In this booster
If you eat vegetarian, vegan, halal, or around a serious allergy, Japan is wonderful and complicated at once — and the complication has a name: dashi. This pack gives you the full declaration (built on Lesson 5’s food words and Lesson 8’s tabemasen), the questions that find the safe dishes, and honest expectations about where the wins are. The dish-check you learned in Lesson 8 (Kore wa daijoubu desu ka.) is the engine of the whole pack — no new grammar: every sentence here is a frame you already own, wearing new nouns. Boosters assume the finished core (Lessons 1–9).
Tap each sentence and listen first, repeat it aloud, then check yourself against the text and meaning that appear. Tap again to listen as often as you like.
Saying it clearly
The single most important fact in this pack: in casual Japanese understanding, niku can mean red meat only — chicken and fish sometimes don’t count as “meat.” The declaration works when it’s complete.
Bejitarian desu.
bejitarian — vegetarian. Understood everywhere, interpreted loosely — which is why the sentences below follow it.
Niku to sakana o tabemasen.
The core declaration — Lesson 5’s niku and sakana, Lesson 2’s to, Lesson 8’s tabemasen. Say it right after Bejitarian desu and the loose interpretation tightens.
Toriniku mo tabemasen.
toriniku — chicken. The word that closes the loophole: naming it separately isn’t fussy, it’s how the kitchen actually hears you.
Biigan desu.
biigan — vegan. Newer word, known in cities; pair it with the explicit list below rather than trusting it alone.
Gyuunyuu mo dame desu.
Lesson 1’s dame carrying the dairy line — chain tamago mo dame desu after it and the vegan picture is complete.
Butaniku o tabemasen.
butaniku — pork, the halal traveler’s first declaration. Pork hides in ramen broth, gyoza, and curry roux — the dish-check below applies.
Arukooru o nomimasen.
arukooru — alcohol, and the second halal declaration (also just true for plenty of travelers — nobody blinks).
Ebi arerugii desu.
ebi — shrimp, one of Japan’s most common allergens. Lesson 8’s allergy pattern with a new word in the slot — any allergen works the same way.
Asking the right questions
Yasai no ryouri wa arimasu ka.
ryouri — a dish, cooking, cuisine. Lesson 2’s no gluing it to any food word you own.
Hararu no ryouri wa arimasu ka.
hararu — halal. The certification signage uses this same katakana word — readable on sight if you took the Katakana skill, and recognizable by shape even if you didn’t.
Bejitarian desu. Kore wa daijoubu desu ka.
Lesson 8’s dish-check wearing this pack’s declaration. Same listening rule as the allergy version: the answer you want is a clear daijoubu desu — anything hesitant means pick something else.
Dashi mo dame desu.
dashi — the fish-based stock in miso soup, most broths, simmered dishes, and many sauces. This sentence is what separates “mostly vegetarian” from “actually vegetarian” in a Japanese kitchen — say it and they know exactly what you mean. (Kombu dashi, made from kelp, is the vegan-safe cousin.)
Tamago wa daijoubu desu.
The positive declaration — telling the kitchen what you can eat unblocks more dishes than any prohibition. Ovo-vegetarians, this sentence is your best friend.
Dialog
At an ordinary restaurant, making the declaration work. Listen cold first — no peeking — then check yourself line by line.
Sumimasen. Bejitarian desu. Niku to sakana o tabemasen. Kashikomarimashita. Dashi wa daijoubu desu ka. Dashi mo dame desu. Wakarimashita. Kono yasai no ryouri wa, niku nashi de dekimasu yo. Ja, sore, onegaishimasu. Hai, shou-shou omachi kudasai.Notice the staff’s second line: a good restaurant asks you about dashi. When they ask, they’re taking you seriously — answer with the drilled line and the kitchen is on your side.
What they’ll say to you
Three lines for your ears — the crusher, the happy answer, and the good sign. You never say these.
Dashi ga haitte imasu. Niku nashi de dekimasu yo. Bejitarian menyuu ga gozaimasu.Haitte imasu is Lesson 8’s contains-answer doing its job here too — catch the ingredient at the front, and the verdict is delivered.
How to behave: eating around the rules
- “Meat” may not mean what you mean. Niku can land as “red meat only” — chicken and fish sometimes don’t count. Say the full list (Niku to sakana o tabemasen. Toriniku mo tabemasen.) — precision isn’t fussy; it’s a kindness to the kitchen.
- Dashi is the invisible ingredient. A dish with no visible fish usually still contains fish stock — miso soup, broths, simmered dishes, sauces. The dish-check beats the menu photo every time, and Dashi mo dame desu is the sentence that makes your request real.
- Plan the happy paths. Strict vegetarian or vegan at ordinary restaurants outside the big cities is genuinely hard — that’s the honest truth. The reliable wins: shoujin ryouri (Buddhist temple cuisine — Kyoto and Koyasan do it beautifully), Indian restaurants, konbini labels, and the growing vegetarian/halal signage in Tokyo and Osaka. Load a vegetarian-restaurant app before you’re hungry; it’s worth more than any sentence in this pack.
- Halal travelers: two declarations and one caution. Butaniku o tabemasen and Arukooru o nomimasen cover the plate and the glass — but mirin and cooking sake are alcohol’s dashi-grade invisibles, so the dish-check applies double. Certified hararu restaurants cluster near big-city stations; the signage uses the katakana word ハラル — readable on sight if you took the Katakana skill, and worth memorizing by shape either way.
Vocabulary reference
| # | Romaji | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bejitarian | vegetarian | Bejitarian desu. |
| 2 | biigan | vegan | Biigan desu. |
| 3 | dashi | fish-based stock | the invisible ingredient — Dashi mo dame desu. |
| 4 | ryouri | dish, cuisine | Yasai no ryouri wa arimasu ka. |
| 5 | toriniku | chicken (meat) | name it separately — Toriniku mo tabemasen. |
| 6 | butaniku | pork | Butaniku o tabemasen. |
| 7 | arukooru | alcohol | Arukooru o nomimasen. |
| 8 | hararu | halal | Hararu no ryouri wa arimasu ka. |
| 9 | shoujin ryouri | Buddhist temple cuisine | the vegetarian happy path — Kyoto, Koyasan |
| 10 | ebi | shrimp | promoted from the open-noun wilds |
| 11 | gyuunyuu | milk | the post-bath bottle — participate |
Recognize only — never say these:
| Script line | It means | You do |
|---|---|---|
| Dashi ga haitte imasu. | it contains fish stock | order something else |
| Niku nashi de dekimasu yo. | they can adapt it | Onegaishimasu! |
| Bejitarian menyuu ga gozaimasu. | there’s a veg menu | ask for it, relax |
Anki deck
Download the booster deck — sentence cards are the course; suspend the vocab cards unless a word won’t stick.