Bejitarian desu.

Apparently this is how you say, “I’m a vegetarian” in Japanese. As you may be able to tell, vegetarian is a foreign word to them and doesn’t seem to have a Japanese equivalent. I tried to translate “I’m a vegan” and there was no option for that.

From what I understand, vegetarianism is very uncommon. Many times when you utter that phrase, you will still get a meal containing seafood, or bits of meat. Many don’t think that seafood counts, or small pieces of meat.

The reason I am researching this is because we are planning a trip to Japan in a few months. I think I might lose weight. One type of cuisine that is truly vegetarian is the Buddhist monk’s meals. So, risking looking like a pretentious American- I will try to order the monk meal when I can.

I am very, very excited about the trip. Even if it means eating rice and seaweed for a couple of weeks. Should make for some interesting food posts.