Japan for vegetarians?

Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 05:19 AM
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hsd
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Japan for vegetarians?

Hi
I have been trying to look for vegetarian tours in Japan for apx 2 weeks duration. However have not had much luck. I am an Indian and although I dont mind eating pizzas and pastas for few days, I prefer more asiany spicy food and don't think I will enjoy unless we had a good vegetarian meal atleast once a day.

I dread having to go looking for Indian restaurants in every city and spending time just looking for meals that is palatable for me. Can someone please suggest
1. if there are any tours that will cater properly for Indian vegetarians
or
2. places where good vege meals would be avail
so we can travel on our own (not very keen on the idea )
What will be the best time to travel to Japan if I wanted to catch the cherry blossom festival. I like to visit some gardens and nice beautiful places.
Thank you for helping out with suggestions
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 11:24 AM
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I don't know why you would want/need a tour in Japan. Print out a card (in Japanese) that tells exactly what you cannot eat and show this at restaurants. before you order.

If you want to be in Japan for the sakura (cherry blossoms) you'll need to be there March/April. Take a look at www.japan-guide.com and they will give predictions for the bloom in all the areas of the country. Do note that prices are higher during this time and hotel reservations harder to come by.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 12:36 PM
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My husband is a vegan who loves spicy food and had no trouble whatsoever in Japan (other than being tempted to eat the amazing fish).

For spicy options, try the curries or choose a fusion-type place. Red pepper flakes are ubiquitous and can be sprinkled on anything, especially ramen.

You can use happycow.com to search for restaurants and I would suggest downloading a translation app that say 'Vegetarian, please.' (In his case it was also no poultry, no dairy, no eggs and no fish.) We were there in late March/early April, which was ideal for cherry blossom viewing, but that varies from year to year.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 07:51 PM
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hsd
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Thank you for the cues. I was considering Vege tours do that I didn't have to worry about planning the iternary or look for restaurants with Vege options.
My husband doesn't go any higher ework n just tags along, and I feel exhausted just keeping track of everything from bookings to meals to sight seeing etc
It's more work than a holiday.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 09:54 PM
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I don't think it will be that easy to find vegetarian food everywhere as many dishes that may sound vegetarian at first glance will contain dashi, a light stock made from seaweed and bonito (fish).

There have been previous threads on this topic here so you may wish to use the Search options to find some of them and look at some of the advice there.

Perhaps it is worth pushing yourself to be more adventurous with your eating for this trip, since food is such a large part of what it is to visit and enjoy Japan?

I don't mean the vegetarianism but the attempt to limit yourself to spicy food.

Incidentally, "curry" (kare) in Japan is predominantly a style based not on Indian or other Asian curries but on the 18th/ 19th century British naval cooks Anglicised version of British curry. The Japanese combined that with some French cooking techniques they had also taken on board (making a roux base for a sauce) and ended up with what is known as curry in Japan. I think Indian food may be found in Tokyo but I didn't spot any other Indian restaurants elsewhere, not that I was looking of course.
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