Hello from Tokyo

[tokyomom]

Anyone else living in Japan?

[Talon]

I've seen a few from your neck of the woods floating around, I am sure you'll meet up!

Welcome to the forum! :wave:

[SooCee]

I think I have seen a couple more people who lives in Japan(other than me of course ;)) Not that many though... :)

[catspaw]

Hi,

I just joined the forum. Ive been in Japan for a few months now. Anybody else having a hard time eating out? I mean, the sashimi and miso are fine, but the portions are small (for the price :p ) and there's always the big bowl of rice to fill you up...

Nice to know I'm not the only one here.

:wave:

[tokyomom]

Stay away from the miso-too high in carbs.

i basically stay away from Japanese restaurants in general since they are too rice oriented.
Where do you live? I live in Azabu Juban.

[catspaw]

I'm in Minami-Aoyama, just off Roppongi-dori. I stay away from Japanese restaurants unless I have a business dinner with the Japanese. This happens (unfortunately) about 3x a week.

How long have you been in Tokyo?

[tokyomom]

I have lived here for five years. I lived here for one years from 94-95 so now its a total of 6 years. I am ready to leave but my husband works for a Japanese company.
Its difficult to find low carb food around here in the grocery stores. When I was in the Us they had so much low carb goodies but then that probably stalled me too.
I stay at home with my 20 month old son so I never have to go to Japanese restaurants for meetings. I try to eat at home as much as possible.

If you find any good low carb foos please let me know and I will do the same. :)

[sweetjane]

Hello Tokyomom

I'm in japan but in fukuoka,kyushu how's your low carbing so far?I guess u know FBC has some low carb products but they r pretty expensive. :)

[catspaw]

Hi sweetjane,

How do you like Fukuoka? Kyushu is a great island- I particularly liked Kagoshima and Nagasaki.

There are some good low-carb items here, you just have to be able to decipher the labels (when they bother putting the ingredient information of the packaging...) Sometimes they put the amount per serving, sometimes they put the amount per 100g, which has no connection to the serving size!

I haven't had a problem when I cook for myself, only finding and affording LC meals at restaurants. White rice is about the worst thing in the world for an LC plan :mad: !

catspaw

[catspaw]

Tokyomom,

I don't think miso is all that bad - the miso tofu soup I get only has 5g per serving, which makes it a good snack.

catspaw

[sweetjane]

Hello Catspaw

Yeah kyushu is nice but now that i low carb i rather live in america where i can get all the delicious low carb stuff at affordable prices!!

FBC is foreign buyers club, they have a website & a store in honshu sorry have to search the catalogs. they sell a wide range of imported american / british/ ethnic stuff from food to medicine. juz do a search on foreign buyers club & u will get the site.

Yeah eating out is alittle hard, well u can order the side dishes instead of the set which always come with rice. or u can buy from supa ready cook food but the things here r usually cook with soy sauce , mirin & sugar!

yeah konnyaku is great still got a pack here havent decide how to cook it yet. it's in strands so i was thinking of cooking it like noodles.

:roll:
Kelly

[catspaw]

I think that's what the konnyaku threads are called. You have to parboil them for about 5 minutes before you add them to anything, or they taste funny. The nice thing about them is they will absorb the flavor of whatever broth you cook them in, which makes them better than noodles! I think they are the ultimate LC food. :p

Besides, all the "nice" low-carb goodies can get you into trouble. Those Atkins bars did me in until I found out that the 2g on the package isn't necessarily what my body reacts to...

[tokyomom]

Is konnyaku low in carbs? I usually just stay away from all Japanese food because I can't read the label. I know which kanji is carbohydrate but thats about it. Any other food discoveries?

[catspaw]

I think konnyaku is low in everything - it's almost a non-food. Don't overdo it too fast, though, your digestive system might not recognize it as a food either. :eek:

Another thing that is good is koya-dofu, which is the freeze-dried tofu. You have to soak it in hot water for about five minutes and squeeze out the water until it runs clear (it's just like a sponge). Then if you cut it up into pretty small pieces and cook it in a liquid (stew or soup etc) it will absorb the flavor also. The longer you cook it the more flavor it gets (and the less like a sponge it tastes :rolleyes: ), and I find it a great substitute for potatos in beef stew. The package lists a lot of carbs, but it's one of those "per 100g" things, and the amount you use in one block is nowhere near that.

[sweetjane]

Hi Tokyomom

Do u know this group?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lowcarbinjapan/

It's a yahoo messenger group for women (only) doing low carb in japan. u may wanna join, they r even organising a dinner at this tokyo brazilian restaurant(low carb of coz)! too bad i live too far away.

yeah konnyaku is low in calories & low carb too. it's a favourite diet food for japanese as well.

:daze:
kelly

[sweetjane]

Hello Catspaw

How do u add the cartoon tiger face under your name?

:q:
:wave:

[catspaw]

Look at the upper right part of your screen, and you'll see the link buttons like register and all that. Go to your profile, then "edit options." Scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page and you'll see a link called `avatar.` Click on that and you can choose from a ton of things.

[catspaw]

Another thing I like is mugi-cha, the barley tea. It has no carbs at all. It's not sweet, and it's pretty refreshing.

I guess it's more popular in the summer, but you can find it in any grocery store or convenience store.

It has the added benefit (if you need that :) ) of having a slight laxative effect if you drink enough of it. I go through at least a liter of the stuff a day.

[sweetjane]

Hello Catspaw

Thanks! I put my own avator & it appear in all my previous posts! so cuteeee!
:spin:
Kelly

[tokyomom]

Thanks for the link. I tried registering for that group but I dont know if it worked.

[sweetjane]

Hi
Shouldnt be a problem the moderator will send u a furthur email soon.
;)

[tokyomom]

Sweetjane

I still not have received an email from the moderator. Do you think I did it wrong? Thanks, Penny :daze:

[sweetjane]

Hi Penny
I've sent an email to her, she prob is busy & overlook!! Happen to me too heeheee
:D
Kelly

[sweetjane]

Hello Penny

Annerose, the moderator of the group says she didnt receive any notification. Could u send her an email directly to amatsushita~ocean.dti2.ne.jp ?

Look forward to seeing u there!
:daze:
Kelly

[sweetjane]

Hi! How's the low carbing ?

I am not so into mugi cha, i prefer chinese green tea. but it's really expensive considering u r drinking alot! We get our spring water free from a natural source, it taste really good & i can juz drink & drink!

Kelly

[catspaw]

The LC'ing is going pretty well. The only business dinners I've had lately have been at pubs, and I can order ala carte. I like green tea too, although I don't drink as much as I should. They have it here at the office for free, but I have to walk to a different building to get it so I don't bother very often.

I'm goin to Australia next week (Yay!) so I should be able to eat beef all the time for cheap! :p

Hope you're well :wave:

[sweetjane]

Hi Catspaw
oh u going to Australia? that's nice. so maybe u can get alot of LC food there!

Penny
sorry that ~ is actually the ~ symbol. i dun know why when i copy & paste it turn out differently!

Kelly

[sweetjane]

Hi Penny
okie this is weird i type the symbol it came out as ~ again!!!!
it's the address symbol for email add.
pls try again!


Kelly

[sweetjane]

Originally posted by tokyomom
Sweetjane

I still not have received an email from the moderator. Do you think I did it wrong? Thanks, Penny :daze:

Hello Penny

Geez now i know why the email address didnt have that (a) symbol coz it's one of forum's rule! no email address is to be posted!

Anyway hope u get to read this. see u in lowcarbjapan!

Kelly

[lundman]

Hello! Sangubashi/Shibuya here...

Just thought I'd off load my thoughts about LC to get... Only drinks I've found to be LC seems to be diet coke (although as aspartamine) and diet sprite. The latter is well hard to find, but know of two stores in Shibuya that sell it.

That is, unless you drink tea..

Does anyone know the story on the "Lotte - No Sugar" chocolate? It doesn't have the usual Kanji that I know for Carbs on it. It didn't take me out of Ketosis though...

Sony Plaza sell the "diet coke bottles" gummy sweets too, if you can handle the laxitive side of it..

Lundy

[catspaw]

I'm in Minami-Aoyama, so were neighbors.

I"ll have to look for the Lotte chocolate and check it out. My LC drink of choice is mugi-cha. In fact, at this point I make half a gallon a day of the stuff.

:wave:

[catspaw]

I found these - they're really good, and they didn't take me out of ketosis either. The end up being 1.5 g carb for each stick. Their label actually has a lot more info than usual.

Thanks for the heads up! I'm going to use these for special treat days.

[Kokubunji]

where can you buy Atkins products in Tokyo? Can you get any keto products anywhere?

[enkeli]

Eh, my first post :) I don't live in Japan, but my brother does (he's not a low-carber though!):

Nutritional information: 栄養成分表

エネルギー Energy
たんぱく質 Protein
脂質 Fat
炭水化物 Carbohydrates
ナトリウム Sodium
食塩 (Table) Salt

Hope that helps!

Have any of you noticed that eating our HC friends, onigiri and nikuman,
doesn't cause the same problems as they might elsewhere? I was wondering
if it is due to the amount of walking we did when we were there or what the
diff actually is?

Hope to be going back to Japan during hanami next year to celebrate
my nephew's birthday! :Party:

-enkeli

[goldfish]

Hi Gals!
I'm in . I stumbled on this thread and wow!! It's nice to know there are some LCers in Japan!!

I sometimes eat out at Japanese restaurants, the best ones for me are yakitori and tempura(skip the rice). If you're on induction that probably won't work.

I've heard of those shiritaki noodles, but I always thought only those skinny Japanese girls on some weird diet ate them!! There are so many bizarre weight loss diets I didn't even consider them. Thanks for the tip!

[slym]

www.alishan-organic-center.com

Item # B50 Flax Seed Bread Y819 - - 6 net carbs per slice and delicious

Telephone 0429-82-4811

Fax 0492-82-4813

This bread from Alishan (Tengu) has been a lifesaver for me since I began low-carbing.

Kobe Foreign Buyers Club catalog is misleading as most low carb baking products appear to be offered/available but in fact are not! Atkins mixes and other low carb mixes come back as out of stock or cancelled. Bummer.

Anyone else is Japan who is on Atkins or abother low carb diet?

slym