Vegetarian!!!

[maraudress]

Hi guys, I'll be visiting Japan soon, and I'm a vegan/vegetarian. Vegan if it's not too much trouble.
I found somewhere that 'vegetarian' in Japanese is said: saishoku shugisha.
Is this right? Is there a word for 'vegan'?

Should I let the waiter know that I am a veggie?
I heard being vegetarian is pretty easy in Japan, but with all these 'ekiben' meals with chicken and beef, and the 'tako' and 'uni' words I'm learning, it sounds like it's not the usual. Or maybe Peter and the other audio people never eat vegetarian meals.

So...I'm wondering what life is like in Japan for strict vegetarians. Let me know!

[andamanislander]

It depends how strict a strict vegetarian you are. It'll be fairly easy to go through your trip avoiding big chunks of meat or eggs. (Think tofu. Tofu is really really delicious in Japan, and I say that as a hardcore meat eater.)

Your problem is DASHI - the fish-and-seaweed stock that is used in, well, virtually everything. Soups. Sauces. Seasoning. More or less anything that isn't a steak.

The ubiquity of Dashi means that finding dishes that are 99.99% meat free is very easy, but finding dishes that are 100% meat-free is really almost impossible.

Dashi. Delicious and everywhere. That's how it is.

[Bissen]

I've been thinking about the same thing - also for broths etc.
I eat fish, but no cow/pork/chicken whatsoever, and I'm afraid there'll be a lot of "hidden" animal products in sauces and stuff.

I'm afraid it'll be difficult...

[JonB]

Yes there is a word for vegan in Japan - hungry!

Your best bet is Indian restaurants. There are more choices than there were a few years back but only if you are in central Tokyo.

I don't think that I've ever met a Japanese vegetarian - most I know are Indian.