Despite being the home of macrobiotic cooking, vegetarianism isn't a widely practised or fully understood concept in Japan. You might ask for a vegetarian ( saishoku ) dish in a restaurant and still be served something with meat or fish in it. That said, Japan has bequeathed some marvellous vegetarian foods to the world. Top of the list is tofu , compacted cakes of soya-bean curd, which comes in two main varieties, momengoshi-dofu (cotton tofu), so called because of its fluffy texture, and the smoother, more fragile kinugoshi-dofu (silk tofu). The most popular tofu dish you'll come across is hiya yakko , a small slab of chilled tofu topped with grated ginger, spring onions, dried bonito flakes and soy sauce. Buddhist cuisine, shojin-ryori , concocts whole menus based around different types of tofu dishes; although they can be expensive it's worth searching out the specialist restaurants serving this type of food, particularly in major temple cities, such as Kyoto, Nara and Nagano.

Miso (fermented bean paste) is another crucial ingredient of Japanese cooking, used in virtually every meal, if only in the soup miso-shiru . It often serves as a flavouring in fish and vegetable dishes and comes in two main varieties, the light shiro-miso and the darker, stronger-tasting aka-miso . One of the most delicious ways of eating the gooey paste is hoba miso , where the miso is mixed with vegetables, roasted over a charcoal brazier, and served on a large magnolia leaf. This dish is a speciality of Takayama, where vegetarians should also sample the sansai (mountain vegetable) dishes.

One question all foreigners in Japan are asked is "can you eat natto ?". This sticky, stringy fermented bean paste has a strong taste and unfamiliar texture, which can be off-putting to Western palates. It's worth trying at least once, though, and is usually served in little tubs at breakfast, to be mixed with mustard and soy sauce and eaten with rice.

Scraping into the vegetarian category as long as you avoid the fish versions is oden , a warming winter dish that tastes much more delicious than it looks. Oden is large chunks of food, usually on skewers, simmered in a thin broth, and often served from portable carts ( yatai ) on street corners. The main ingredients are blocks of tofu, daikon (a giant radish), konnyaku (a hard jelly made from a root vegetable), konbu (seaweed), hard-boiled eggs and fish cakes, and all are best eaten with a smear of fiery English-style mustard.