Meh, it's my life :)

Coffee in caffe Nero with new friend Franciska :) #cafe #food #yum

#view #cafe (Taken with Instagram)

Crazy menu in a cafe in Ginza…

I’ve recently become inspired to veer off the beaten track when shopping/eating/exploring/getting lost, so when I went out shopping today, I tried to avoid:

• Starbucks
• H&M
• Forever 21
• Body Shop
• FamilyMart etc

I rarely venture through Omotesando/Aoyama because I have a chronic fear of designer stores (and there are lots of them in this area). It’s not the scarily thin mannequins in the display window, it’s not the hideously high prices, it’s the demonically-possessed glare that the shop assistants give you if you don’t look rich enough to be there. 

- Can I just cut in here and point out that my fingers are freezing? Seriously, they’ve gone blue. -

Anyways, I found some hidden treasures in the Omotesando area, which were:

• Chicago (right next to Meiji-jinguemae Station Exit 4) - a second hand clothes shop. Perfect for vintage finds!
• Blenz Coffee - which is a chain store, but I dare you to try the Sweet Soy Chocolate Latte and egg roll and not give up on Starbucks completely! 
• Natural House - an organic shop, selling fresh food, dried food, beauty products and lots of other miscellaneous organic wares. 
• Pure Cafe - organic vegan cafe. 

My treat after 3 - 4 hours of walking: 

Evening in Tokyo.

Today I went to the Earth Embassy’s Solar Cafe (http://www.earthembassy.org/)  in Kawaguchiko (just outside Tokyo) with my parents.

In an area that is so beautiful, the Solar Cafe grows all of it’s produce - including pumpkins, kiwis and many types of herbs. We helped out for the day, planting seeds and weeding (which was actually quite therapeutic, there’s something about yanking out roots that appeals to me.) 

The woman who runs it (Mitsuko) showed us all around the farm (which is 100% organic) and it really inspired me to eat much healthily. I don’t mean more fruit and veg (as a vegetarian, that’s kind of a given) but more organic food. We really don’t know what chemicals are floating around in those unnaturally red Japanese apples.

Anyway, the title refers to the food we ate in the Solar Cafe. Two huge pizzas were brought out: one was tomato, cheese, aubergine and herb pizza, the other was tomato and tofu pizza (YUM). We polished those two off, before being presented with a pizza that was…interesting.

This was our ‘dessert pizza’. It was banana, mild cheese and garlic pizza. And it was delicious (I’m still not quite sure how). 

I  would say I have a pretty healthy diet. I don’t eat meat, barely eat much dairy (I get calcium from fortified soya milk and leafy veg) and I have my one treat a day. Sometimes this is an instant hot chocolate, or a biscuit or jam on toast.

Today it was a scone (or two) with handmade jam at the Cafe Miel. Delicious! I didn’t feel guilty because it looked so beautifully prepared and besides, you need to have your one treat a day or it’s very hard to eat healthily.

My logic: if you have good, nutritious (I love that word, it sounds so wholesome - like ‘delicious’) food 80% of the time, 20% of your food can be something just, delicious. 

Jess :)