Holistic Survival Guide in Japan

Isn’t Japan supposed to generally have safe water? The short answer is yes, but it depends on your location and if your water is tap or well water. I don’t have concrete evidence, but I have heard stories of foreigners coming to Japan only to have their teeth start to go bad after a few months of living here. Japan is rumored to have a good reputation for good drinking water. I lived in a town in a Shizuoka that boasts great fresh drinking water from Mt. Fuji. Sure, it tasted alright, but for whatever reason, my teeth were always hopelessly getting stained and I was getting warnings from dentists…

Soy-free and Wheat-free Japanese Condiments Have Soy or Wheat Allergies or Intolerances? Here’s a list of soy sauce alternatives so you too can still enjoy Japanese cuisine! When I came to Japan to teach English in 2017, my body was still healing and I couldn’t tolerate any amount of soy sauce. The only paleo-friendly options that were available were Coconut aminos, which I can’t say that I particularly liked the taste. The coconut aftertaste didn’t quite match the Japanese cooking. After living in Tokyo for some time, I have come to find these alternatives made from legumes and less gut-destroying grains, but Rakuten and Amazon Japan have been my main…

Rice flour based gluten-free crepes Magentarth Café in Kamatori-cho (鎌取町), Chiba When you live out in the countryside in Japan, you’ll be lucky to find any sort of labeling with “gluten-free” on it, especially when it comes to crepes. Oftentimes, owners of restaurants will start to break into a sweat and breathe heavy stressful sighs whenever you ask them to make a meal gluten-free. Never did I think that I would ever come upon a magical place like this in my prefecture. A gluten-free cafe in Chiba?! That’s unheard of. At Magentarth, they only make gluten-free crepes and I wanted to cry with happiness when my husband first took me…