Airbnb in Korea and Japan...anybody done it?
Also, I hear being vegetarian in Japan is hard. True? Maybe just outside Tokyo?
Ten years ago: True. Haven't been there since, may have improved.
Not super hard, but you always need to ask, can't rely on the menu. Hong Kong has the same issue: A dish may be "fried vegetables" and it turns out the beef is implied.
In Fukuoka we went to a restaurant and tried to explain that I didn't eat meat. "Not even fish?!" ... finally the cook had to come out and talk to us and I think I got some tofu thing.
It's weird. There are so many dishes that look like a perfectly reasonable vegatarian dish (talking HK now), but it's like by compulsion some form of meat needs to be added. A lot of the times a salad is the only vegetarian thing (and you can't rely on that either -- chicken is popular in salads, and shrimp).
I usually go out with my omnivore wife, so I order the meat thing and give the meat to her, the theory being that her meat need is a constant and giving her my meat will reduce her other meat consumption. :-)
Not super hard, but you always need to ask, can't rely on the menu. Hong Kong has the same issue: A dish may be "fried vegetables" and it turns out the beef is implied.
In Fukuoka we went to a restaurant and tried to explain that I didn't eat meat. "Not even fish?!" ... finally the cook had to come out and talk to us and I think I got some tofu thing.
It's weird. There are so many dishes that look like a perfectly reasonable vegatarian dish (talking HK now), but it's like by compulsion some form of meat needs to be added. A lot of the times a salad is the only vegetarian thing (and you can't rely on that either -- chicken is popular in salads, and shrimp).
I usually go out with my omnivore wife, so I order the meat thing and give the meat to her, the theory being that her meat need is a constant and giving her my meat will reduce her other meat consumption. :-)
My friend and I used one of the Ryokan web sites to book the stays during our two-week Japan trip (ten years ago), and it was great. Some basic Japanese skills needed when outside Tokyo, and the further west you go, the rarer the English skills of the locals.
I ended up buying Happy Cow. It sounds like Tokyo shouldn't be a problem. Probably also true in Seoul, although I haven't looked into that as much.