Japan is not the easiest country for vegan travel. That’s the honest truth — and also the reason it’s the most exciting.
That sounds like a contradiction. It isn’t.
The promise
At first glance, Japan offers an incredible amount for plant-based travelers. Fresh vegetables, tofu in a thousand variations, rice dishes, onigiri, edamame, mochi, vegetable tempura, clear ramen broth — the list is long. Supermarkets are packed with products that look perfectly vegan on the surface. And konbinis — those small Japanese 24-hour stores that are simultaneously supermarket, restaurant, and neighborhood soul — seem to have a thousand things to offer.
In short: you might think this is easy.
The problem
And then you try to read the ingredient list.
The Japanese writing system has three layers: hiragana, katakana, and kanji — Chinese-origin characters, thousands of which appear in everyday life. For someone without Japanese skills, ingredient labels are simply unreadable. What would be obvious non-vegan in English — “clarified butter” or “skim milk powder” — hides behind characters you can’t parse.
So you reach for a translation app.
Google Lens can photograph and translate ingredient lists — and it’s genuinely helpful, often. But anyone who has stood in a konbini aisle pointing their camera at tiny packaging and gotten back “fermented animal flavoring extract (type 3)” knows the feeling: sometimes it helps, and sometimes it just makes everything more confusing. Occasionally the app produces complete nonsense because the text is too small, the angle is off, or the lighting is doing something strange. You end up holding a snack, staring at your phone, and making a judgment call.
That happens. That’s okay. It’s happened to me.
The most common trap: dashi
The biggest hidden ingredient is dashi. It’s a Japanese stock made from kombu seaweed and katsuobushi — dried, fermented tuna. Dashi goes into almost everything: miso soup, sauces, rice dishes, packaged products. It’s often listed generically as “seasoning” and completely flies under the radar. If dashi isn’t on your radar before your first Japan trip, you will be unpleasantly surprised.
I was surprised. More than once.
An honest admission
I don’t know everything. That should be said upfront.
I’ve been to Japan multiple times, learned a lot, researched a lot — and still walked into traps. Eaten things I later realized weren’t vegan. Sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes because communication didn’t work, sometimes because I was hungry and hoped for the best. Spoiler: it didn’t always work out.
I’m not saying this to apologize, but because I think honesty matters here. Vegan travel in Japan is a learning process — it was for me, and it will be for many of you too. This blog is meant to make it easier, but it’s not a promise of perfection. It’s a collection of experiences, research, and an honest attempt to keep getting better.
What this blog is
That’s what MochiMiles is for.
I want to share everything I’ve learned — so you don’t make the same mistakes I did, but more importantly so you know just how much good stuff is out there when you know where to look.
Concretely, that means:
- Restaurant guides from different cities — from Tokyo to Fukuoka, from Kanazawa to Matsumoto. With address, map, and what I actually ordered.
- Konbini guide — which products at 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, and Lawson are actually vegan, with pictures of the packaging so you recognize them in the aisle.
- Offline maps — my saved restaurant maps to download directly, so you know where to go even without a data connection.
- Shojin ryori — a dedicated series on Japan’s Buddhist temple cuisine, which is entirely plant-based and one of the most remarkable food experiences I know.
- Practical communication tips — a few Japanese phrases and how to explain your diet even if you don’t speak Japanese.
Apps that help
One practical tip to start: HappyCow works in Japan, even if listings are sometimes sparse. Google Lens can photograph and translate ingredient labels — not always perfect, but good enough for a first read. And for deeper digging: the Japanese app Vegewel knows many local options that don’t appear on HappyCow at all.
In short
Japan is harder than expected. But it’s also more beautiful than expected. After several trips, I’m convinced you can eat fantastically well there as a vegan — you just need to know how, and be willing to get it wrong sometimes along the way.
That’s exactly what MochiMiles wants to show you. Welcome.