Ep. 219: Food Allergy Travels to Japan

We’re sitting down with young adults and brothers who are managing food allergies to explore their recent trip to Japan. Adam and Jason Rubinstein will share how they prepared and managed their food allergies while staying safe and enjoying Japan's sites and experiences!

Resources to keep you in the know:

• FAACT's Traveling with Food Allergies
• FAACT's Traveler's Checklist for Those with Food Allergies
• Equal Eats Translation Cards
• FAACT's Airlines and Food Allergies
• FAACT's Traveling with Food Allergies

FAACT's Roundtable Podcast can be found on Apple Podcast, Pandora, Spotify, Podbay, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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 Sponsored by: Genentech

Thanks for listening! FAACT invites you to discover more exciting food allergy resources at FoodAllergyAwareness.org!

Transcript

Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions, each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the facts to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice. Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Hi everyone, I'm Caroline Moassessi and I am your host for FAACT's Roundtable podcast. I am a food allergy parent advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie blog. And I am FAACT's Vice President of Community Relations.

Before we start today's podcast, we would like to take a moment to thank Genentech for being a kind sponsor of FAACT's Roundtable podcast.

Also, please note that today's guest was not paid by or sponsored by Genentech. To participate in this specific podcast, we're sitting down with two college graduates who just happen to be brothers managing food allergies to learn and explore how they managed the recent trip to Japan.

Adam and Jason Rubinstein will share how they prepared and managed for their trip while staying safe and enjoying all the sights and experiences of Japan.

Welcome, Adam and Jason to FAACT's Roundtable podcast. We're absolutely looking forward forward to having you on. We need this kind of information from seasoned travelers and from people traveling in Asian countries because I think often there's a myth that if you have food allergies, Asian countries could be a little challenging because of nuts and seeds and these specific ingredients, which really is not true because clearly you had a very successful trip to Japan.

So welcome and I'm very excited to talk to you today.

Adam: Thanks for having us.

Jason: It's great to be here. I'm excited to do this too.

Caroline: So before we start the conversation today, let's learn just a little more about each of you. So first we'll start with Adam and if you can just share your food allergy journey.

And then what are you up to today?

Adam: I'm Adam. I have an allergy to tree nuts. Most tree nuts. I think I was diagnosed at 4.

Classically, like, I don't know, I went to a friend's house and then, you know, my mom is picking me up a few hours later having thrown up. You realize pretty early on that I had a food allergy.

I'm 29, still here, still have food.

Caroline: Allergies and seasoned at it, right?

Adam: Exactly. Yeah.

Caroline: I've had some practice and seasoned enough to go overseas. That's great.

And Now, Jason, can you share your food allergy journey? And then now what? Life. Looks like you've been out of college for a little bit.

Jason: I'm actually a little bit older than Adam by like three years. And I found out I was allergic to peanuts. Well, I guess I was too young to even know what that meant, but I was basically a baby and my mom gave me a little bit of peanut butter to try, less than a year old.

And I started crying immediately, supposedly, and they rushed me to the hospital, and then the rest is history. So I'm allergic to peanuts, anaphylaxis, and also sesame and also most tree nuts.

Though over the years, I've kind of like, actually just as of this year, I found out an allergy to almond and challenge thing and that. So that's pretty liberating. I would say navigated through high school, elementary school, college, and post college or whatever you.

You want to call it. Yeah, I still have almost all those allergies, even though I. I think when I was younger I also had a milk allergy, but I grew out of that.

Caroline: Yeah.

Jason: And things growing pretty well so far with. With that. Haven't had a major reaction in quite a while.

Caroline: But this is great. Cause, you know, I have to tell you, when I was a parent to my two kids who have food allergies, and they're 26 and 21 now, I was always looking for young adults with food allergies because I just needed to know they could make it to the promised land.

You know, we could get through elementary school and middle school and high school and college, and they would get into the workforce and have these lives. So it is really nice to hear your voices for other parents who maybe have little kids to see that, you know, everyone's going to get there.

May take a while or it will take a while, but, you know what I mean, they will get there and they will live the right life. So now, between the two of you going to Japan, what allergies then?

Were you managing something?

Jason: I realized, I forgot to say just a second ago, that was a big thing going into Japan was also shellfish. I was mostly concerned about shellfish. Sesame. Maybe I'll get into more about what actually ended up being a problem versus what I expected later.

But those are the big ones because, you know, I know here, like, shrimp is huge and like, sesame seeds are on all sorts of sushi and Japanese food. Maybe I'll spoil a little bit and say that actually sesame was not as much of a problem in Japan.

Actually, it seems like, it might be more of a Japanese American thing where they put it on all sorts of sushi there, but it was still in Japan, but not as much as I thought it was.

Not as big of a problem, honestly.

Adam: Yeah. And I. I've done some traveling in. In Western Europe, which I had thought had just more nuts overall than Japan. I. I just. Yeah, that was my baseline going in.

So I was. I was prepared to. I don't know, having to accommodate that more. I didn't really feel like it was so much of an issue in Japan.

Caroline: So to circle back around. So we had peanut allergies, tree nut allergies, almond. Okay, now for Jason. Shrimp and sesame. Am I missing anything?

Jason: Yeah, I think I have, like, a couple. Like, if we want to be a little bit more specific. Like, I'm also living to mustard, but I didn't anticipate that being a big problem.

And it's also not as, like, a severe of an allergy, but I didn't really expect it to be too much of a problem in Japan.

Caroline: Okay, good. Just want to make sure you got that scenario there.

So, Adam, we're going to turn to you first. How and when did you guys decide to visit Japan? Like, what helped you confirm that traveling Japan was okay with food allergies and that it was achievable?

And then did you do any kind of special research? Like, what I'm looking for is, how did you say, okay, Japan's the place, and we know we can do this.

Adam: Right. Once we started more seriously considering going to Japan, we started investigating how challenging it would be. I guess we had these preconceived notion that would be really hard with. Especially with your allergies, Jason, like, shellfish and sesame.

I guess I kind of knew that there weren't a lot of nuts, given my exposure to Japanese food, so I wasn't super concerned about it. Yeah, once we actually started planning the trip, we had to answer those questions, like, how do we actually handle this?

So, I mean, we turned to the Internet first. Like, we searched online trying to find folks who have done this. We're certainly not the first. I mean, I don't necessarily condone all these sources, but, like, we.

Jason: We.

Adam: We went to, like, Reddit and YouTube and just found, like, firsthand accounts of people going to Japan with food allergies, people sharing stories. I think, like, our. Our consensus maybe. Consensus is that, like, Reddit overemphasized some of the issues that we might find.

Yeah, there are a lot of people claiming that it was. It was A real challenge. And you know what? Maybe for some people, it is. I don't want to, like, discount their experience, but I think, like, after having done it, when our experience didn't really have those issues manifest, thankfully, a lot of online research, a lot of listening to firsthand accounts.

Jason: Yeah, I was going to jump in that, like, I remember we'd, like, decided for sure that we were going to go. And then I looked on Reddit, like, in middle of the night, and it was like some, honestly, some horror stories and some people, some, like, really unhelpful people on the Internet, like, saying, like, oh, how do I go to Japan with a sesame allergy?

And they're like, just don't come. It's not worth it. I was, like, seriously worried about it coming in. But then maybe this is part of our tips that we'll give later.

But coming into it, like, knowing that we had. There were going to be options for us, even if it wasn't, like, getting every single piece of food we see. Yeah.

I don't want to jump ahead too much, but there are definitely a lot of situations where the availability of food that's well labeled is, like, so easy. So even if you can't eat at the restaurant you really want to go to, there's still so much good food.

And that labeling of allergens is great.

Caroline: Yeah.

Adam: I guess what made us comfortable doing it, in addition to that is, like, making sure our expectations for just, like, achievable. And what do I mean by that? If you really, like, lower your expectations to the floor, make sure that there's some way you could survive in a place and still get what you want out of it, you know, like, you're still traveling and, you know, enjoying whatever, 90% of the experience, maybe not the food.

If that's, like, good enough, then that's how you know it's okay to travel. And anything better than that, it's kind of icing on the cake.

Caroline: I love that. I think that's great. Lower your expectations. But really, I wouldn't say lower. I would say make them realistic. Right. Like, you're like, let's be realistic here. It just might be a little bread and cracker, you know, some better kind of situation.

You know, it may not be this culinary moment, but it's going to be fun. It's going to be good. You're in Japan. Like, be realistic is what I'm hearing from you.

Jason: Yeah.

Adam: Be real.

Caroline: And.

Jason: And also, like. But actually, so we're being realistic going into. But once. But I was Actually really happily surprised. At least for our allergies. I wouldn't make any promises for some more other kinds of allergies, but we were able to eat like almost every kind of thing we wanted there, like, I think for the most part.

And it was like for so many reasons. And people are willing to help you out there too. Like, that's another thing. Maybe coming up, it's that the culture is really service oriented.

And maybe I'll mention this now something that helped us kind of like calm down a little bit was our mom suggested we get these it's Equal Eats cards that it sounds like you've heard of them that have.

Caroline: Oh yeah, we're friends with Kyle. Yes, Kyle does.

Jason: Yeah. I think I might have met the teen food allergy conference, like years ago, but like a long time ago. But anyway, yeah, so that, that was like so helpful. Like at first I was like, okay, mom, like, we could just pull out her phone and show people the translation.

But just being able to hand people a card and it had all our allergens and they would really, actually really look at it. They would go back to like their chef and like, really try to like, do as best they could to like help you out in any restaurant.

And sometimes they'll say no, and sometimes they'll say, nope, we're fine, it's all good. That was very helpful in that to spend some time on duolingo learning Japanese. But I didn't really know it well enough to say I have an allergy.

So being able to do that was like, made most of the worries go away once we started doing it.

Caroline: Well, and it's nice with the card too, because even if you do learn a few things in a foreign language, if you start the conversation then they start speaking back to you, thinking you've got this.

And now you're like, oh, wait, stop, let me get the card. So I think that was a great idea. These are very practical and really good tips. Really solid information because you're right.

If they can take the card and walk to the back with it, then that's helpful when they do versus you handing your phone, right?

Jason: Yeah, they do really take seem like they took allergies seriously there. Like I'd read some things again on Reddit, which I actually don't recommend you do that. Like, oh, they're really somewhat accommodating.

They won't like change, like take out and they won't make any substitutions to their dish, but did not really find. Well, maybe we didn't come into Many situations that required that to happen, but they were super accommodating almost all the time.

Adam: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's a helpful comparison, but I. I felt like traveling in Western Europe. There were folks not. I mean, obviously not most people, but I think there were more situations where I felt like I was dismissed.

You know, like, I was, like, trying to, you know, bring on my allergies, and they. They didn't really understand, but kind of, you know, just trying. Trying to serve me anyway or something.

So that didn't really happen in Japan? Maybe. Maybe once, but, yeah, it wasn't really a concern.

Caroline: That's really good to hear. So now, once you made that decision, you're going to go to Japan, how did you choose then, your airline and accommodations? Like, did you stay in hotels or airbnbs or friends or somewhere where you could cook for yourself?

So let's talk about that. And, Jason, do you want to kick that off?

Jason: Yeah, I can remember exactly how we chose the airline, to be honest, but we ended up with Japan Air, which I didn't have any expectations about, but was. Was great in general.

But that was kind of like. Honestly, one of my big worries, too, was like, well, if we're going from California to Japan, so it's not as long as going from the east coast, but, like, not to forget anybody out listening to this, there were no hospitals in the Pacific Ocean, basically.

So I was, like, a little bit, like, had a lot of anxiety about that because I don't. Yeah, I usually don't actually eat the food on the plane. I would usually bring my own, which is a good tip.

But there are, like, the allergy protections and, like, just looking at it online and I think we actually had to call them ahead was like, they really had everything listed.

And actually, here's a tip for Japan. So there's this thing I learned about that I forgot exactly what it's called, but there's, like, two ways they could list allergens, like, on the back of a package.

It's either the, like, eight allergen list, which is eight kinds of allergens they have to put on a packaging. But then there's the 28 version, which is, like, way more comprehensive and has, like, so many things that I didn't even know people could be allergic to.

Probably using Google Translate. Look at the back of a package in, like, convenience store, it'll say, like, 28. If it's showing all 28. Otherwise, it'll just include those eight. So just to be safe we went for the.

What was called, like, the 28 minimal allergen meal on the plane, which, like, basically didn't include anything that could even potentially be a bad thing for us. And I would say it wasn't the most, like, delicious meal I had, but it was, like, pretty good.

And I felt, like, actually really safe that they had that kind of option. On the way back, though, they didn't ask us on the way there, but on the way back, they asked if our allergies were severe, and we said yes, because for a couple of our allergies, it is severe, and we did not know that that would kick them into high gear sort of with, like, the protections.

And what happened was they actually did not allow people to sit in the empty seats around us. And they put on.

They put signs on the back on those seats saying, this seat is used. And then they told everybody around us that we had allergies, severe allergies. It was like, whoa, whoa.

I didn't. I didn't really know I had needed that much attention, but for somebody that, like, had. It was really going to be concerned. It was, like. Like, basically alleviated worries.

Yeah, they're very good with that.

Adam: Highly recommend.

Caroline: That's incredible. Oh, my gosh. I know what airline my daughter's gonna run to. She went to Korea, and I know she wants to go again to the area. That's amazing. And so you both felt really comfortable and confident on the plane?

Adam: Yeah, I mean, for us, I. I don't think we think of our allergies as being that level of severity. They are pretty severe. Like, we're both anaphylactic to a few things, but.

Jason: But not like we're going to breathe something in or like, if somebody's sitting right next to us, but we'd have a problem. They were. If. If we did have that kind of situation, I think they'd accommodate us, like, every step of the way on that airline.

Adam: Yeah, yeah. You certainly don't want any issues on a plane. So, yeah, I think it's worthwhile taking, like, risks into account.

Caroline: And that's. That's a really good point. So then how about accommodations? Were you going hotel to hotel or Airbnbs?

Adam: We both did hotels and airbnbs. Yeah, we did an airbnb in one location and mostly hotels, I think, for the rest, to be honest, I don't think we were thinking a lot about allergies into consideration with that.

Jason: So it wasn't just us on this trip that we had three other friends we were with. It didn't really affect our accommodation, but the people we were staying with definitely affected which restaurants we would go to or whether we need to split off.

So find something more safe or like that.

Caroline: Yeah, can we talk about that for just a quick sec? Because, honestly, I think that's something people are always afraid of, that if you are traveling with others, you don't want to be this burden.

But it sounds like you handled it because you just said break off. So can we talk about that for a hot minute? Like, how did you do that?

Jason: Yeah, I was. Honestly, I was pretty concerned about being a burden. But then I had read that, like, I mentioned this briefly before, but the convenience store art In Japan, like, 711 is, like, nothing.

Like, it's. It is here. And they have, like, actually so much delicious food. It's all labeled. So I knew that, like, okay, if my friends wanted to get, like, some fried shrimp or something or some place that I just could.

I tried, but I couldn't eat. I. Like, there's so many of these convenience stores, and then I would always just be able to walk right in and grab that. So there were some of those situations where I would just be like, okay, I'm eating my Katsu sandwich or something.

Yeah. I think it actually worked out generally pretty well. Like, maybe our friends would disagree, but I don't think either of us were burdens. What do you think?

Adam: Right. Yeah. Maybe there was some, like, more searching involved or, like, decisions made to, like, not go to certain places. But I think, like, having just being conscious of, like, how much pressure, like, I'm putting on, you know, these people I'm traveling with and, like, how much compromise is being made in each direction.

Jason: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah. And having just really, really good backup options everywhere helps a ton.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I can really paint a picture for you, but, like, there's convenience stores everywhere, and they have, like, fresh food with packaging. I mean, if you could rely on that as a backup.

I know probably some folks listening can, but if you. If you can, that is, like, a super helpful backup to have.

Caroline: That's really good to hear. And now that you were saying that, I think I remember somebody telling me that, and maybe it was my daughter in Korea, but I remember somebody saying that these convenience stores, it's not like a 7 11.

I mean, you can go and get fresh, tasty food that easily labeled. Yeah, I'm sorry. That's easy to read. Sorry. And that's labeled very well.

Adam: Right? Yeah, they're everywhere. We probably had one too many Convenience store meals.

Jason: Your friends did, too. Our friends could, like, probably eat at, like, the most delicious restaurants. And they. They went with us, too. Cause it was so good, actually. But I was just thinking, as you were saying, that is, like, something to remember, too, is that your friends might have preferences also, and that's not like an allergy.

It's not like they can't eat that food. For example, like, if your friend doesn't, like, doesn't like ramen or doesn't like sushi, then, like, making a compromise in that way is another thing you have to deal with anyway.

And I think most of the time, it felt like the preferences and the allergies were not like it was. There was compromises all around you have to make. We were traveling with a lot of people, essentially, so it wasn't like we were the biggest burden.

Caroline: And that's such a great point you're bringing up. There's just compromises all the way around. Right. And so this is just one of the flavors. I like that. That's very natural.

Adam: Yeah.

Jason: Or like, some. Maybe somebody is vegan or vegetarian. And then. So you having this matrix of food preferences and restrictions can just get complicated even without allergies involved.

Caroline: Yeah, exactly. So this is just one of the many. So now let's dive into the eating part, because we're already there. And so now, Adam, we'll start with you. How did you approach eating out, you know, or shopping?

So you already kind of talked about, you know, you're with your friends, you're negotiating. There's these convenience stores. So do you have anything else to add to that? Like, were there any barriers or challenges?

Did you guys ever hit any kind of, like, oops moments?

Adam: Yeah, I think this is a good time to talk about omakase, I guess, with allergies. The way I think about it in, like, a foreign country is if there's food is a part of the culture, you know, I'm willing to compromise for safety, obviously.

Like, I want to be conservative. I want to experience the rest of it. But maybe there's, like, one or two things that you really want to do. At least that was the case for me, like, omakase, something I wanted to experience, like, in Japan while I was there.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Omakase is, like, a really fancy sushi dinner. So it's like, I don't know, like, 18 small courses prepared by, like, a sushi master. You don't have. There's no, like, menu.

Like, they're deciding what you're eating. I think most Times you don't know what you're eating, which for someone with, like, an allergy is like one of the worst case scenarios, at least for like, I don't know.

Jason: But it's like part. It's like part of the appeal, like, is that you don't know what it is. And then kind of like that you're expected to eat it no matter what too.

Which is like, oh, that's.

Adam: Yeah, there's like a cultural norm, like, you're going to eat what's put in front of you. All of these, like, factors make it pretty challenging for someone with an allergy to, like, feel safe in doing that.

Jason: I was actually going to say trying to find a reservation for one of these places was incredibly challenging because we had to call to ask about allergies. And when you're like, just using Google Translate on your phone and, like, showing it to somebody, that's something.

But talking on the phone was, like, really difficult. But then we actually, like, after I would say with hours of trying this, because, like, a lot of these websites actually even said, some of them said, like, we will not accommodate allergies.

Which is.

Adam: Many of them did.

Jason: Yeah, like, or we'll cancel your reservation. Which is. I don't know how many people are planning on doing this specific thing. Definitely something to think about. But then we found somebody who spoke very good English.

Turns out later she was Romanian and was like, like. So a lot of the times with these fancier places, they actually, they want to accommodate you because you're like their, their guest and they want to, like, make you feel safe.

So this was definitely that kind of situation. I don't know if you wanted.

Adam: Yeah. And I think she said that she had, like a food allergy.

Jason: Yeah, supposedly. Yeah.

Adam: I don't remember, like, which it was, but she had said that. I think we, we knew that this was something we wanted to do, so we spent intentional effort and time to try to do it.

Maybe too much. It was. It was like three plus hours of calling places and having really awkward conversations. It was, it was challenging. But, yeah, I mean, it was, it was a great experience.

Jason, I'm sure, like, Seth, you. The whole meal. I actually didn't.

Jason: Because before you get to that, actually. Go ahead. Yeah, like, she, the. The chef and the, the manager was really ensuring us that, like, everything we were going to eat was going to be safe.

Like, I kept ask. I was like. So I was really nervous about this. Kept asking, is there sesame? Is there shellfish? And she said, no, just trust us, like, really?

You're safe here. Yeah, it was. Felt really great, but then I don't know.

Adam: Yeah.

Jason: Yeah.

Adam: So I don't. I don't scary ones not be a cautionary tale or something, but I think I did have like a. A little allergic reaction, like a minor one to probably a fish that I didn't know I was allergic to.

So, like, part of my food allergy journey is, like, at one point in time, I started reacting to white fish, or I thought I was. And I, like, got tested and like, went through this whole process and did, like, a challenge and found out I wasn't.

So I. I felt pretty confident in, like, going to Japan or eating fish in general. But I don't know, I guess I just. It just came back a little. Just a little bit, like in exactly the wrong moment.

I mean, I stopped eating. I recognized I wasn't really that severe. I left. But I. Yeah, I think that's not any sort of statement. You know, the restaurant was, like, very accommodating.

Yeah.

Jason: Actually, like. Like, he was really nervous about leaving because of this, the cultural aspect of, like, eating what's in front of you. But they were, like, very concerned about it to the point where, like, he ate half the meal at the end.

They actually didn't charge him for it. And it was like a pretty expensive meal. And yeah, I was like, oh, really? You didn't have to do that. And they were like, your friend's health is more important than the money.

So it. That was like, so touching overall and, like, it was like, really, really good. So sorry you didn't get to eat the rest of it, but ate half of it.

But, you know, that's super nice.

Caroline: That was really nice, them saying flat out that your health is most important.

Jason: Right.

Caroline: So it sounds like you really encountered a lot of people who were trying very hard and being successful.

Jason: Yeah.

Adam: Right.

Jason: Now, actually, something we learned when we were there too, is that there's a decent amount of shrimp allergies in Japanese people. Actually, even buckwheat, I've heard, which is a future tip, I was going to say, is that.

So Soba has buckwheat, and I do have a slight buckwheat allergy. So it was good to know how to avoid that.

Caroline: Well, since we're talking about tips, let's continue and if each of you can share some of your top travel tips. I mean, this has been really great so far. You've really given a lot of practical, pragmatic tips that someone could really do something with.

And that's been fantastic, but now I'm just getting greedy to see if you have a few more of these.

Jason: Something I was thinking about, I was as I was talking about these Equal Eats cards, they were great for sure. And it's like, great that if you don't know about them, maybe longtime listeners of this podcast do.

But you can pick exactly what allergies you have. And then there's some pre built ones like just tree nuts or something like that. But I put on sesame, peanut, tree nut, and like all shellfish or something like that was one of the options.

And it translates your allergy. So one side it's English, the other side it's in whatever language you want. And I don't know how they could have prevented this, but I think the translation for shellfish was not something that was typically actually used in Japan.

Like every time somebody like, was reading it, they were like, what's this last one like? I saw somebody actually get out their Google Translate on their phone to figure it out.

And one of my coworkers actually speaks Japanese and he was like, this doesn't seem like how they. My advice then is, well, actually twofold. One is double check what words are usually used there because I think I should have written ebi, which is shrimp, and then Connie, which is crab, which are the two most common ones.

Like, people were a little bit confused, but then I then they figured it out, so it wasn't a major problem. But that also leads to another tip which is I would actually recommend knowing at least a little bit about how to say or recognize your allergens.

Because getting out your phone to like read every label gets a little bit tedious and just be able to spot it and maybe even just say it is like, I think pretty useful to do like not like learn the entire language.

Adam: But can I add something to that? Yeah, it's definitely a good idea to be able to like visually recognize your allergens, like the words, but also like not knowing the language.

Oh yeah, yeah, you'll. You'll definitely want to download Google Translate and also download the language like locally onto your phone. And with that app you can do like ocr. You can, you can use the camera to translate the languages in real time.

That's a lot of the time what we were doing. I mean, it's not. This is not like a, you know, Roman script. It's a little easier for me to do this with like Spanish or, you know, French, like not, not needing to use some sort of like translation tool like that.

But in Japan, Like, I absolutely needed. I don't really speak or read Japanese at all. So having the phone just, like, pointing it at something and having it translate in real time without any network.

Like, if I was like, I'm a cellular service, super, super helpful.

Caroline: That's a strong, strong tip. And even as you guys were talking, I was thinking, hmm, maybe it'd be a good idea to take your translation card into a local restaurant, like a local Japanese restaurant, and say, so take a look at this.

Adam: That would have been a good idea to do before we went to Japan.

Jason: Yeah. Like, it didn't lead me to have huge problems, but it was like, something I didn't even think about after the fact. Like, I don't. Yeah, maybe just double checking the translation.

Like, I didn't think. I think it was the correct translation. It was just not a commonly used way of putting it or something. I don't know.

Caroline: Right. Not as much slang. So this is. These are really great tips anymore. And any others?

Adam: Yeah, a couple more. I think. One was kind of philosophical. Ask, like, why you're traveling. I think if you feel bad that you're not able to eat all the things, just like, recentering yourself on, like, why you're traveling, like, you're there to experience the culture, to do all the things that you want to do, keep your intentions clear.

Remind yourself that you have, like, challenges. But, like, you can still do all the things that you want or do most of the things you want to do. The other option is, like, not traveling.

I don't know. I think there's. There's a better option there.

Caroline: So it's a really good point. Any other tip?

Jason: One tip, I can give a tip that I didn't actually do. This is not how we approach this trip, but some people do a lot of planning ahead of time to, like, exactly map out the itinerary.

And I saw some, actually, some blog posts when I was researching this ahead of time, I think from a parent that was like, actually in multiple days in advance. Like, emailing restaurants to, like, ask about allergens just so they, like, they already knew ahead of time.

Like, I think we spent a lot of time looking for food that we could have. I mean, it didn't take as long as I thought sometimes, but it was just like, when you're hungry, you just want to eat sometimes.

So maybe like, the night before, like, doing a little bit of research and emailing. Some sites actually do have, like, allergen tables, like they have on some restaurants here, so.

Oh, this is a good recommendation.

Shoot, I forgot the name, actually. Is it Ichiban?

Adam: It is.

Jason: The ramen place. Yeah. It's like a chain. Really good. And they had on their website a allergen table for each of their dishes, like, with what the allergens were that are in each of the things.

A really unique experience, too. As a side note, you hand them a ticket, and you're sitting at a booth by yourself. Like, you could just not talk to anybody in the entire time in this restaurant.

Like, it's designed that you can, like, if you want to sit, I want more water or something, you hand them a little card, and then you just see that. It's hard to describe that, like, below the head of this person, hand you your ramen and stuff.

And it's very unique.

Caroline: That sounds like fun, actually.

Jason: It was. It was fun.

Adam: Yeah, it was a lot of. A lot of fun.

Jason: The whole thing was fun.

Adam: I maybe have a general tip that's probably. I think it's my last one. It's not even just like, a travel tip, but if you're at cocktail bars, like, tell them about your allergy.

There are some cocktails with nuts in them. So, I mean, we went to, like, a really. Especially the nice ones. They sometimes like to add flair, which means, like, a pistachio.

Like a fresh pistachio ground drink. Or maybe it was, like, put in a shaker or something. Yeah, you want to be careful at bars.

Caroline: That's a really good tip. So it sounds like it was a very successful trip.

Adam: Yeah, right? Yeah.

Jason: Before I forget and somebody corrects me, I just remembered it was Ichiran, not Ichi Ran.

Adam: Oh, okay.

Jason: That's a ramen restaurant.

Caroline: Well, that's important to know, so thank you.

Well, I could keep talking and talking and talking. You two are so fun and so practical. I love this. Like, this is information we can take and run, but we actually have to wrap it up.

So before we do that, is there anything else you would like to say or end with words of wisdom? I'll start with you, Jason. What. What would you like our listeners to hear from you before we say goodbye?

Jason: You should go to Japan. It was, like, probably the most amazing trip. I've been on it just in so many ways and talking about it. I want to go back there right now.

Caroline: So how about you, Adam?

Adam: I would say a similar thing and, like, reevaluate your conceptions about how difficult it is to travel in Japan with allergies, especially if you have, like, nut or sesame allergies. It was one of the easiest places I've traveled, like internationally.

Jason: But really, like, I think that wouldn't have been possible without like modern technology or, or services like equal leads. I mean, maybe I would have written on a piece of paper or something, but somehow tried to scribble Japanese.

I don't understand. But yeah, I think, yeah, Google Translate, the allergy card and the culture being so accommodating was really helpful.

Caroline: Well, this has been fantastic. Thank you to you two for giving your time to us today and hopefully we'll have you back on the podcast again talking about the next advent or wherever you're headed to.

So, you know, keep us in mind when you head somewhere new. Give us a call back.

Adam: We'll do.

Jason: Thanks. Thanks for having us.

Caroline: Before we say goodbye today, I just want to take one more moment to say thank you to Genentech for their kind sponsorship of FAACT's Roundtable podcast. Also, I want to note that today's guest was not paid by or sponsored by Genentech to participate in this specific podcast.

Thank you for listening to FAACT's roundtable podcast. Stay tuned for future episodes coming soon. Please subscribe, leave a review and listen to our podcast on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio and Stitcher.

Have a great day and always be kind to one another.