Vegetarian friendly Sushi in Osaka/Tokyo

Hello,

I love sushi, which is probably strange for a vegetarian I know. At home I Canada there is actually decent choice at many establishments, but here Japan I'm having trouble finding much beyond Inari and tamago. I'm splitting the next 3-4 weeks of my time in Osaka at the moment and then Tokyo so I'm looking for some places that might have some variety for me.

Please help. :)

Thank you!

You can eat eggs, but not fish? Try salmon or flying fish roe sushi!

Thank you, but I'm not interested in fish roe, looking for vegetable based sushi.

What kind of vegetarian sushi do they serve in Canada? Right off all I can think of is cucumber, "kanpyo," inari (though some fish stock might be used in the flavoring), and egg.

What kind of vegetarian sushi do they serve in Canada?

Only kind I can think of would be mostly maki where they can stuff pretty much anything in them. But for nigiri? Egg and umm...not much else.

This link names a couple of restaurants that have vegan sushi.
http://tofusenshi.com/2014/07/27/how-to-get-vegan-conveyor-belt-sushi-...

But there isn't much variety beyond what you've already found. All those vegetarian rolls you eat in Canada with mango, avocado, lettuce, cream cheese etc. in them are Western creations not Japanese.

I think your only hope is a kaiten-zushi, and even then, there isn't much. The biggest chains like Kappa sushi sell, in addition to what the other poster suggested, something like a corn gunkan or nattou. There also seems to be a salad and a pickled daikon one. Most of those are a novelty in my mind and called only be called mutant sushi.

There is a very large variety of vegetarian sushi in Canada, but the usual ones you see are yam tempura, tamago, cucumber, avocado, Inari, tamago, gourd (kanpyo). Then there are more creative maki versions, some using combinations of the things above and more like adding wilted spinach, shitake, carrot. I've seen and tasted so many more than I can remember.

I guess the non traditional stuff just isn't popular here, I'm not surprised, just wish I could find sone variety.

I can find plenty of vegetarian and even vegan restaurants serving just about every type of food, just none that seem to have sushi.

In Japan, sushi is a seafood-based cuisine. Vegetable sushi is a novelty item in some inexpensive shops, but serious sushi chefs tend not to waste much time on it - sushi is all about the quality of the fish.

You'll have little luck finding "vegetarian" sushi (wtf)
Sushi uses seafood, if you insist on being a vegetarian your choices will be wasabi sushi, kappa maki, inari, kanpyo, which to bee honest, isn't the point of eating sushi, it is meant to be enjoyed with fish.

Well, more specifically sushi refers to the seasoned rice regardless of the topping... but it is true that the majority incorporate seafood or seafood products in them. You will be able to eat a few things, but the options will be limited as you've been finding.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I knew it vegetarian sushi is not the normal, even borderline offensive to some of you it seems, haha... but I have had a little luck. Made a trip down to Kyushu and in Kagoshima today I happened upon a place with several options for me. Asparagus, chive tempura, brocolini, eggplant and all of the usual suspects mentioned above, and they were all quite tastey. This gives me hope Tokyo, where I'll be for the next two weeks.

Vegetarian Sushi ?
Why bother?

check the website called Happy Cow.
it has all vegetarian/vegan restaurants available in Japan.

And yes veggie sushi is delicious!

Yuck. There's a reason they're called California rolls.... They aren't Japanese. This reminds me of the woman who went into a sushi restaurant and asked the chef to hold the rice. He kicked her out.

No need to reply if you don't intend to help. The topic is about where you might find vegetarian sushi, start another topic if you wish to argue on its merit.

Thanks

You're posting in a public forum, and plenty of people are reading this besides just you. Perhaps the next vegetarian visitor who stumbles across this thread will gain some insight into local attitudes.

If I were traveling to China and posted a question about looking for the best chicken chow mein, I would welcome it if people told me to look at other options. I wouldn't tell them to not post if they didn't want to help me.

What you're doing is the same thing as people who come to Japan and only eat at McDonald's. There's nothing wrong with that - some people prefer to stay within their comfort zone - but many other people do enjoy exploring local culture by sampling the food that local people actually eat, rather than their imagined version of it.

Incorrect. Vegans (like me) and vegetarians court refined ethical standards that have nothing to do with "eating at McDonald's" or other simplistic notions of gustatory predilection. If you can't add anything germane to the topic at hand, kindly don't allow your subconscious anxieties about beastly carnivorous consumption to direct your language faculties.

I would like to visit Tokyo someday but am concerned about this very sort of low-minded prejudice.

"do enjoy exploring local culture by sampling the food that local people actually eat"
local people eat sea foods at sushi restaurants.
if they don't want to eat sea foods, they don't go to sushi restaurants. there are many other restaurants which serve different dishes.

If you're vegetarian Osaka isn't exactly the best place to go for Japanese food (on the other hand, if you're not vegetarian it's probably the best).

Kyoto isn't far from Osaka, if you're looking for good vegetarian food you're much better off there.

Food in Tokyo is pretty diverse, but still, Kyoto will be better for vegetarian food.

Also, like many others said, there is no "vegetarian" sushi. The vegetarian "norimaki" you get in Canada is going to be terribly hard to find in Japan outside of a Kaitenzushi restaurant.