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Family will be visiting Japan, wondering if any Paleos living/lived over there and could recommend supermarket items? Last time around (pre-Paleo & communal kitchen) we mainly lived on kara-age, insta-sauces and (drum roll!) rice.

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Supermarket items:

other than the same stuff you'd by in the US that is there also, I'd recommend keeping an eye out for their large array of fermented vegetables. Endless varieties and available across the entire country in almost ever convenience store.

In restaurants:

its tough because almost all the sauces will have some sugar in them. I still ate them all while I was there simply because the overall quality of pretty much EVERYTHING on any menu at any restaurant in Japan is so amazingly high. Really, when travelling there you don't have to be as meticulous as you might be here in the US. I ate anything and everything while i lived there for five years and was lean as hell, and felt great all the time. Its like a "japanese paradox" if you will.

Maybe just go and read what labels you can, avoiding blatent things; for the remainder (which will be the bulk of what you eat) just go and enjoy yourself, you're travelling to one of the best places for food on this earth. Really, maybe this is one time to just eat and be merry. You got your whole life when you get back to be paleo.

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So true on the sugary sauces, though they are delish. We go pretty regularly so don't want to do the 'eat & merry' thing. On the fermenteds, I see so much conflicting info on whether fermented is truly less damaging. As for Japanese paradox, I did get heavy living over there, probably the tonkotsu ramen and demi-glace Salisburys ('hambaagu') :) – saintpuffy May 16 2011 at 15:19
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I'll be going there soon as well and I'm also wondering how to stay Paleo. I've heard the sweet sauce and vinegar added to sushi rice may contain gluten and/or MSG.

Here is a card in Japanese which says you have Celiac, which I do not, but can help you avoid gluten. http://www.celiactravel.com/cards/japanese/

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Good idea, though I'm not sure many people in Japan know what Celiac's is (few know in the US, and Japan tends to be behind the curve on innovative diseases as well as innovative diets) – saintpuffy May 16 2011 at 1:04
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http://www.nissinham.co.jp/nwd/

Nissin has New Zealand grass fed beef. Also themeatguy.jp has some good stuff.

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themeatguy.jp site is ridiculously awesome: they even have vegans for sale: themeatguy.jp/app/en/products/view/… though it is marked as "soldout"))) – gn May 25 2011 at 4:41
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Unless you have celiac disease you can just avoid the tempura and curry and the pancakes, "mixed sandwiches" and spaghetti that you find in every restaurant. If you have celiac or a particulary sensitive to gluten, I would take a celiac japanese travel card with you.

When I went to Japan I was surprised by all the wheat they eat. There are bread, cookies, wheat noodles, pancakes, etc. EVERYWHERE. Every place we stayed, breakfast was always toast and jam. But you can also buy really decent food in Seven Elevens/any little minimart. You can even get packets of dried octopus and fish. There's usually always eggs available but the omelettes are sweetened with sugar (crazy, I know!)

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True, Seven Elevens over there have pretty decent fare. – saintpuffy May 16 2011 at 15:16
Tamagoyaki mmmm!! (japanese style omlets) – lalabomba May 25 2011 at 4:09

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