Strict vegetarian needs food help!

I will be in Sakaide, Japan for 15 days this summer and I was wondering what foods i can eat. I love tofu, udon and sushi (shitake, avocado and cucumber rolls) but I dont eat any fish, egg or meat products. I wont eat the udon if it has been cooked in a fish broth for example. I love rice, seaweed and soy sauce but I cant live off of that when I'm there. Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

If you have cooking facilities where you are staying, that will be your best bet.

If you eat out, pretty much everything in a Japanese restaurant has fish stock in it (miso soup, all noodle soups, dipping sauce for tempura and soba noodles, the egg in egg sushi, cooking liquid for simmered vegetables, the sauce for agedashi tofu etc etc). In a sushi shop, your only safe options would be natto, cucumber and pickle rolls (you don't get California-style rolls with avocado most places here, and if you do, they normally come with prawns or crab); in a tempura restaurant, you could order vegetable tempura (as long as you don't mind it being cooked in the same oil as seafood) and have it with salt or lemon instead of dipping sauce. Most noodle dishes would be out. Tokyo has a few vegetarian restaurants, but they are hard to find, and even scarcer outside Tokyo. Even organic/healthfood places often still use fish stock.

Otherwise, you can usually find something you can eat at Indian or Italian restaurants, as long as you make very clear that as far as you are concerned bacon and ham have no place in a vegetarian pizza or pasta dish.

Do you speak any Japanese? It helps if you can explain clearly what you can and cannot eat, but often people still don't really understand.

I have been vegetarian for more than 20 years, but since coming to live in Japan I have given up worrying about fish stock just because it is pretty impossible to eat out anywhere Japanese if you are trying to avoid it.

PS sometimes if you ask a restaurant, they will say there is no fish in something, but I'm afraid you can't always believe them, as people I know with fish allergies have found out the hard way.

I've hosted some strict vegetarians from India, and what we did was to talk to the chef.

It would be best if you can make restaurant reservations ahead of time, so that they can prepare your dish properly. Booking a hotel with a reliable concierge will help, since the concierge can make the reservations for you while explaining the details to the chef.

True, not all chefs understand that a pinch of allergen or what not can affect the customer, but when we traveled with our highly egg-allergic son, we had no problems thanks to our concierge.

I think you can manage 15 days if you try. Bon appetite!

as they say here - good luck.

I host Indian vegetarians all the time and they find it very tricky. I work with some as well and they could only recommend Indian or Italian restaruants.

My latest guest is considering chicken as an option!

If you want to Japanese then as the others have said it is very difficult. Much easier if you are with a Japanese friend to do the talking...

Very interesting post...thanks Tokyo Veggie.
I thought I did OK on my recent 2 week visit--but I had no idea about the tempura and noodle dipping sauces! I did notice just about every snack chip on the market has chicken or some type of fish powder in it.
We ate at several Buddhist vegetarian places that were great but those joints arent
cheap. You can usually find a cheese pizza in the coffee shop-type places. When I asked about avacado rolls they just looked at me funny but kampyo rolls are widely available--and good. Dont tell me theyve got fish in them too.

I am going with a youth trip from my city in California, and we are "guests" of the mayor of Sakaide and he is making arrangements about my food because he is worried about what I can eat. We have several fancy "welcoming dinners" and they know I'm a veggie. I have heard my chaperones say that many people do tend to say there is no fish broth/meat in various dishes, when in fact there is. I've been a vegetarian my entire life (my mother is a veggie) so I really dont want to eat anything even with fish broth or powder in it. I'm bringing soy jerky snacks with me for protein as well as other stuff. Most of the time we are staying with host families who will prepare food (mine has been informed about my food needs). Maybe I can help make dinners of rice, water boiled noodles, and steamed veggies with soy sauce. Hopefully I can find some Indian food there - I ADORE it. Thank you to everyone! Even if I have to eat rice the entire time I don't care... It will be an amazing experience. I leave this friday and I'm soooo excited!!!!!

of just immersing yourself in the Japanese experience and eating what they eat? I don't typically eat Japanese food, but unless you have food allergies, it might be interesting to be immersed in their cuture, for the short time you are there, including their food.

a surprising amount of restuarants have vegetarian options. i decided to stop being vegetarian when i found out i was going because i didnt want to be held back/ have the hassle. but it turned out someone else in my group was vegetarian and they got along fine. and if you speak japanese or even if you don't you could find out how to ask for vegetarian food in japanese that would be a good thing to know.

I wnet to Japan w/my son last spring, we are both meat-eaters. But I am going w/my vegetarian daughter this spring. She eats eggs and dairy but no meat or seafood. Based on the expereince I had w/my son, we plan to eat a big western style breakfast at a japanese hotel every morning. That way my daughter can get in some eggs, toast, fruit, cheese, etc. My son and I did that, and then had one smaller meal later in the day. My daughter's second meal could be veggie sushi or other items mentioned in this post if we find it available at the time, or maybe even just yogurt from a store and some fruit. I do not think we can count on having Japanese food that she can eat available at the right time each day, without making reservations for dinner ahead of time like Uco mentioned, and that is not our travel style. Hopefully she will get to eat some Japanese food here and there, but it is important to her not to eat meat, so that is the primary concern...
Does anyone know if the yudofu tofu restaurants (like Junsei in Kyoto) use fish broth to boil their tofu? We were hoping to eat at one of those for a traditional meal...

I meant to say a western-style hotel for the breakfast.

Tsubu Tsubu Cafe
1-17-9 Sekiguchi
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
tel +81-3-3269-0138
http://www.ilfa.org/mapofilfa.htm
http://www.ilfa.org/ilfa_eng/index.htm

10min walk from Four Seasons Hotel
http://www.fourseasons.com/tokyo/

I have a question concerning food allergies someone mentioned earlier. Japanese do have allergies too, right? Is it had to live in Japan with food allergy? Like if you can`t eat fish protein or if you can`t eat anythiing made of soy bean? these things are in many packed food. Maybe it is hard to find the right food
next to fresh and self-made food?

Dear Sirs / Madam,
I need help in searching Vegetarian Restaurants or serving vege food.

I m visiting to Tokyo end of Jan 2006
I wish to know restaurant which serves Vegetarian food. (no eggs no seafood)
if someone can help me with restaurants names with directions by Tokyo Metro station. or weblink
pl email me on sukruti02@yahoo.co.uk

regards
Sujay

Try these websites for vegetarian restaurant listings:
http://www.bento.com/r-veg.html
http://www.vegietokyo.com/info4vegie/restaurant/index-l.html
http://www.happycow.net/asia/japan/

O.K. sorry I didn't read all of everyones postings but saw some rather negative responses while scanning through. So if I repeat information you've already recieved, sorry. But here's a list of foods you can order almost anywhere at any Izakaya (japanese restaurants found all over Japan) I'm a vegetarian so I'm telling you about the best totally vegetarian foods available first of all order:
age dashi dofu (fried tofu super delicious but say katsuo nashi o kudasai) it means without fish flakes as it is usually served that way. Next order:
kabocha kuroke or pumpukin kuroke. Totaly delicious it's pumpkin patties served with super delicious sauce. Zaru soba (cold soba ask to have it served with ponzu sause) and say this "watashi wa saishokushugi desu. It means I'm a vegetarian in the summer time a very popular dish is hiyayako (it's cold raw tofu and it's so good you must try it fresh tofu with soysauce ginger or daikan and grn onions, real good! also look for an okonomiyaki ya (it's a small restaraunt with a grill and they only make okonomiyaki) order it like this: yasai no okonomiyaki o negaishimasu. if they say something back they're probably saying what? no squid, how bout prawns? you will not be able to understand them just say: saishokushugi desu kara, yasai dake o kudasai, then of course say arigato gozaimashita! try all the japanese desrets you can and have lots of green tea ice cream. You also have to eat yaki onigiri (grilled rice cakes) kimichi,(korean style spicy cabbage) tsukemono (japanese pickles) yasai tempura. I actually wouldn't and don't reccomend pizza in Japan it's horrible and it's western and they may try to slip some meat in there it happened to me once, sometimes they'll lie and say no meat but...the dishes I reccomended are totally veg and always safe to order. Most importantly you must find shojin ryori restaraunt, they are not everywhere and they can be expensive I'll try to respond again with some names and addresses for them they are Buddhist vegetarian places that are totally oishi! (delicious) If I think of more stuff I'll post it too.
Lydia

Hi Lydia,

Thanks for the extra veggie suggestions but I have to point out that agedashi tofu is not strictly vegetarian - the dashi stock/sauce it is served in will almost certainly have been made with fish stock. Also, you can't rely on pumpkin croquettes (or any other kind of vegetable croquettes) not having meat in them - the recipe will vary from place to place, and I have often found minced pork or chicken listed as ingredients in "vegetable" croquettes. Certainly the frozen pumpkin croquettes I have found in supermarkets all had small quantities of chicken in.

I am just a little confused as to why people who do not meat be it for the taste, or the "cruelty" to animals. But why would people who are opposed to eating meat, have a soy product that imitates it. Like soy jerky. If someone could clarify this stuff for someone who does it meat, maybe I could find out where your coming from,

Tokyo Veggie.
You are totally right about age dashi dofu, it usually is made with fish dashi, I had realized that right after my first posting, I forgot how lucky I am to have friends with restaurants that make special dishes for me and at home I always make it with shitake dashi. However if you're finding pumpukin kuroke with meat I don't know why, I guess some places do that but many don't I have never encountered meat in pumpukin kuroke. yes in potato kuroke and in vegetable kuroke they add beef but not in pumukin kuroke.
Lydia

I do understand where you are coming from with some of the responses you have given such as religion/cruelty to animals. The MAIN POINT I was wanting to know is why are there products imitating meat that are offered to people who are opposed to/not allowed to eat meat? It's a simple as that