Sustainable Energy in Japan
One of the main concerns I had about traveling was food. Most of the people I was with were super excited to try all the new foods in a new country, but that only caused me anxiety. I’m writing this to try and help people with eating restrictions (such as celiac, in my case) travel abroad safely.
Depending on your particular situation, it may be easier or harder for you to get along in another country. One person in our group had a severe peanut allergy, but he was able to communicate this to most people through Google Translate or people who could speak English and Japanese. However, I could not eat anything made in a kitchen that also had gluten, as even the slightest cross-contamination could affect me greatly. My number one piece of advice if this is your case is to just not go to restaurants. I tried a few times to communicate that I couldn’t have anything that came in contact with noodles or flour or bread or many other things, but as it was hard to explain what gluten was they were never quite able to accommodate no matter how hard they tried.
I did try to go to a few restaurants, but every time I would get terribly sick afterward. There was one place – a sushi restaurant – that ended up being okay, because as far as I could tell there was no gluten on the premises. But going to restaurants, in general, is not worth it – try to bring food from home or buy it from stores. The thing that was hardest for me wasn’t missing out on eating because I never wanted to eat food that made me sick, but since the program pretty much required us to go to restaurants (and the meals were pre-included in the cost of the program) I had to go to some, and I would either not eat, only get something to drink, or try to eat something because the cooks would try so hard to accommodate and I felt guilty – DO NOT FEEL GUILTY. It’s okay if you say no! It’s best to just not go at all, but if it is unavoidable don’t make yourself sick over it.
So if I have successfully convinced you that going to restaurants as a celiac is terrible, here are a few tips:
-Bringing oatmeal and Kind bars and other things in a backpack was the best decision I made, and once you eat your food you also have more empty space in your luggage to bring souvenirs back.
-Check EVERYTHING. One restaurant actually served barley water. I have no idea why, but it made me way more careful
-Fruits and veggies are your friends! Produce was pretty expensive but for some reason, fruit in Japan tasted delicious, as well as the milk. It was expensive but delicious.
–Make sure the people with you understand your situation. The person with a peanut allergy has an EpiPen and we all knew to look out for him, and all the students also knew I could hardly eat anything and the ones who could speak Japanese would help translate.
-Bring a business card or printed-out piece of paper or something with your explained eating restrictions (or other health issues, if applicable) so if you need to explain to someone on-the-spot you can just have them read that. This is the number one thing I wish I had done.
With that, I shall conclude my post. Hopefully, this can help you in some way and if you do decide to study abroad despite the difficulties of health restrictions, I hope you have an awesome trip! Be safe and have fun!
Kaitlyn Glenn, Early Fall
