Eating vegetarian in Japan?

plehpleh · 2023-08-31T05:59:49+00:00

Hi. We're planning a trip next year to Japan (blossom season). I'm vegetarian and have been for 25 years so it's not something I'm really able to be flexible on (more because I'd worry about how my digestion would handle it at this point!). All the guides say try to be flexible with it. I'm worried about being able to eat vegetarian - has anyone done it on holiday there? We're going to Hiroshima, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Arakurayama and Tokyo. Thank you!

TakeMe2Insanity · 31/08/2023 07:06

When we went to Tokyo we mainly lived out of the konbinis - we didn’t want to eat meat for religious reasons so did eat fish and eggs BUT DH doesn’t eat fish or eggs. We found some of department store food halls had european style veggie sandwiches.

In terms of fish/eggs it was very easy to survive as you could find both (cooked eggs in various forms)easily.

In terms of DH he ate a lot of fruit sandos (fruit with cream sandwiches) or would buy a loaf of bread and toppings that would work. If it had been colder I suspect we’d have found hot cooked sweet potato. We were there only a week so it was ok.

Hopeandmoss · 31/08/2023 07:11

If you check out Kingingit on YouTube they are van lifers who went to Japan and toured around. They are both vegans and they talked a lot about the food they ate.

Supercoolmoon · 31/08/2023 08:03

Totally fine, especially if you eat eggs. Even the sushi chain restaurants have veggie sushi, you’ll be very happy there

SantaBarbaraMonica · 31/08/2023 08:07

It will be severely limited what you can eat in almost any restaurant. A lot of veg etc has been cooked in fish broth or has shaved dry fish on top to serve. My veggie friends mostly ate chips at izakayas. But if you buy processed food from the shop you will know what you’re getting.

ginandlemonade23 · 31/08/2023 08:09

Check out happy cow website.
I've heard that it is hard to be vegetarian there as fish flakes / dashi gets added often or the broth wouldn't be vegetarian.

However there are a lot of vegan places around and some restaurants do have a vegan menu

Takoneko · 31/08/2023 08:25

I think when people say be flexible it’s not so much about consciously eating meat or fish, but accepting that there may be small amounts of fish or meat in what appear to be vegetarian foods. The egg on omelette sushi, for example, almost always has some dashi in it (which contains fish). If you’re ok with the idea that you’ll order vegetable dishes and there may be some dashi or fish flakes in there somewhere then you’ll probably be fine. There will be plenty of vegetable dishes but you may occasionally end up with something where a small amount of meat or fish product was used in cooking it.
If that is an issue for you then you will still find places to eat, but may just have fewer choices and have to hunt around a bit. You’d probably need to stick to explicitly vegetarian places or big chains where you can read the ingredient information in English.

Wiennetta · 31/08/2023 14:09

I’ve been to Japan twice, and spent about 6 weeks there in total. Eating veggie or vegan is totally doable in the main cities and tourist places if you’re willing to do a bit of research and find veggie friendly places (eg use Happy Cow).

You can’t rely on just finding fully veggie options in ‘regular’ restaurants like you would in the UK as there is a lot of use of dashi, fish/meat stock etc. So you do need to do some research but for us this was totally worth it - we found some amazing places to eat some of which were a bit off the beaten track. We had amazing food in Japan.

I’ve been to all the places you’ve mentioned on your itinerary except Arakurayama and I would say you will be completely fine and will have lots of good food. I think we have had a night or two being a bit limited in a smaller towns but there’s always a 7/11.

Wiennetta · 31/08/2023 14:10

Takoneko · 31/08/2023 08:25

I think when people say be flexible it’s not so much about consciously eating meat or fish, but accepting that there may be small amounts of fish or meat in what appear to be vegetarian foods. The egg on omelette sushi, for example, almost always has some dashi in it (which contains fish). If you’re ok with the idea that you’ll order vegetable dishes and there may be some dashi or fish flakes in there somewhere then you’ll probably be fine. There will be plenty of vegetable dishes but you may occasionally end up with something where a small amount of meat or fish product was used in cooking it.
If that is an issue for you then you will still find places to eat, but may just have fewer choices and have to hunt around a bit. You’d probably need to stick to explicitly vegetarian places or big chains where you can read the ingredient information in English.

Also it wasn’t my experience that we had to stick to big chains or fully veggie places - we found plenty of Omni places that understand vegetarianism and these can easily be found on Happy Cow.

ProfessorLayton1 · 31/08/2023 14:39

I know you want to taste Japanese food while you are in Japan and there are some good recommendations above.
Don't forget to look for Indian or Italian restaurant and they will usually have good vegetarian choices.