Vege-Ful Cafe: Two idols and their healthy meals

Japanese insider information mag "Cyzo" introduces us to a newly opened restaurant near Yoyogi Station called Vege-Ful Cafe. A convenient location and a healthy vegetable-heavy menu no doubt help attract passers-by, but the café's real draw is who is working behind the counter.

Two well-known idols run Vege-Ful Cafe: 22 year-old Yuria Haga from tokusatsu show "Kamen Rider 555" and 24 year-old gravure model Rina Akiyama, known as "Oshiriina" for her 'ideal backside.' The two young women have been friends after working for years at the same management company. This cafe, however, is not just a cynical attempt by that company to exploit their celebrity in the restaurant sector. Both women pitched the idea to their agency and then went out and acquired proper certification as Vegetable Sommeliers and in Food Sanitation Supervision. 

Vege-Ful is divided into two areas: Yuu is managed by Haga on the first floor, and Riina is managed by Akiyama on floors two and three. Both center around vegetable-filled meals. According to the Haga's quote in "Cyzo," the vegetable menu is meant to match up with the health boom and make the establishment welcoming for young women like themselves.

Those wanting to see the two stars in the flesh will be happy to know they try to make it to the café five times a week. They also prepare some dishes themselves. Surely their presence will attract all sorts of introverted idol-obsessed otaku types, but the great thing is that Vege-Ful Cafe's meals are much healthier than their usual diet of convenience store ramen and stale leftovers from their job at Mister Donut.

However, while patrons may walk away with a nutritious meal inside them, they may also end up falling into something far more dangerous: the two idols' cult of personality.

Vege-Ful Cafe: Yoyogi 1-32-11, Shibuya-ku, tel. 03 5333 3237 (YUU) 03 5333 3232 (Riina), 11:30am-11pm