in July, in fact I left them out of my last post because it was already quite long – lucky, otherwise I wouldn’t have had much to write about this time!

The first two outings happened on the same day, when we decided to visit a place we had been to before but had never explored overly thoroughly. Takako had been talking about her favourite temple and how she had taken a number of guests there, and it became an itch I had to scratch. When we set off for Nanzenji it was a hot day, so we decided to catch a bus rather than walk there, as we would normally do.

As it happened, when we passed Rachel’s machiyas on the way to the bus stop she was outside, so we said hello. While talking she mentioned that she had noticed a new café which served all vegan food. This café was located fairly near where we were headed, so we decided to check it out after visiting Nanzenji.

The temple was founded in 1291 and is another of the huge temples here, with a lot of land and many sub-temples. As with most, it has been added to and rebuilt over the years and one very interesting addition is a large aqueduct that runs through the grounds. The aqueduct was constructed during the Meiji period (1868-1912), extending from lake Biwa through to Kyoto, with the purpose of carrying goods and water to Kyoto in long narrow boats. It is an amazing construction, known as the Suirokaku Aqueduct, and was designed by Sakuro Tanabe with consideration for the scenery in the precincts it passes through. The arched abutments of the structure are made of bricks and granite.

From the temple grounds, you can climb up onto a section of the aqueduct, which is not only surrounded by greenery but also by having water running through it, it was lovely and cool up there. The other advantage of walking along the aqueduct is some very nice views over the temple and surrounds. We didn’t walk the entire length of the walking path on the day, but that just gives us another nice place to go to in Autumn! Truth is, I would have been perfectly happy to just sit up there with a picnic lunch and while away the time, but we didn’t have provisions with us. Next time…

After our wander in the lovely forested area, we had to set off out into the asphalt heat sink to walk over to the café for our investigation – it was, however, definitely worth it. Toriba Café is located in an old renovated machiya and is a very nice place to sit and enjoy the surrounds, along with very good coffee and food. It is on the slightly expensive side, but I thought it was good value. While we were waiting for our order, I decided to take some photos of the interior and a Japanese man with very good English came over and started telling me about the place. Turns out he was the owner – and he also owns another café in the Daimaru department store in Kyoto, along with another café, a burger joint and an izakaya in Tokyo, and all of them are vegan!

On the menu there are some sandwiches, including cucumber, ‘egg’ and ‘katsu’ varieties. Toriba san explained that he had some chefs working for him and when he opened his first eatery he told them that he wanted everything to be plant-based. They were a little flabbergasted and didn’t know how to start, so he bought a meat burger which he gave them and told them he wanted a plant-based version – which they did. He went on like this with other items, including an egg sandwich, which they replicated and I have to say, it is fantastic! It looks and tastes like the real thing (well, as I remember it). Absolutely amazing.

This brings me to the last outing; we went to a party!!! After our visit to Toriba, we started following him on Insta and a couple of weeks later he started putting up posts about an opening party, for the café. It was starting at the café at around lunchtime until about 7pm, then moving on to a nightclub from 8pm till late. It has been a long time since we had been to a party and it seemed appropriate for us to attend, as fellow vegan business owners (although not quite on the same scale as him!).

On the day, we actually dressed up a bit (for the second time in two months 😊) and headed off to the café late in the afternoon. It turned out that most of the people there were friends and acquaintances from Tokyo – and most were uber cool. I was glad I had dressed up a bit. So, we drank coffee and had a sandwich, then later Craig had an espresso martini and I had a highball, which was made with a lightly peated single malt whisky. While we were sitting there Chisayo, the Japanese woman who has made it her mission to explain about vegans, vegetarians and those who like gluten-free food to as many of the restaurateurs, café and bar owners as she can get to, turned up. It was very nice to catch up with her again, although we do seem to run into each other fairly often. She told us she is currently busy finalising the creating of an interactive map of vegan and vegan option restaurants for tourists. She is an amazing woman and we were lucky enough to meet her early in our stay here.

At around 7pm everyone started leaving the café, so we headed off towards the nightclub. As there was a time gap to fill, and the nightclub was near the river, we went down to stand by the river and watched the bats come out as the sun set (that, too, was wonderful).

The bats were too small to capture

There was a rather hefty cover charge to get into the nightclub, though you did get one free drink inside. Thankfully there was also some food being served, which was supposed to be pizza but turned out to be essentially a pizza doorstop – though very tasty. Music-wise, there were three different DJ sets, the first played some pretty good music, overall, then the second set was Toriba san himself, with a friend, and it wasn’t quite to our taste, playing mostly modern Japanese music. The final DJ played House music, which he is apparently famous for, and he was good. We actually got up and danced for a while, which we haven’t had the chance to do anywhere here, other than when I did (by myself) at the drag show we went to. We had fun, but unfortunately we had to leave reasonably early because we had a guest and to give Ziggy his injection.