Traveling with Celiac: Japan
CW: eating disorders
I don’t care about eating anymore. I say this because I used to care VERY much. I used to be known as “your foodie friend.” You may remember the videos I did for BuzzFeed and the entire food blog/podcast I had dedicated to finding new and adventurous eats in Los Angeles and beyond (some of it lives in the archives here). Food was my best friend, my social life, and it was also my career.
But the one-two punch of a celiac diagnosis, combined with the pandemic… by 2020, my life/diet had completely shifted. Now I mainly eat at home: oatmeal, fresh fruit/veggies, salads, soups, rice bowls, and the occasional ice cream. In the last almost 4 years, I rarely deviate from this. Socializing no longer revolves around meals, and if it does, it’s not more than once a week. This frees up a lot of mental energy for me, kinda like a dietary uniform. And I’m perfectly happy with that.
Even when I travel, I try to stick to this uniform. I make oatmeal, pack my own gluten-free protein bars (Built and Quest Hero are my favorite) and snack on fresh things from grocery stores like carrots, apples, grapes, and deli turkey slices.
But with this trip to Japan, there was no kitchen. I couldn’t order grocery delivery to my hotel. Suitcase room was scarce, so I had to only bring what was important.
Like a 50-pack of Tamari and many, many ginger chews.