Afternoon Tea at Café an-an for World Vegan Day

Afternoon Tea at Café an-an for World Vegan Day

I was a vegetarian for ten years…then, I moved to Japan. I lasted about two weeks as a vegetarian in Japan, before swiftly abandoning my principles in favour of late-night ramen and fish for breakfast.

That's not to say that being vegetarian - or even vegan - in Japan is impossible. It just wasn't for me. But did you know that lots of wagashi (Japanese sweets) are naturally vegan?

I hadn't really thought about it, until I learned that Cafe an-an in Portslade was running an Afternoon Tea event for World Vegan Day on 1st November.

Here are some pictures of the tasty food I managed to take on the day - before I ate it all.

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落語を見に行ってきた! We Went to See Rakugo at the Brighton Fringe And It Was All Kinds of Awesome

落語を見に行ってきた! We Went to See Rakugo at the Brighton Fringe And It Was All Kinds of Awesome

落語を知っていますか。聞いたことありますか。
Rakugo o shitte imasu ka. Kiita koto ga arimasu ka.
Do you know rakugo? Have you ever heard of it?

The first time I heard of rakugo (落語), I was at a weekly Japanese conversation club in Nagoya in 2011, and the teacher was telling me about an event they were holding the following week.

"This man Sunshine-san is very famous," she told me. "He does traditional Japanese comic storytelling in English."

"Hmm," I thought to myself. "I don't want to see a show in English. I didn't come to Japan to watch stuff in English!"

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