In fact, there are so many restaurants that offer customization. My husband does not eat meat at all, so I ask him to change his main dish to fish or to not include meat. Even if it is our first time at a restaurant, we are rarely refused. Maybe it is because I know the cuisine and can tell if the customization I want is within the realm of possibility. If you guys understood the cuisine and could speak Japanese fluently, you would have gotten a different result. A Japanese conversation that takes 10 seconds is lost over 2-3 minutes if you are speaking in a foreign language or showing an app translation. I often see foreign customers pushing through in their own language, and there is nothing more annoying than being stopped by a chef in a private restaurant. Restaurants with English menus that are visited by tourists and larger chain restaurants will not be as flexible with their ingredients. This is because there are already many cooking innovations in place to achieve low cost and time savings. In Japan, where rationalization is taken to the ultimate extreme, you should expect far more thorough inventory control of ingredients than you can imagine. For vegetarians, Shoujin ( 精進料理) cuisine is the way to go🌱🌱