Katie Rebecca Wood
Japanese Language Student
Center for Japanese Language
“I’m a vegetarian” is three words you can say to get a confused look from almost any Japanese person. While living in Japan, I’ve experienced a series of issues with my food restrictions that most Japanese people don’t see as issues.
Firstly, asking to change your meal so it doesn’t include fish or meat. Learning how to say this while ordering was one of the first things I had to learn in Japanese to make sure that my food didn’t end up making me sick.
Secondly, having to explain to people what vegetarianism is. The fact that I don’t eat meat or fish, but I can deal with dashi. And if someone does leave meat in my food, it will make me sick.
This is why I’m so glad that the ICC ran an event on Vegetarian culture in their English Lunch. I got to tell people about why I’m a vegetarian and what the issues are if I do accidentally eat meat (hint: I get really sick). I got to help people understand, and even if they don’t want to follow the vegetarian diet themselves, I think they’re more understanding and supportive of people who are vegetarian now.
Vegetarians and vegans in the UK get a bad reputation because a lot of them are too pushy about their beliefs – trying to convert people who eat meat to a vegetarian diet. I was a little worried the talk at the ICC would be like that, but it was the complete opposite.
There was a short talk about why one of the members became a vegetarian, and then students could ask the vegetarian students questions and where they can find other vegetarian food – we got to learn about each other without feeling judged for what we eat.
The ICC also collaborated with a restaurant – Sojo to give us samples of vegetarian food, and I had to tell the participants a few times that it wasn’t meat, and they realised that vegetarian food can be delicious too. There are other places in Tokyo that you can find delicious vegetarian food, and I’ve heard it said that if you want to find delicious and reasonably priced food, you need to make friends with a vegetarian.
To all the participants that came to the event, whether you came because of an interest in English, vegetarianism or just the free food, thank you for coming, and I hope to see you at the ICC again soon.
