yeah, that's another point, if you say 'I'm vegetarain does this have meat in?' the server will be like no, and it will come out with a pile of bonito on top, or sakura ebi mixed in.
I forgot the word, but it's the word used for like buddisht vegetarianism and if you say that they'll understand NO animal products.
Actually, I stayed in a buddist temple/ryokan in koyasan where they specialise in vegetarian food cos it's like...monks. It's actually super strict vegan, they don't even use garlic or onion (for some reason.....), but they've been finding ways to make it tasty for hundreds of years so it was pretty good!
oh I took pictures:
and also, I think in japan you have to learn to be a bit accomadating towards 'mistakes'. Like sometimes you might just have to pick off the bits of bacon or make your friends wait 30 mins for you to get a fresh order which may or may not be to your satisfaction anyway.