being vegetarian in japan

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: being vegetarian in japan 🥬 

remember my post on how being vegetarian isn’t hard — well, traveling in japan has only proven my rationale for why (particularly point #1 & #2).

japanese food is very meat-heavy. it’s in the broth for everything, salmon flakes as garnish are standard and some sort of pork oil is always thrown in. 😭 the options are pretty scarce, even if i want a quick savoury snack at a convenience store.

the chips aren’t safe either …

my options are extremely limited in japan, which makes being a vegetarian pretty challenging. fortunately, i was still able to gain a thorough taste for japanese food despite this since the food provided at our tea farming internship was vegetarian by default.

from vegetarian ramen, to dumplings and tempura, i was blown away by how delicious everything tasted and even more appreciative for this rare opportunity to try basically all of japan’s staple dishes. i definitely haven’t been able to as frequently now that i’m traveling around different cities.

occasionally stumbling upon vegan restaurants or noodle spots with veg options are a rarity that i celebrate wholeheartedly. 💀 we randomly passed a poké bowl spot yesterday and decided to give it a shot after seeing it had a veg option, and i kid you not that was the best poké bowl i’ve had my whole life.

otherwise, my meals have mostly consisted of convenience store snacks, fries, bread and udon (the best kind of noodle btw).

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