Non dairy alternatives

Hi, I can�ft eat dairy and am just wondering if there are options to substitute cows milk for almond milk in Japan? For example in coffee. I know most Japanese foods won�ft have dairy but are there any foods I should watch out for?

Plant based milks exist in Japan, although not many shops will have them (mostly specialty stores). Oat and soy milk seem more common than almond milk.

Can you eat butter? It is not a traditional/common ingredient, but I know some "hambaagu" (hamburger patty) recipes call for it. You can also accidentally get some bits of cheese or cream in bentos (pasta salada, "gratin").

Are you traveling or living in Japan?

A lot of restaurants unfortunately don't offer dairy alternatives, although it's not too hard to inform them in advance so that you could avoid dairy being put in your food/drinks.

Meanwhile, in recent years here in Greater Tokyo, I've been commonly seeing almost milk as well as soy milk being sold in regular local supermarkets. Of course, if you visit "natural food stores" they would know more about alternatives.

The word you should watch out for is �� because it represents a lot of dairy products which is usually made from cow milk. But we use the same letter for a lot of other milky products, so you don't have to avoid everything with �� written on it. Just ask when you see one.

Cow milk in Japanese is "gyu-nyuu" ����