A Vegetarian's survival guide to Japan

Being a vegetarian in Japan is certainly challenging.  The staple diet of Japan is rice. However, fish, octopus, lobster and squid (and sometimes even whales!) form an integral part of the Japanese diet.  However, unlike common belief, it isn't really that hard to be a vegetarian in this beautiful country.

People generally find it hard to believe the fact that you don't eat meat.  However, you can try your luck in all sorts of restaurants.  In fast food chains like Burger King, they almost always had one veggie choice.  Italian restaurants are another place where you are not likely to have problems with food.

We also found a few traditional Japanese restaurants which were 100% vegetarian.  A majority of these were Zen restaurants, but there were others too.  We could find all the closeby vegetarian (and even vegan) restaurants with the help of the HappyCow website, at www.happycow.net.  It proved to be very useful.

For breakfast, any of the cereals in supermarkets seemed to be fine (even though we couldn't read any of the contents).  Any of the numerous bakeries always have options like donuts, bagels and croissants.  In Osaka, we loved this place called Falafel Garden, which was a very popular Jewish vegetarian restaurant.

Don't go for the fried food though.  They almost always contain meat.  If you feel nauseous in the cafeterias, don't go in there.  In places like FamilyMart, don't go for the fried tempura, unless the staff confirm it is vegetarian. But it is mostly non-vegetarian.

In Tokyo, there were no problems whatsoever. Vegetarian food was more or less commonplace. The Japanese are very helpful, and there were a number of occasions when people went out of their way to help us, even if we hadn't asked them.

The Toyota plant

The most fascinating part of the entire trip was the Toyota plant tour.  This was the very reason we even went to Nagoya.

Nagoya is home to a lot of Toyota employees.  It has a Toyota museum and a lot of Toyota-related facilities.  But the real world headquarters of Toyota is in Toyota city, about 40 km from Nagoya.  That was the place we went to.

The tour started off in a showroom-cum-museum that was located in the campus.  We saw working models of the cars of the future.  There was this really cool car which was controlled by a joystick that was made by the Research and Development wing of the company.  Then, we saw some awesome Lexus sports cars and some fuel cell cars.  After that, we heard a Toyota partner robot playing the trumpet!

Next, we went on a 15 minute bus journey to the Motomachi Plant.  They make 73000 cars a year here.  There are about 4000 employees of Toyota working only in this plant.  The cars that are assembled here include the Crown, the Mark X and the Estima.  After a short orientation on what we can expect to see, we went inside the sprawling building.  First, we saw the welding process.  The whole task is completely automated.   Each robot had a specific function.  For example, one would only place a vacuum on the iron debris at the end of the process.  After they were done with a car, the robots waited for their next prey.

We just observed the marvellous welding shop for some time and then went to the assembly area.  There were robots here too, but there was some human activity too.  We saw the workers fitting parts into the half made cars.  All the vehicles were on an assembly line, and were moving.  The workers had time to do what they were supposed to do only as long as the car was in their territory, which was about a meter long. When the car passed the line marking the end, they had to go to the next car. They hardly had time to breathe, and speed and efficiency was of the essence. We also tried doing what the workers were doing, but we couldn't possibly match their rapidity.  According to our guide, the employees in the plant went through a lot of stress, which is the reason they organize activities for them frequently.

Then, we saw the fully automated chassis assembly.  Both parts of the car were exactly aligned, and then the bottom part was pulled up.  This was one of the last steps in the manufacturing process.

We saw only a fraction of a Toyota factory but not once did it fail to amaze us.  What we saw cannot be fully expressed in words. If you were to ever visit this beautiful country, I would wholeheartedly recommend that you visit Toyota city. 

Tokyo

An hour and a half in a bullet train from Nagoya, and we were in Tokyo.  We were in the world's most populated city, and I couldn't help but notice how orderly and organised everything was in spite of the massive population.

We couldn't check-in to the hotel until after 2 o' clock (general rule in Japan), so we went around the city.  The Akihabara Electric town was our first destination.  Here, we went to Yodobashi Camera, an electronics megastore.  We saw many fancy products, unique to Japan.

The next day, we went to the National Museum of Nature and Science in the beautiful Ueno park.  This park is a royal garden, and there is a museum dedicated to a different field, be it in the arts or in science, down almost every alley.

There were real skeletons of sharks; intestines of cows, leopards and blue whales, and even dinosaur fossils millions of years old, all right here.  Microscopic parasites and 50m tall trees were also in the fray.  In the experimental physics section, we learnt a lot about pulleys. We also saw a movie in a 360 theater about the origin of the universe and human migration.  Overall, it was an amazing place to spend an entire day.  

After spending a long time in the museum, we went to the Shinjuku area.  There is no specific downtown in Tokyo, but if I were to rank them based on buildings and shopping, this would probably be No.1.  The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Observatory was the place we visited next.  The view of the city from the top was amazing.  We went to an awesome store called Tokyu Hands after that, and got some cool stuff.  Then, we went back to Akihabara by train.  And, by the way, Shinjuku station is the world's busiest transport hub with 3.64 million people using it every day.

The black eggs

Thursday, my father's acquaintance took us all on a road trip to a town called Hakone.   When we reached Hakone after a pleasant drive, a cable car took us up the mountain.  It took us to the town of Owakudani (or the Great Boiling Valley), to the hot springs.  When we came out of the cable car, we were greeted by a strong sulfurous odor.  What I had previously only read about in books was what I was now seeing.  We were next to a volcano!  The hot springs were extremely hot and were bubbling, because of the heat of the magma below it.  There were also some people who were boiling eggs in the hot springs.  Because of the sulfur content and the extreme heat, they became black.  Many people believe that by eating the eggs, your lifespan increases by 2 years.   

Owakudani

On clear days, there is a great view of Mt Fuji, Japan's tallest peak, from Owakudani.  Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the sky was very cloudy, and we couldn't even catch a glimpse of the holy mountain.  

On the way back from Hakone, we decided to go on a side trip to the Yamanashi Prefecture Maglev Exhibition Center.  On the way there, we saw Mt Fuji.  The sight of the mountain had eluded us from three viewpoints, and here we could see it, from the road. 

The mountain shone brilliantly.  We could even see the crater of the volcano.  

The Maglev

In about half an hour, we reached the month old exhibition.  What we saw inside literally blew my mind.  There was a test run of the world's fastest train that was underway, and we could see it from the lounge.  The train was fast approaching.  It was going at a speed of 499 km/hour, and was 15 km away.  In seconds, it passed the observatory, amid people taking continuous shots and videos that didn't make justice to it's incredible velocity.  It's sheer speed caused the air to make sounds.   After we saw the train go thrice, we looked around the Museum.  There were various models that showed exactly how the Maglev works, and there was also a MiniMaglev, which actually floated in the air.  From September, though, people will be able to ride on the real Maglev. 

We reached Tokyo in the night, and my dad's acquaintance showed us around the city.  We went to the Rainbow bridge, which offered an amazing view of Tokyo.  Also, we saw areas like Shibuya and went on a 20 km underground highway. 

GeoCosmos

The next day, we went to the Tokyo Dome City Amusement park.  This place is like a miniature Disneyland.  There were some pretty cool rides here.  Later, we went to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, or the Miraikan.  This was one of the places President Obama visited on his Japan tour.  Here, we saw a soccer playing robot, Asimo; the GeoCosmos, which is a revolving globe on which we saw a movie; chromosomes under the microscope; and a show in the planetarium.  

Our last day in Tokyo and Japan was full of shopping.  We bought robots, electronics, souvenirs, and lots more.

Overall, the Japan trip was one full of enjoyment and learning.  We got a whole new perspective on the world.  For a lot of things, there are two ways of doing it- the way Japan does it, and the way the rest of the world does it.  The country is unlike anyplace else.  Japan is an amazing country, and I will definitely come back here some day.