Vegetarian in Japan?? (Now blogging with photos and labels!)

One of my larger concerns before studying abroad was what I would do about food. At Soka, I did the vegetarian thang for about two months, but I didn't know what I'd do on study abroad when someone else (my host family) would be feeding me. I knew avoiding beef and chicken would be relatively easy in Japan, but I was concerned about Japanese food's being very fish-oriented, so I asked some very lovely SUA vegan ladies about what they did on study abroad. I was told by one of them that it was very hard to be vegan in Japan because even seemingly unlikely things like soymilk can contain some sort of animal/fish-ness. They offered me some ideas about what I could do to keep up the vegetarianism, such as offer to do my own cooking or just not eat 和食, or traditional Japanese foods. These solutions, however, were almost impossible (nothing is impossible if you believe you can!) options for me, and it looked like there wouldn't be much I'd be able to do to stay a vegetarian. Still, I identified myself as a "somewhat strict" vegetarian on my homestay application.

I broke the vegetarian thing at home during winter break because I figured it's not fair to ask my mom to cook a special non-meat meal just for me (also my mom kept bugging me by 1) setting a dish of whatever-meat-thing in front of me and listing the health benefits of said whatever-meat and 2) telling me that I am culturally required as an Okinawan to continue eating pork, a prominent ingredient in Okinawan cuisine, so I just kinda gave up). And I realized that this should have been my attitude for Japan. I can't stay in my host parents' home and ask them to cook for me and expect them to adapt to my food habits, which are nonhealth-related in nature. So my plan became to avoid meat where I could but not to feel bad for eating meat.

My host parents asked me about the meat thing on the first night. I explained to them that when I had identified myself as a "somewhat strict" vegetarian, I meant that I didn't intentionally get meat to eat, but I wouldn't let food go to waste if there were meat in it. They were relieved to hear that because, unfortunately, there was no space in the questionnaire for me to explain in all that detail, and they had worried that I would freak out over food. They assured me that although they eat a lot of fish, I wouldn't have to worry about other types of meat, which they used much less often. Then my host mom listed the various health benefits of fish.

* * *

That first night, we ate nabe, a winter dish which is cooked in a pot at the "dinner table" (at my host house, it's the kotatsu) and contains all sorts of fishy things and vegetables. Not something I particularly like, but it is definitely probably healthful.