Being Vegetarian in Japan: The Worst Things

The most annoying things about being a vegetarian in Japan

Dashi In Everything

Dashi (fish paste, fish broth, fish flakes) is annoying even for non-vegetarians because it, along with bonito flakes (AKA Katsuo AKA the thin fish skin topping that wiggles around on top of hot food) is what makes almost every Japanese food taste like fish. Even things (like Italian-style pasta) that aren’t supposed to taste fishy taste like fish in Japan because of dashi.

For vegetarians, dashi is even more annoying because it’s not considered meat or fish. Dashi is The Secret Meat that most vegetarians don’t even realize that they’re eating. Dashi is why most vegetarians can’t eat miso soup, tamago-yaki, oden and even most vegetable dishes at restaurants. Dashi is in almost all soup broths. Dashi is mixed into egg, takoyaki and Okonomiyaki batter. Dashi is in almost everything, and it kills me.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks are meat.

I think that besides Korea and Vietnam, Japan is the least vegetarian country in the world. Absolutely everything has fish in it. Even a typical breakfast = a grilled fish with fishy soup and eggs with fish sauce mixed into it. Most snacks are full of fish. Most salad dressing is full of fish. Beware of crackers with very, very thin red lines woven into them. The red bits are shrimp. These crackers are totally delicious, and I loved them until I learned enough kanji to read the package. Most desserts are OK, but some cookies have fish in them. These cookies have pictures of fish on the package, though, so they’re easy to spot.

Japanese people don’t think that fish is meat.

This is so irritating. Fish is a type of meat in most Western countries. Meat is anything that is made from a dead thing, isn’t it? Fish have blood and eyes and organs, so I consider them meat. In Japan, though, if you ask if a dish has meat in it and are told that it is meat-free, you’ll likely be served a dish full of prawns or Mackerel.

People share meals in Japan

On the rare occasion that you find a restaurant that serves vegetarian food, remember that whatever you order will be shared by everyone else in your group. People in Asian countries share their food. This is nice, until you think about a few things.

1) 1. Your food has no meat in it, so it takes less time to cook. That means it will be brought out first.

2) 2. Everyone is hungry at first, so the first few dishes always get wolfed down by everyone.

3) 3. Everyone else has meat dishes coming but you only have that one dish. Once everyone eats it, you’re not getting anything else. You’ll either have to order more of whatever it was, or just shut up and be hungry.

Japanese people split the bill evenly

Vegetarian food usually costs less than meat, for obvious reasons. This is a nice perk of being vegetarian. My entrée is usually going to cost about two third of what my friend’s meals cost. In Japan, though, if I go out with four people and the bill comes to 100 dollars, I have to pay 25 dollars even if I ate an 8 dollar meal and I only had one drink. I have declined going out with some really fun guy friends simply because I know that I’ll have one drink and some salad all night and they’ll drink beer and eat yakiniku (grilled meat) all night and I don’t have enough money to pay for their drinks.

This post isn’t meant to complain. It's just stating the facts. This blog is full of mostly only positive things about this country, so you can tell that I love Japan. I just don't think that vegetarians have it easy in this country at all.

I know that if it bothered me that much, I could just leave Japan. It doesn’t.

I am oddly kind of grateful for it, too. I learned to be a better cook.

I also used to spend too much money on restaurants and now I rarely ever go out to eat.

Past "vegetarian in Japan" posts... Okinawan food has a lot of vegetarian dishes. Momo curry in Kichijoji, Tokyo makes really good veggie curry in a nice atmosphere. Mos Burger has a vegan veggie burger called a Kinpira burger. Seaweed is good for you. Japanese Hare Krishnas. Vegetarian miso soup recipe. Watch out for the Fish Eraser. Organic / veggie foods in Japan.