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Picky eater in Japan 2007/8/10 13:03
My wife and i will be visiting friends in Japan in October. Neither of us eat fish/seafood or curry. We do eat beef, chicken, pork etc. Will we survive?
by michael  

Yes you will be ok 2007/8/10 18:45
Hi Michael
Sure you will do ok.
I like to pick hotels near train stations if not staying with friends.
Western style hotels with both western and Japanese even Chinese restaurants.
Ramon? and udon? soups are ok with meat in them as well as kutsu which is something in fried breadcrumbs (chicken, pork and so on). I normally check
out places to eat early in morning and go out for day then return around 7 pm and eat then. On Miyajima I stay at a Japanese inn and eat local. Fruit is little hard to find and the chocolate etc
is not as sweet.
Where are you planning to visit?, remember the large cities like Kyoto and Osaka,
Hiroshima have many European
restaurants to eat in.
Mac's etc are easy to find to and are same world over.
Try some of the local stuff
as it may be better then you think.
Oh most meals for me near stations are around the 2000
yen mark with a orange drink
no desert.
Most guide books etc have places to eat in them and
JNTO site and major city sites should give ideas on where to eat.
Go and enjoy
Kiwi
by Kiwi rate this post as useful

... 2007/8/10 19:24
You don't eat fish/seafood because of your preference or you CANNOT EAT them due to some reasons (ex. religion/allergy)?

If you don't eat them simply because you don't like them, no problem. You can pick whatever you like. But if you can't eat them especially because you have an allergy, be careful. Most Japanese cuisine (including UDON, OKONOMIYAKI) use fish broth as an ingredient.
by J Lady rate this post as useful

From a fellow picky eater 2007/8/10 21:56
I am an extremely picky eater and do not like fish at all.
At first I tried eating different foods... but I fell into the habit of eating American food all the time, mostly pancakes. Funny thing is, the pancakes tasted nasty at first but after eating it everyday I got hooked (seriously, it was breakfast, lunch and dinner).

My advice? Try to avoid eating too much American food.

I did however try certain meals containing fish, and none of them were tasty.. but giving things a try is always good, and polite.

I must say though, Japan's non-fish dishes are delicious. There are many soups, including ramen, udon, and soba. Also you can eat rice, among other things. Restaurants always seem to have a nice variety- so theres no going wrong there.

Overall, don't worry!
by niko-chan rate this post as useful

American food 2007/8/11 01:17
American food, especially Pizza, can become very expensive. It's smart to eat Japanese food since it's easy to make and is a lot cheaper. There are lots of food you can eat that don't include fish and curry.
Try going to a Yakiniku. If you haven't heard of it before, it's a restaurant that lets you cook your own meat. I recommend Kobe beef (a bit pricey, but the best beef you'll ever eat).
There's also Katsu don, Tori don, yakiudon, zarusoba, tempura, okonomiyake, oyakodon...
Katsu don is a bread pork dish on top of rice. Sometimes it has egg in it. Tori don is chicken over rice (anytime you see "don" it means "over rice"), yakiudon is fried noodles with vegetables and meat (yaki means "fried"), okonomiyake is a cabbage/egg sort of pancake with other items in it which sometimes can be seafood, but you can order some without seafood, and oyakodon is an egg, chicken, and onion dish served over rice.

There is one other element about Japanese food that you might disagree with. Ofuro egg, which is a an egg that is cracked upon a dish (such as soup) and left there without cooking it. It's not as terrible as it sounds, since the food is usually hot enough to cook the egg if you stir it.
by Miko rate this post as useful

You will survive 2007/8/11 02:11
You can easily survive in Japan without eating fish & curry. however, you will be missing some of the best cuisine of Japan.
That said, there are tons of other things to eat. Check out the food pages on here or just google Japanese cuisine a/o similar topic.
by cf rate this post as useful

picky picky 2007/8/11 04:02
Michael, you can easily find on Google the addresses of thousands of Western style restaurants in Japan. obviously you do not live near the sea and have no access to fresh fish as fresh fish is so delicious!. My dad is a ver picky eater too and lived all his life in Europe, except for one trip to North America where I live.
We took him once to a local sushi restaurant. He ate everything we gave him and wanted to come back the next day.
Be a little more adventurous! why bother going to a foreign country if one doesn't try the local cuisine? (if you are really picky surely you don't eat at Mc Donalds and other similarly dreadful places!!)
by Sensei 2 rate this post as useful

Ofuro Egg 2007/8/11 14:31
Speaking of the raw egg thing, I once had an experience with that.

I was always raised knowing that eating eggs raw or undercooked was dangerous and could give you Salmonella. One night my host mother served it to me, and I was surprised. I explained to her why I was worried, and she convinced me that the Japanese are very carefull with their eggs, to ensure that they are bacteria free.

Even so, I still couldn't get myself to eat too much of it. I can compare it to the feeling of eating cake batter before the cake is baked.
by niko-chan rate this post as useful

some people just don't like fish 2007/8/11 15:00
Sensei 2, it is quite possible to grow up near the sea and still dislike fish. I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, where you are never more than about 10 minutes away from the beach, with a fishing and diving-mad father who would regularly bring home all kinds of fish, scallops, mussels, lobster, abalone, and about any other seafood you can imagine. Often we would go with him and catch it ourselves as well, but while one of my brothers loves seafood as much as my parents do, I can't stand the taste of any seafood and neither can my other brother. I've always been that way, I wasn't forced to eat seafood, that is not the source of my dislike, but I even hate the smell of it.

It's just one of those things.

As for the original question, you should be fine. There is a huge variety of food here. Do let your friends know about your dislikes in advance if they don't already, as they may be planning meals containing fish or certain restaurants.
by Sira rate this post as useful

. 2007/8/11 15:09
Usually when a raw egg is cracked on top of something, such as a soup or ramen, the soup base is usually hot enough to cook the egg once mixed in, so its not like you're eating or drinking a raw egg like Rocky Balboa.

Tempura or shrimp/prawn tempera is something you'll be missing out on of course. There are many meals with chicken, and pork, and of course there are various noodles. However fish sauce is sometimes used in ingrediants as well.
by John rate this post as useful

thanks to all 2007/8/12 03:14
Growing up in San Francisco, my father owned a couple of retail fish stores and we had a fish dinner 2-3 nights a week. At some point, my body said 'no more'. I haven't had seafood/fish for about 30 years.

Based on the responses, my wife and I will have no problem surviving in Japan. Further, while on vacation-we have a rule. No chain restaurants. So, Mcdonalds/Pizza Hut are not an option for us.
by michael rate this post as useful

Good 2007/8/12 08:48
rule to have :)
by Module rate this post as useful

. 2007/8/12 08:51
Nothing wrong with chain restaurants, sometimes its fun to see the various items you can't get at your home chain restaurants.

Also there are Japanese chains I think some should try just to see , ie Mos Burger or Yoshinoya. Btw if you want pork, chicken, beef bowl (not sure if they are back at Yoshinoya yet) Yoshinoya is famous for those bowls.

by John rate this post as useful

First Kitchen 2007/8/12 11:01
One chain i particularly liked was First Kitchen. It's a fast food place, but they have the best french fries! They're seasoned with cheese... oh i forgot the other flavors, but you put the seasoning in a bag with the fries... shake it up and it's ready to eat.
by Miko rate this post as useful

. 2007/8/12 21:11
I love First Kitchen's fries too. The cheese sauce and mentaiko mayo and teriyaki I think? Probably some other flavours.

I dont like other food items from First Kitchen though. And they keep changing the menu and also the looks its confusing me. Had pasta resembling tinned pasta for some time but think it disappeared again.
by Blanc rate this post as useful

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