Hello from Tokyo
 

Anyone else living in Japan?

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:

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

I'm in Tokyo
 

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:

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.

Tokyo restuarants
 

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?

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. :)

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. :)

What's FBC?
 

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

Miso
 

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

FBC
 

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

Shirataki?
 

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...

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?

konnyaku
 

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.

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