Hi everyone,
I am going to be studying abroad for a year in Saitama, Japan starting this summer and I was wondering how University Cafetarias and in general Konbinis and Restaurants are doing when it comes to providing vegetarian alternatives. (The threads i found about this were quite old, and here in Germany at least, a lot has changed just over the last 5 years, when it comes to vegetarian options being made available)
Apart from that I was wondering what eating out is like nowadays, I am aware that in Tokyo I probably will have no problem finding alternatives, but am not sure what the situation is like when it comes to towns that are not Tokyo.
I have of course considered making an exception for fish broths and such, as I know that that would limit myself, when eating out. (When cooking for myself I usually use Konbu Dashi)
6 comments
Hey, I know you asked about vegetarian food, but I will leave this link here, maybe you can find something useful there: [https://isitveganjapan.com/](https://isitveganjapan.com/)
The page has all kinds of information about vegan foods, including a dictionary with vocabulary / Kanji to look out for, a list of supermarkets / online stores and much more.
I would also recommend the Happy Cow app. The app lets you search for restaurants in your vicinity based on the criteria you set. Should be easy to find places with vegetarian options this way.
Hey, I am vegetarian and I’ll be landing in Japan soon. Since, I am Indian, my only hope is finding Indian convenience stores that have food imported from India. Indian products are mandated to have visual markings which indicate whether the [food is vegetarian, or non vegetarian](https://imgur.com/a/RuA64DJ). Other than that, any Japanese store can have lots of vegetables, and rice and flour and other basic things. Although, do use google lens to find out what’s written on packets since even a packet of chips may contain beef in it in Japan.
https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/search?q=vegetarian&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all
I’m vegetarian and live in Tokyo. It’s rough, but getting better. There are 3 vegan cafes within 5 minutes walk from my apartment. Going to the supermarket and cooking for yourself is going to be best. For bento and snacks at conbini look for a Natural Lawson. They have more veg options than any other conbini. Learn these kanji and look for them on ingredient lists; 肉 (meat), 魚 (fish), 出し, (fish broth). Happy Cow is a good resource for finding veg and veg friendly restaurants. Also, 肉なしで作れますか – Niku nashide tsukuremasuka? Means, “can you make it without meat?”
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Here’s a useful anecdote from my own experience. There is a style of ramen from Hokkaido that has a thick, stew-like broth made from burdock, mountain yam and some other veggies. Unfortunately, it is usually served with a slice or two of chashu. Also unfortunately, most of the places that serve it have token-based ordering machines that don’t give you the option to leave out the pork. So, I just asked the kitchen to leave out the meat when I handed them my token. They were happy to do so.
However, there was very Japanese twist. They were glad to change my order, but they *insisted* on paying me what they called a “lost pork fee.” This required the cook to call the main office to figure out how much to refund me (220 yen), and it took about twenty minutes to figure out.
Conclusion : Vegetarian options are definitely available, but highly contingent on your communication skills and your understanding of how the food is prepared. You absolutely must understand Japanese attitudes about fair dealing in business transactions. If your special request changes the value of the item you are ordering, expect complications. In my case, I should have just asked them to serve the chashu on the side and given it to someone else.