First Time To Japan: Preparation is Key
In a few days I will be landing in Japan for the first time ever! My partner and I will be there for just over two weeks, travelling to three of Japan’s cities: Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
It is incredibly exciting and we have been planning this trip of a lifetime for many, many months now. We’ve got a solid itinerary for most days, and have pre-booked a few activities already to avoid any disappointment in the busy season of Spring.
But alongside all the planning for things to do and places to see, there’s been one other major thing I’ve had to research and plan carefully: what the hell am I going to eat out there? And more importantly, will I be able to eat?
Grateful For The Gluten Free Guides That Helped Me Prep!
I have done a lot of research and have read other gluten-free travel blogs from people who’ve visited Japan. I want to make sure I am as safe and prepared as possible once we touch down. So a huge thank you to Legal Nomads, How To Coeliac, Coeliac UK, and the translation card from Celiac Travel. I highly recommend checking them out – they’ve been absolute lifesavers in helping me prep! That said, everything I have mapped out in my plan comes from what I’ve learned, and tailored to suit my preferences. So stick around as I will be sharing exactly how I’m putting it all into action, plus some additional hacks I’ve come up with.
I hope the rest of this blog will be helpful for anyone else planning a trip to Japan – especially if you’ve been hesitant about travelling with dietary restrictions. Additionally, I really hope my tips and personal plan will encourage you to go too!
Also, I’ll be sharing another blog post after my trip (and updating this one!) with more insights from my experience eating gluten-free in Japan.
What Will We Go Through In This Plan?
To make this as helpful as possible, I’ve broken everything down into clear sections. Here’s everything I will be covering:
- Firstly Confronting my Worries: The Biggest Concerns I have as a Coeliac Going To Japan
- Packing Prep 1: Printing Off A Japanese Translation Card
- Packing Prep 2: Bring Your Own Gluten Free Soy Sauce
- Packing Prep 3: Bring Your Own Snacks As A Backup
- Predeparture Revision 1: Learning and Practicing a Few Key Phrases
- Predeparture Revision 2: Research, Research, Research!!!!!!
Firstly Confronting my Worries: The Biggest Concerns I have as a Coeliac Going To Japan
Japan is well known for it’s amazing food, and I’m fully committed to indulging myself whenever I can. I really want to stuff my face at any chance I get. That being said, there are many traditional Japanese dishes that I’ll need to be cautious with.
Here are a few of my biggest concerns as a coeliac:
- Soy sauce and marinades: Many traditional Japanese foods use soy sauce and marinades, which typically contains gluten
- Low awareness of coeliac disease: There seems to be limited understanding of coeliac disease in Japan, which may make it harder to find truly gluten-free safe options.
- Wheat-based noodles: Most noodles in Japan contain wheat, with rice noodles being exempt from that
- Sushi risks: Some sushi may even contain gluten if it’s prepared with certain types of vinegar that include wheat.
- Cross-contamination in small kitchens: Many Japanese restaurants are small and have a limited space, increasing the risk of cross-contamination while preparing food that may not even contain gluten.
- Fried foods in the same oil: Even food that could be gluten-free such as fries might be cooked in the same oil as other fried foods.
Packing Prep 1: Printing Off A Japanese Translation Card
This might seem a bit obvious, but it is essential to print off a Japanese Translation Card that explains I have coeliac disease and lists common foods that I can’t eat. It outlines what gluten is and also includes examples of foods I can usually eat safely. The one I’ll be using is from Celiac Travel. It is free and you can easily download the pdf and then print it off, or keep a picture of it on your phone, I am planning on doing both.
I am planning to give this card to every restaurant we visit, ideally before we even get a table, so the staff can check with the kitchen and let me know if they’re able to cater for me. It should make communication much easier. It’s always a challenge trying to explain what gluten is, especially in another language, and in a country that has limited awareness of coeliac disease.
Packing Prep 2: Bring Your Own Gluten Free Soy Sauce
Soy sauce is massive in Japan, most dishes will include soy sauce in some way. I am expecting that I’ll have to request a lot of meals without sauce, which could make some dishes a bit plain or dry. So, to avoid missing out on flavour, I am bringing my own gluten-free soy sauce all the way to Japan from the UK.
I have ordered some small sauce bottles that I can keep in my bag and add to meals that I think it suits. The bottles I have purchased are from Amazon and are portable and leakproof (hopefully).
I am also picking up my favourite gluten-free soy sauce from Oseyo which is a Korean shop found in many cities in the UK. They stock a great range of gluten free sauces including soy sauce, temaki sauce and oyster sauce.
Packing Prep 3: Bring Your Own Snacks As A Backup
Despite concerns about not being able to eat while out in Japan, the journey to get there is a worry in itself. A 13 hour flight brings me pessimistic worries that I might not be able to eat the meals provided. As this is a concern for every long haul flight we get, we’ve informed the airline in advance, and I have requested a gluten free meal for the flight – so fingers crossed, I should be able to eat. Nevertheless, it is always a good idea to bring some snacks onboard as a backup, or even just to break up the journey for boredom.
I’ll be bringing a few snack bars in my personal bag for the flight, along with 18 Nakd bars in my suitcase for the rest of the time in Japan. Snacks are always a good idea to bring, regardless of allergies or intolerances, especially since we will be out all day and walking a lot. But I do feel like I need to level up a bit just to guarantee my belly doesn’t start rumbling while we are going about our day.
Predeparture Revision 1: Learning and Practicing a Few Key Phrases
Learning a few key phrases is really important, it’ll not only help me communicate better, but also give me more confidence when speaking to people in Japan. I also think learning some relevant kanji to identify on food labels will be super useful, especially when shopping at convenience stores like 7-Eleven.
Here are a few phrases I’m planning to learn and practice from the Coeliac UK official site:
I have a wheat allergy
私は小麦アレルギーです
“Watashi wa komugi arerugīdesu”
I cannot eat any foods containing flours or grains of wheat, rye, barley or oats, for example soy sauce, pasta, semolina, bread, cakes and pastries.
醤油、パスタ、セモリナ粉、パン、ケーキ、ペストリーなど、小麦、ライ麦、大麦、オート麦の粉や穀物を含む食品は一切食べられません。
“Shōyu, pasuta, semorina-ko, pan, kēki, pesutorī nado, komugi, raimugi, ōmugi, ōto muginoko ya kokumotsu o fukumu shokuhin wa issai tabe raremasen.”
Please make sure that my dish is cooked without any breadcrumbs or batter
パン粉や衣を使わずに調理してください。
“Panko ya i o tsukawazu ni chōri shite kudasai.”
Please can you advise me if you sell any gluten free products in your store?
お店でグルテンフリーの商品を販売しているかどうか教えていただけますか？
“mise de gurutenfurī no shōhin o hanbai shite iru ka dō ka oshiete itadakemasu ka?”
And some words and kanji to look out for on food labels, thanks to How To Coeliac providing these:
Gluten (guruten グルテン)
Soy Sauce (shōyu 醤油)
Wheat (komugi 小麦)
Barley (omugi 大麦 / 押し麦)
Oats (enbaku 燕麦)
Oatmeal (ootomiiru オートミール)
Rye (raimugi ライ麦)
Predeparture Revision 2: Research, Research, Research!!!!!!
Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka are all very large cities, with thousands of restaurants in each. It’s so important to have a few places in mind before starting each day, so that we are aware of places that I can eat at while out and about. It is also important to make sure our day activities are mapped around a few of these places so that there are options for me to go to. I am prepared for some days to be a bit of a fail, potentially not finding anywhere that is gluten free. But I am also hopeful that with my extensive research, this will be much more unlikely.
1.The FIRST piece of research to do is to understand traditional Japanese food, and which food typically contains gluten.
Mugicha Tea contains barley so always avoid this tea, it is an earthy brown colour – green tea (matcha) is safe though and is typically gluten free.
Soy Sauce, as said before, this will very likely contain gluten so bring your own.
Yakitori Sauce, normally served on chicken, contains gluten.
Okonomiyaki – a teppanyaki savory pancake which contains wheat flour batter (avoid!!).
Unagi (eel) – typically is covered in a sauce that contains wheat.
Miso soup and most broths – very likely contain gluten.
Tempura – although some tempura batter is gluten-free, I would avoid all tempura unless the restaurant is very certain it is gluten-free. But also remember this is fried in oil, so you need to check if the oil is shared.
Takoyaki – octopus balls in a flour-based batter.
Kanikama – crab sticks that are normally in sushi but contain wheat.
Tamagoyaki – an egg omelette but normally contains soy sauce.
Inari – tofu filled with rice but will contain soy sauce.
Uni – sea urchin that tends to contain soy sauce.
2.The SECOND piece of research to do is to find what food tends to be gluten free
Sashimi – pure raw fish which is normally gluten-free.
Nigiri – raw fish placed over sushi rice is normally gluten-free if the rice vinegar is not mixed with wheat.
Donburi Bowls – plain white rice with raw fish on top, but make sure they don’t add soy sauce on top.
Nori (seaweed sheets) – gluten-free as long as they haven’t got soy sauce added to it.
Yakiimo – sweet potatoes that are baked and are sold as street food or in some supermarkets; avoid with sauce, but normally on their own they are gluten-free.
Onigiri – triangles of rice and seaweed; check the label to make sure it is gluten-free, but some flavors seem to not contain gluten.
Mochi (Daifuku) – normally gluten-free, made from rice flour and shaped into a sweet ball.
Bread – Nipponham and Tainai (rice-based bread) are brands that offer gluten-free bread and can be found in some supermarkets.
3. The THIRD piece of research to do is to find restaurants and places that are known to offer gluten-free food, or are even completely free.
Tokyo
- Hokkaido Sapporo Ramen (Shibuya)
- My Bánh Mì by Gluten Free Tokyo
- Komehiro Bakery
- Gluten Free T’s Kitchen
- Nabezo (Shinjuku)
- Rizlabo Kitchen
Kyoto
- Cafe Planet Kyoto
- Breizh Cafe
- Choice Eat and Study Space Kyoto
- Gluten-Free Restaurant
Osaka
- Grom
- Comoconoco Gluten Free Laboratory & Cafe
All Prepped – Now Ready To Go!
Now that I have packed my “gluten-free essentials” and have done my essential research, I am ready to go!
I hope this plan was insightful for anyone else going to Japan, and please comment down below your thoughts and any other tips you have.