What I Ate in Japan as a Vegan and Vegetarian ― From Morning Fruit to Street Snacks and Wagashi ―
When I travel to Japan, non-Japanese friends often ask me, “What should vegans and vegetarians actually eat?”
So this time, I want to share my actual food experience when I traveled to Japan in May 2026.
Usually, I eat a 100% plant-based vegan diet. However, when traveling in Japan, I do not follow a strict style like “I eat nothing unless it is completely vegan.” This is because Japanese food culture often uses animal products, such as bonito flakes or fish broth, in hidden ways. If I strictly avoided all of them, I would lose the time and energy to enjoy the trip itself, and that would be a waste.
Of course, if you are a strict vegan, I recommend checking carefully. But if not, taking a slightly flexible approach to Japanese food culture will greatly expand the fun of your trip.
In this first part, I will introduce how I—as plantfan, a lover of vegetables—enjoy my daily meals, from breakfast to snacks.
Table of Contents – Part 1
1 Breakfast
11 Starting every morning with fruit and hot water
12 Japanese fruit is a bit special
13 Japanese tea vs. my caffeine-free herbal tea
14 Enjoying Japanese morning culture at bakery cafes
2 Snacks
21 Japanese bread can be a full meal on its own
22 Sweet and salty snacks: essential items for travel
23 Traditional Japanese sweets (Wagashi) are great for vegan travelers
24 Wagashi as a culture of “eating the seasons”
25 Imo Yokan and Anmitsu: Must-try sweets in Tokyo
1 Breakfast
11 Starting every morning with fruit and hot water
My usual breakfast is very simple. First, fruit and hot water. Whether at home or in my hotel room, I start my day by slowly eating fruit and drinking warm water. They are real eye openers.
Fruit is a very convenient breakfast for vegan and vegetarian travelers. You do not need to cook it, and you can easily buy it at supermarkets, fruit stands, or convenience stores. In Japan, you can often buy single bananas, which is very helpful for solo travelers. I usually buy a few kinds, keep them in my hotel, and eat them for breakfast.
12 Japanese fruit is a bit special
From a foreigner’s perspective, Japanese fruit might seem a bit interesting or unusual as a culture. In Japan, fruit has a special position as a gift item. They are big, sweet, and beautifully shaped. Some fruits look like high-end sweets.
Since ancient times, fruit in Japanese has sometimes been called “Mizugashi,” which literally means “juicy sweets.”
Of course, regular fruit is not always expensive. However, gift mangos can cost more than 10,000 yen. Rather than eating such luxury fruit as a daily breakfast, it is fun to experience it as a special food culture unique to Japan.
For example, in Tokyo, I recommend visiting a fruit parlor to try a parfait made with seasonal fruit. Traditional shops like Takano Fruit Parlor serve fruit arranged very beautifully. The price is a bit high, but it is a very fun place to experience Japanese fruit culture.
For everyday affordable fruit, I look for neighborhood fruit shops, supermarkets with discount sections, or convenience stores that sell single bananas. I think it is nice to have both kinds of days: special days to enjoy luxury fruit in nice places, and regular days to buy local bananas or seasonal fruit to eat in the hotel room.
13 Japanese tea vs. my caffeine-free herbal tea
In Japan, many restaurants serve free Japanese tea or green tea with your meal. This is probably because tea is treated like water in Japan. It is a bit similar to how coffee is easily available in Canada.
Of course, since it is free tea, it is not super high quality. Still, having green tea served naturally with food is a very Japanese culture.
However, I worry a bit about drinking too much caffeine, so I carry my favorite herbal tea bags during my trips.
Hotels often have electric kettles. Also, at cafes, if you ask for hot water when you order something, they will often give it to you. It is very convenient to carry it in an insulated mug. Many Japanese insulated mugs are small but keep drinks hot for a long time, so they are perfect for travel.
14 Enjoying Japanese morning culture at bakery cafes
Of course, I do not eat breakfast in my hotel room every day.
Since I am in Japan, I also want to go out to see the morning town where locals gather. On those days, I go to a neighborhood cafe or bakery.
Japan has a breakfast culture called “Morning Service.” It is a set with coffee or tea, toast, and salad, similar to breakfast in North America. However, the amount is sometimes a bit too much for me, so I often get bread with coffee or tea at a bakery cafe.
I especially like cafes attached to old, historic bakeries. Local people come there to eat breakfast, and watching their daily routine is very fun. When I travel, I like not only seeing famous tourist spots, but also seeing how local people spend their ordinary mornings.
2 Snacks
21 Japanese bread can be a full meal on its own
When you visit Japanese bakeries, you will notice that the bread culture is a bit different from Western countries. In Western countries, bread is often eaten alongside a main dish, like white rice in Japan. However, in Japan, bread itself can be a full meal.
A great example is “Osouzai Pan” (savory bread). For instance, Curry Pan is bread wrapped around curry and fried. There is also Yakisoba Pan, which puts fried noodles inside bread—a bold “double-carbs” combination.
These breads are popular as lunches or snacks for hungry high school students. I think Japanese bread culture itself is a great food experience for travelers.
However, vegans need to be careful. Japanese white bread and sweet bread often contain eggs, milk, or butter. For example, the popular “Anko Butter Toast” uses sweet red bean paste which is plant-based, but the butter is dairy. Also, the bread dough itself may contain eggs or dairy.
Therefore, vegans should check the ingredients of the bread.
On the other hand, if you eat fish, “Mentaiko France” is a unique Japanese bread option that is popular recently. It is a French baguette spread with Mentaiko and butter. Mentaiko is a salty paste made from spicy cod roe.
This kind of unique combination of “Western style and Japanese food” is one of the fun things about visiting Japanese bakeries.
22 Sweet and salty snacks: essential items for travel
When traveling, you often get a little hungry between lunch and dinner. So I always carry small snacks with me—both sweet and salty ones.
First, sweet snacks. Middle-aged and senior women in Japan often carry small candies called “Ame-chan.”
In the past, I used to wonder, “Why do Japanese middle-aged women carry so many candies?” But before I knew it, I started carrying them too. It is the wisdom of seniors as an emergency food when you get hungry.
My favorite is brown sugar candy. The outside is regular white sugar candy, but as you lick it, brown sugar comes out from the inside with a gentle, natural sweetness.
Since you can enjoy it slowly, it is very convenient when you feel a little hungry during travel. I also use this as an emergency food for disasters.
And when I eat something sweet, I start wanting something salty next.
Snacks in Canada often have a very strong salty flavor, like bar snacks for drinking alcohol. In Japan, however, there are rice crackers (senbei) made from rice. Thin-baked types have a relatively light salty flavor, making them very convenient snacks while traveling.
Also, when I return to Japan, I always want to eat “Zarame Senbei,” which are sweet and salty rice crackers coated with coarse sugar crystals. It is a flavor that combines both saltiness and sweetness. Setting aside whether it is healthy or not because it often contains MSG, I like it as a typical Japanese snack to eat during my trip.
23 Traditional Japanese sweets (Wagashi) are great for vegan travelers
When talking about Japanese snacks, we cannot forget Wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets). In fact, traditional Wagashi offers many wonderful options for vegan travelers.
While Western sweets often use butter, heavy cream, milk, and eggs, traditional Wagashi made for a long time mostly uses plant-based ingredients like beans, sugar, rice flour, glutinous rice flour, and agar-agar.
Of course, modern creative Wagashi or fusion sweets mixed with Western style may contain dairy or eggs. Still, traditional Wagashi made for a long time is a very attractive choice for vegans.
24 Wagashi as a culture of “eating the seasons”
Wagashi popular among Japanese people includes Mame Daifuku (rice cake with red beans), Nerikiri made of beans and sugar, and Ukishima, which is like a Japanese-style sponge cake made mainly with rice flour.
In particular, Nerikiri is shaped like seasonal flowers or plants, making them look like small pieces of art. Japanese Wagashi has a culture of enjoying the four seasons. Cherry blossoms in spring, refreshing water or flowers in summer, autumn leaves in fall, and snow or camellias in winter. There are Wagashi that you can meet only in that specific season.
Japanese Wagashi is not just sweet bean treats. It is a food culture that expresses seasons and nature while using plant-based ingredients used in Japan since ancient times, such as beans, rice, sugar, and agar.
If anyone thinks, “I cannot eat many sweets in Japan because I am vegan,” please look at Wagashi. I think you will find far more things to enjoy than you expect.
Above all, I think Japanese food culture is enjoyed not only by “what to eat,” but also by “when, where, and in which season you eat it.” My trip to Japan in May 2026 was also a continuation of such small food discoveries.
Therefore, I think Wagashi is fun not only to eat, but also to go and look at.
In Japan, there are historic Wagashi shops that have continued for decades or hundreds of years. Some popular shops require reservations to buy from, so making such shops a purpose of your trip can also be interesting.
25 Imo Yokan and Anmitsu: Must-try sweets in Tokyo
One of the long-loved Wagashi in Tokyo is Imo Yokan. It is a simple sweet made by hardening sweet potato paste with sugar and agar. It uses the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes, offering a different charm from Western sweets.
And my personal favorite is “Anmitsu.” It uses transparent plant-based jelly made from seaweeds like agar-agar, combined
