5 Best Vegan Desserts in Tokyo

I tend to find travelling the world as a vegan pretty easy. Whilst there are sometimes downsides; not always being able to grab a bite to eat at that cafe right next to the sight you're visiting for example, the upsides, like exploring off of the beaten path neighbourhoods, and meeting like minded compassionate people, far outweigh them. 

In Japan there was one thing that made vegan travel that little bit harder for me - there were cute desserts everywhere! If you know me you know that I love desserts and I find cute (or kawaii) things hard to resist. Desserts in Japan aren't just a picture on a menu, oh no! There are giant signs advertising sundaes outside restaurants, plastic replicas of honey toast platters in glass cases outside cafes, and giant neon lights signposting the way to the nearest creperie. Honestly, it can be a little much hence why I decided to put together this list of the top five vegan desserts in Tokyo. From Harajuku crepes to konbini dorayaki, if I wasn't so committed to researching, locating, and eating the best vegan desserts around, the city could have been a challenging place for this sugar fiend.

Super delicate, fruity, layered, cream filled cakes are the treats most likely to make my pulse race. On more than one occasion I've talked about moving to Tokyo to start a vegan dessert cafe specialising in these specific treats but now I may not have to. The Strawberry Shortcake from Chaya Macrobiotics is one of the most delightful desserts I've ever had the pleasure of eating and I am a tiny but upset that I only had the chance to eat it once.

This dessert is a showstopper, a delight for all of the senses. It's light and creamy with the perfect cake to cream ratio and the freshest berries. I am determined to recreate this when I have some spare time and an oven because I'm convinced that it's the perfect dessert. Chaya is located ontop of the iSetan building by Shinjuku station and I would highly recommend making it one of your first stops in Tokyo.

If you can avert your eyes from the striking strawberry shortcake in the foreground of my photo to the more inconspicuous Lemon and Apricot Pound Cake lurking in the back then you're in for a treat because that's dessert number two on my list!

Volunteering at Japan Cat Network

Oh Japan, it's only been a week but I miss you already. A little over a year ago when I was working out how to get back to my favourite place in the world I realised that my ideal volunteer gig would be in Japan (duh!) and would involve cats - a quick google search later and I discovered Japan Cat Network. I'd never heard of Inawashiro but I knew that I'd be able to live in Japan for free surrounded by cats - what could be better?

Japan Cat Network existed as an organisation prior to the Fukushima disaster but the Fukushima shelter itself was formed in 2011 after the Tohoku area of Japan was devastated by the Tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster. One of Japan Cat Network's founders began rescuing animals who were left behind in the area as well as fostering cats for evacuees who were unable to take their animals with them. Japan Cat Network are a true no-kill shelter and whilst they don't take in many new animals right now they do assist local people if they find that they need to re-home an animal.

Vegan in Inawashiro, Japan

Not a single person who I've mentioned Inawashiro to has known where it is so this probably isn't going to be my most searched for or most shared blog post but it'll be relevant for any vegans coming to volunteer at Japan Cat Network, ski on Mount Bandai or to take in a slice of rural Japan. If it can help even one person then I'll feel like I'm doing my travel blogging job right.

Before coming up here I had no idea whether eating vegan would be a challenge or plain sailing. I suspected it'd learn towards the tougher end of the spectrum so I arrived with two tote bags filled with snacks, burger mixes, vegan mayo, chocolate, and margarine collected from various health food stores in Tokyo. Despite there being no veg friendly restaurants in the vicinity eating here hasn't been difficult at all. Luckily the Japan Cat Network kitchen is tooled up with gas burners, a microwave, an oven and two kinds of blender as well as some more unusual items like a takoyaki pan, and Japanese supermarkets always, always, always have tofu, rice, and exciting veggies so I was never gonna starve.

There's actually a 7/Eleven just across the road from the shelter so I've been able to find inari sushi, plain onigiri, ume onigiri, ume and sakura onigiri, Chipstar crisps, plum crisps, sweet sugared sweet potatoes, edamame, and tofu very easily. If you're planning a trip to Japan check out my Pictorial Vegan Convenience Store Guide to find out what you can eat at 7/Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart stores all over the country. A couple of weeks ago these vegan Soy Joy bars appeared on the shelves of 7/Eleven which was pretty exciting. Despite the name the majority of Soy Joy products aren't vegan but these are and whilst I didn't love the pink wrapped bar, it tasted really artificial, I was very into the one in the white wrapper which reminded me a little of shortbread.

There are two supermarkets in Inawashiro and York Benimaru is the better of the two. It's always well stocked and has a great produce department as well as must have items like soy milk, Kewpie egg free mayo, nori, potato starch, pasta, noodles, and almond meal.

Vegan at Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland is going to be an interesting experience for those well versed in Disney parks as well as Disney newbies like Nick and I. The queueing is unlike any other theme park we've ever attended but if you go in with a plan you're sure to have a fun day. 

The first decision you need to make is which park to visit. There are two Tokyo parks, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Both are conveniently located in the same place right by Maihama station but they're worlds apart when it comes to rides. After watching some helpful videos on the Disney website we ascertained that Tokyo Disney Sea is the park with the scariest rides and therefor wasn't for us! I prefer something more mellow, think Professor Burps Bubbleworks not the Flying Carpet. I can get down with little rollercoasters but I prefer not to go upside down and I don't like that feeling where you plummet towards the ground leaving your stomach a few meters above you and Nick can't deal with things that spin... it was at this point that we wondered whether we should really be going to a theme park at all but we wanted to give it a shot as we were doubtful that we'd ever end up at any of the other Disney parks.

Nick has less patience when it comes to queueing than I do (weird given that he is the more patient one in almost any other situation!) so he did a tonne of research and read a lot of blog posts about how to get the most out of a one day visit to Tokyo Disneyland and I'm going to share what we learnt with you.

Viva Cats!

I left Tokyo exactly two weeks ago yesterday and as is usual for me I took a lil' blogging break whilst I was getting settled in my new space. Inawashiro feels like a different world compared to Tokyo, the pace of life is incredibly different as is the way I'm spending my days. Nick and I are volunteering at Japan Cat Network where we're managing a team of volunteers as well as their social media. On top of that I'm trying to work on fundraising ideas and community outreach but those have taken a back seat as I work on more pressing things; getting to know the cats, learning how to use Facebook and cleaning and tidying a mountain of things. This is the house we're currently sharing with five people, 23 cats and two dogs!

The house has three cat rooms filled with kitties with all sorts of different personalities, foibles, likes and dislikes and bonding with some of them is definitely a challenging process. Most of the cats here were rescued from the exclusion zone in Fukushima so we don't know most of their histories. It's clear that some had homes and families and we suspect that some did not. Nick and I have picked some of the most challenging kitties and are spending a little time each day trying to make friends with them.

Harajuku! Harajuku!

I wasn't kidding when I recently described Harajuku as my spiritual home. I adore everything about spending hours wandering the crowded streets whether I'm shopping with money burning a hole in my pocket or with no cash at all. It's always a joy. Having grown up inspired by the fashions coming out of this area of Tokyo getting to take part in the Harajuku Fashion Walk last weekend felt like a conclusion of a dream! I felt nervous going along to the meeting point, I thought that perhaps my style isn't quite out-there enough for the walk these days. A very white Air B&B bathroom means that my hair is still blonde not mauve and most of my clothes are in storage! Still, I headed to the meeting point and bumped into an Instagram friend and some of her friends who were also visiting Tokyo and we quickly bonded over group photo awkwardness and our shared love of everything Japanese.

I didn't take a single picture during the walk as I was being swept along in the fun of it all but Nick snapped this one in front of MoshiMoshi Box, you can see Harajuku Fashion Walk organiser Junnyan in the foreground! As soon as the walk and subsequent photoshoot were over we hightailed it back to Takeshita Street to get our Purikura on. I love these ridiculous booths and it turns out that six people really is the upper limit if you want all of your faces in the frame! 

More Tokyo Fun - Koenji & Beyond

Being away from home is the hardest when your friends are going through the toughest of times. You can't be there for them in the way that you'd like and you end up with a feeling of helplessness mixed with sadness mixed with I don't know what else. Feeling like this also got me thinking that I don't even know where I consider home to be anymore, for years it's been Brighton but honestly my friends are so scattered (thanks to the joy of connecting with wonderful people online!) that I don't consider any one place home these days. I honestly have no idea where I'm going to end up when I stop travelling... if I stop travelling. I love Brighton but I don't know if it's going to be quite the right fit for me after this journey which is gonna be hella confusing given that I've been Vegan in Brighton for years. How do you move away from somewhere that's such a huge part of who you are?!

I'm still madly in love with Tokyo despite the fact that we're going through another cold snap here. It hit 8º C yesterday but the wind bites at your exposed skin making it feel even colder. Despite the chill I ventured out to meet up with some of the vegans I hung out with last week as well as some new peeps at T's Restaurant which is run by the same people who own and run everybody's favourite spot T's TanTan. It was so fun and the food was amazing. I ordered a cheesy baked rice dish with a side of soy chicken with mayonnaise dressing and salad as well as a chocolate parfait for dessert.

The rice casserole was perfectly creamy and delicious but the parfait was killer.

Vegan in Tokyo!

Being back in Tokyo is throwing up so many feelings, I love it here so much that if you told me I could move here tomorrow I'd be beyond overjoyed but being here for so long with no specific purpose has me thinking hard about the different experiences you have somewhere when you're on holiday vs travelling vs settling somewhere. Last time Nick and I were here we weren't really sticking to a strict budget but this time is different, our SE Asia appropriate travel budget doesn't stretch anywhere near as far in Japan as it did in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos or Taiwan so we're having to be a little more careful than usual. When it's been cold out we've been chillaxing under a pile of blankets at the Air B&B rather than catching a movie and we're eating meals at home at least once or twice a day. Our biggest travel expense is almost always food - I can skip an expensive touristy thing like heading to the top of the highest building in favour of exploring an area on foot for a day; popping into shops, admiring the street art and just soaking in the atmosphere, but I'm never going to skip a meal! So far my favourite breakfast / lunch / dinner spot is T's Tan Tan which I mentioned last time. I love it - it's super reasonably priced and filling as well as being delicious and I love that ramen is a meal suitable for any time of day.

Ain Soph Ripple is another contender for fave' restaurant - it's a casual burger place with a small but totally excellent menu. I'm obsessed with both the cheese fries and the crispy chicken burger.

The cheese fries are made with Sheese and on my last visit I was excited to learn they they make the chicken patties themselves from shredded soy meat, wheat gluten and other yummies. They also have the best buns. You know when you get a burger and it looks like it should be great but the bun is totally inflexible making it impossible to fit in your mouth?

I'm in Tokyo!

Oh hey there! After two weeks spent travelling around Taiwan and another week exploring Hong Kong I'm back in Tokyo. I last visited Japan in 2014 and fell in love. I've been dying to come back ever since and here I am. I literally couldn't be happier. I almost shed a tear as I was riding the Yamanote line yesterday because I had one of those I kinda can't believe that this is my life moments. Writing that felt weird. I'm scared that it sounded smug. I hope not. I guess part of the reason that I find it hard to believe that I get to be here again is because my life used to be so different. I used to live in a moulding basement flat with no electricity or hot water and a drug addict flatmate who did some pretty awful things to me. I also spend a lot of time analysing my privilege and I know that getting to travel this much is for sure a privilege so I just feel lucky a lot of the time.

One of the first places I went was Takeshita Street in Harajuku, a mecca for youth fashion and everything cute. A lot has changed since I was there last, fashions have obviously changed, I spotted a lot more cat unicorn hoodies and less heart shaped sunglasses on this first wander and I saw plenty of the heart window backpacks that have been popping up on the Tokyo fashion social media accounts I follow for a while now. There are also a whole lot more crepe places now that the whole Harajuku crepe trend is an internationally known phenomenon. There's also an unofficial mascot now and I loooove her!

Another thing that's new since I was last in Japan is that Starbucks now have a vegan doughnut! I'd actually never been to Starbucks until I came to Tokyo for the first time, I obviously hate their business practices but what can I say, I'm weak and the soy milk situation here is very dairy-ful. Without speaking the language a dairy free latte is not easy to come by.

Planning a Vegan Trip to Japan.

This page has been updated with new product pictures and info for 2018!

There are plenty of trips I've felt I can just wing, before travelling to NYC for the first time I worked out which restaurants were must visits but I didn't really think much further ahead than that. Wifi was easy to come by which made using the Happy Cow app a breeze. The other obvious difference between traveling in the US and Japan is that there was no language barrier in the US. If I got stuck and was desperate for something to eat I could cobble something together from a corner store just by reading labels. I've done the same all over Europe but Japan was more challenging as 99% of the time I couldn't even work out where the ingredients were on the label let alone decipher them. Also things that I would assume are accidentally vegan here, a good baguette for example, most probably contained milk in Japan.

Never one to back away from a foodie challenge I did a lot of pre-planning.

Some online resources that helped me work out where I wanted to eat were Happy Cow (of course!) and the blog posts by previous vegan travellers especially those by Too Happy Vegans and The Urban Housewife as well as vegetarian blog Never Ending Voyage. Here are all of their posts.

Too Happy Vegans 1 2 3 4 5
The Urban Housewife 1 2 3 4
Never Ending Voyage 1 2 3 4

Between my first and second trips to Japan Susan from Kittens Gone Lentil blogged about her trip and Giselle and Cody from Mindful Wanderlust have visited and blogged about their 5 favourite places to eat in both Tokyo and Kyoto. You can also check out Keren from Just One More Spoon's guest post on her 5 Favourite Vegan Eats in Tokyo on Rika's blog Vegan Miam.

One more thing to be wary of with any posts about Japan is that things change frequently, I cross checked my list of restaurants to visit with Happy Cow a few days before we left and found four or five places had closed within the couple of months since I'd started making it. Sadly this included both Cafe Proverbs and Mikouan in Kyoto, two places I'd read a lot about and was really excited about visiting.

As always I would suggest annotating your guide book or a map with the vegan restaurants you'd like to visit, in a city as large as Tokyo it really helps to know which eateries are near to the attractions you're visiting as you won't want to wait until you're hungry to realise that the cafe you'd planned to visit is an hour away. It also helps to have a note of the opening hours and any special information such as "the restaurant is up the stairs round the back of the clothing store" as it will make places so much easier to find!

Lastly when I was reading blog posts before we left I would e-mail them to myself and screen-shot any product pictures on my phone. I made a photo album called Japanese Food and added to it throughout the trip.

It was so handy to be able to reference this whenever we were shopping!

Of course I also wrote about all of the places I visited, here are links to my blog posts about
My 2016 adventures in Tokyo 1 2 3 4
Eating Vegan at Tokyo Disneyland
My 2014 adventures in Tokyo 1 2 3 4
Nikko and Nagoya
Kyoto
Osaka, Hiroshima and Ōkunoshima (aka Bunny Island)

Before we left the UK we did some research into how easy it would be to connect to wifi in public spaces and cafes and the answer was not easy. We eventually decided to get a wifi mifi router from JCR Corp. It's basically a mobile internet device so you just switch it on and have wifi in your pocket whenever you need it. This was awesome when we were lost and needed Google Maps to help us, when restaurants were closed and we wanted to fire up the Happy Cow app and find somewhere else to eat and, of course, for keeping up with social media on the go. It gets delivered to and picked up from wherever you're staying and we chose the 4G option which worked out at £6 a day. The 3G option is slightly cheaper and I think there are cheaper companies out there offering a comparable service.

Two more things we did before leaving the UK were book tickets for the Ghibli Museum, three months in advance is the ideal time for this, and buy our Japan Rail Pass. You cannot book a JR pass once you've arrived in the country so you'll need to plan out your trip a little in advance. You can buy JR Passes for 7, 14 or 21 days and whether you need one really depends on how often you'll be travelling via train. We were in the country for three weeks and we activated our pass on the sixth day when we were ready to leave Tokyo. We were travelling to Nikko, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Ōkunoshima so the pass was well worth it. We even took a spontaneous trip to Tsumago just because we could, we loved the freedom the pass gave us.

Quite a few things helped us whilst we were over there and one resource that came in super handy was the printable vegan card from this site. Nick actually discovered them and I got a couple laminated to take with us. They were actually incredibly useful unlike The Vegan Passport which I have to say I find pretty useless and, because the translation is the same for every country, often culturally irrelevant. It's basically a good last resort but not something I'd like to rely on. We had success with our vegan card when shopping in natural food stores, we'd guess at things we thought were probably vegan (often using Jhenn's vegan vocabulary list) and then when we got to the counter we'd ask whether we were able to eat everything we'd chosen using a combination of gestures, being super polite (an arigato gozaimasu goes a long way) and the card.

We also tried an app called Word Dictionary which unfortunately wasn't helpful. At all. It translates the Japanese very literally so would come up with things such as "bright fat child", "ulcers" or "muffled rooster" which whilst amusing are unhelpful. We actually learnt that the former is the very literal translation for a type of red fish egg but unless you understand all of these meanings in advance the app won't get you very far.

The Google Translate app on the other hand was very useful. Whenever we had 3G or wifi we were able to take a picture of ingredient labels and get a decent translation 95% of the time. You can now download word packs so if you decide not to get portable wifi or a tourist sim then you should still be able to take advantage of Google Translate office.

Another thing I did before my trip was get in touch with some people who are vegans living in Japan. This is always one of my top travel tips, seek out vegans living wherever you're travelling to. They'll have the most up to date info and, in this case, far superior label reading skills. How you connect with them is up to you, you could follow them on Instagram or Twitter, read their blogs or go as far as dropping them an e-mail. A quick google search of "vegan" and wherever you're visiting will help you find people as will hashtags like #veganjapan #veganbrighton etc on Instagram.

Before travelling to Japan I'd heard that there is a convenience store on every corner, especially in Tokyo, and I have to say that this isn't exaggerated at all! Sometimes there were three or four right in one spot. Convenience store snacks were one of the things I spent a lot of time researching as eating out for every meal isn't always practical or financially viable.

Inari tofu was top of the list of convenience store foods we wanted to try and we had originally been led to believe that they would all be vegan but that's not so. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology it was easy to snap pictures of the ingredient labels of various store brands of inari and then send them to Shawn and Chiaki from Vegan Japan (check out their Instagram account veganjapan!). They then told us if something was a-ok or not, without their help we wouldn't have been able to try the majority of these foods and I wouldn't be telling you about them right now! High five Shawn and Chiaki! I felt like bombarding them with emails could get pretty annoying so we focussed on the three main combini, or convenience stores, 7/11, Lawson and Family Mart and my new Japanese speaking friends assured me that I was helping them with ideas for their own blog so it was all okay!

The packages of inari tofu from Family Mart, Lawson and 7/Eleven are vegan. The inari pouches sold at 7/eleven are not. UPDATE: As of 2018 there is no vegan inari at any of the convenience stores in Japan. All of the inari pouches are flavoured with fish which is listed under 味付け on the label, unfortunately there are no laws against this in Japan. If something contains a very small amount of something you do not have to list it in the ingredients.

Onigiri made up a lot of our favourite convenience store breakfasts and snacks on the go and one that ended up being a surprise favourite was the plain rice ball. Simply flavoured with salt and sugar these were delightful at any time of day. The vegan versions below were found at 7/Eleven (2016) and Lawson (2018). As of Spring '16 Family Mart no longer stock this type of onigiri.

Other vegan versions we discovered were konbu with sesame seeds and ume (pickled plum), both from Family Mart.

As well as this ume version from 7/Eleven and both ume and konbu from Lawson.

This special spring edition ume and sakura onigiri from 7/Eleven, I believe they bring these out every year towards the end of blossom season. I'm crossing my fingers that I see them back here in 2018.

We made a meal out of these more times that I should probably admit, they were delicious and so, so cheap. Here's a classic 7/11 breakfast of plain onigiri, a Kikkoman tea flavoured soy milk and a banana.

I ate the vegan nori flavoured Chip Star crisps with a whole lot of tangelos for breakfast one day, it was a delicious morning.

The soy milks pictured above are Kikkoman brand and they come in loads of great flavours including vanilla ice cream pictured here on the right and coffee, sweet potato, red bean and dango pictured below. Soy milk is something that you may assume would be vegan but not in Japan where many brands also contain dairy milk. Kikkoman flavours are mainly vegan but look out for the ones containing Vitamin D and the Matcha version which contains calcium from shellfish. Look out for this 貝カルシウム in the ingredients list.

Another great drink that is new for 2018 are soy milk smoothies! This comes in both banana and berry flavours, just look out for that soy milk kanji 豆乳 and you're all set.

There's also a green smoothie version without any milk by the same brand.

Crisps are another go-to snack for me in any country and I love trying unusual flavours that I wouldn't find at home. Vegips were in almost every store and I preferred this pumpkin and sweet potato mix to the (also vegan) kind in the green bag which I think contained regular potato and onion.

These next crisps are plum and salt flavoured and we grabbed some whenever we stumbled upon them because they were so good.

We never did spot these ones but Chiaki and Shawn from Vegan Japan sent the pictures to us after they'd had a read of the labels.

I wasn't a huge fan of these, they tasted a little too much like ketchup to me but I know people who enjoyed them and I think everyone should try sakura and plum crisps at least once in their lives!

These are another vegan find, you can also get a version with 250% of the amount of MSG!

You should also look out for these soy meat snack packs at 7/11 stores, they appeared in March 2018 but I haven't spotted them in the wild yet. Pic courtesy of @veganinkyoto on Instagram.

Japanese convenience stores aren't amazing for vegan desserts, although things have improved greatly between 2014 and 2018. In most countries it's easy to find a bar of accidentally vegan dark chocolate or some Oreo's but in Japan they all contain milk products. I had incorrectly assumed that most mochi would be vegan but on closer inspection most convenience store versions seemed to contain cream or chocolate based fillings. We did find this type of vegan mochi in 7/11. It's green tea with a red bean filling, turns out I'm not a fan of red bean paste but maybe you are!

We also found these sugared sweet potatoes (you just need to defrost them for around 30 - 45 minutes and they're ready to eat) as well as this accidentally vegan brand of sorbet so we snapped up a mini carton of the lemon flavour.

Other vegan sorbet flavours include blood orange, mango, pear and pink grapefruit. If I'd spotted pear I definitely would have tried that one too.  I haven't actually these next two products but these coconut milk ice cream sandwiches and soy ice cream tubs are also vegan.

These tubs come in matcha, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and (new for 2018!) soy latte flavours.

They're slightly challenging to find and I only stumbled upon these at a large import store in Tokyo and I've only found the ice cream tubs at a large supermarket in Kyoto but word on the street is that you can find the soy latte flavour at Lawson stores. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more frozen treats now that the weather is getting warmer!

Another great option for red bean fans are these red bean ice lollies. Again, I haven't tried them but I've heard good things and unlike the two products pictured above you'll be able to find them at almost any convenience store.

Lastly for the frozen treats section, this ice lolly is vegan!

Happy Date bars are one of my favourite Japanese treats, they're available at Natural Lawson stores all over Japan.

7/Eleven also have a great selection of vegan suitable bars and snacks. Most Soy Joy bars contain milk products but these new Soy Joy Crispy bars are vegan friendly. I found the one in the pink wrapper too sweet but the white wrapped bar was excellent.

There's also a new blue wrapped bar (with the new 2018 packaging - picture coming soon) which is Nick's favourite but I'm still a traditionalist a grab the write wrapped bar every time. They've also recently brought out this crispy filled chocolate bar which is kind of amazing as vegan chocolate really isn't a thing in Japan, there's butterfat in every dark chocolate bar on the market right now, and usually the only vegan chocolate you'll find will be from import stores.

Also new for 2018 are these two bean based snacks that can be found in 7/11. The first is a wafer filled with red bean and the second is a bean and cocoa flavoured bar made with agar.

Some 7/Eleven and Happy News branches stock the Morinaga vegan brownie and flapjack bars, the packaging has changed since I took these photos in 2016 but thy still look similar enough and they now come with five bite sized pieces in each pack.

Another new item for 2018 is this pack of macrobiotic pumpkin cookies from Lawson, I have seen them at regular Lawson's but they're much easier to find (alongside a wider range of vegan products) at Natural Lawson stores. I'm a big fan of these and grab a bag or two whenever I spot them!

You can also look out for import stores in stations like Kaldi where we found things like peanut butter, crackers and bread sticks as well as speculoos biscuits, a few other vegan cookies and most importantly chocolate. It's always expensive and imported but we've found brands like Vivani, People Tree, Moo Free and iChoc here. We also shopped for food in a couple of natural / health food stores in Tokyo and Kyoto and you can see what we found in some of those stores here.

Top Tip: In japan is that not all soy sauce is vegan, a lot of it, including the kind you will be served alongside otherwise vegan meals in non vegan restaurants, contains dashi from fish. We bought a mini bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce to carry with us during our 2014 trip and it easily lasted for the duration of our three week adventure.

One place Nick and I surprised ourselves by frequenting in Japan was Starbucks, they're everywhere, and they're very careful not to cross contaminate dairy milk and soy milk drinks. You can also be assured that their soy milk contains no dairy at all which isn't the case everywhere When you order your drink you get given a Soymilk card...

...and when you collect your drink the sleeve will have a Soymilk sticker.

Matcha green tea lattes were our regular order and this system offered great peace of mind.

Whilst we're on the subject of drinks if you're into beer both Asahi and Kirin are ubiquitous and vegan friendly. As you can see I will pair onigiri with anything!

I really hope that this post helps any vegans or veggies out there who are planning a trip to Japan, avoiding fish is challenging but it can be done and Japan is an amazing place to visit. I've been here twice now and I would recommend a trip to anyone.