Hello, Local Guides!
This past Sunday, May 27th Iwate Local Guides, myself and @HiroyukiTakisawa , and friends held a meet-up together to introduce vegetarian and vegan restaurants in our area as part of my Iwate Veggie Guide series.
You can see the album here!
Iwate Veggie Guide vol.2 shared photo album
The meet-up was from 12:30 but since the weather was so beautiful Hiroyuki and I arrived early and took a little walk around the river.
Karakoma (map)
From 12:30 we had lunch at a vegan restaurant called Karakoma.
The owner of Karakoma used to only operate a food truck but a few years ago opened a restaurant on Honchodori in Morioka, Iwate. On weekends he sometimes closes the restaurant to take the food truck to events happening around Iwate Prefecture.
Karakoma is my favorite vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Iwate.
The food at Karakoma is all vegan, which means that it doesn’t use any animal products at all; no meat, no eggs, and no milk.
However, the menu at Karakoma is delicious and even those who aren’t vegetarian or vegan enjoy the meals.
After ordering, everyone introduced themselves and I talked a little bit about Local Guides, vegetarian food, and the importance of bettering the information about vegetarian and vegan food on Google Maps.
After that we all enjoyed eating, talking, and of course guiding. 
USAGI botanica (map)
After Karakoma, we planned to go to another nearby vegan restaurant, USAGI botanica.
Unfortunately, I only checked the time they were closing and did not check for a “last order” time. We arrived after “last order” so we decided to walk to a cafe none of us had been to instead.
Shamon (map)
We arrived at an old cafe called Shamon.
The cafe had a great antique style and we ordered some cakes, a parfait, and some coffee.
It was wonderful to be able to end with some coffee and everyone enjoyed the desserts.
Technically, I would never have come to Shamon normally during a Veggie Guide event because my rule for the restaurants and cafes is that all menu items must be completely vegetarian or vegan. Shamon’s parfaits and some of their cakes contain gelatin so they are not vegetarian-friendly.
However, being flexible is also important, and while it does not fit with goal of the event, I am still happy we were able to explore a place that was new to all of us.
I am so grateful to all the people who joined volume 2 of Iwate Veggie Guide!
And a big, big thank you to Hiroyuki who helped me so much before and during the event.
I have also started creating a map to list all the vegetarian and vegan places to eat in Japan.
So far, I only have a few places but I hope to add more with the help of the Local Guide community.
You can check out the map here.
Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurants in Japan Map
(If you know of any restaurants that are completely vegetarian or vegan in Japan, you are more than welcome to add them to the map!)
