Tokyo gets a bad reputation among vegan travelers. You'll hear the same warning repeated: Japan is tough for vegans, dashi is everywhere, and you'll spend your trip eating plain rice. Some of that is true in rural areas. In Tokyo, most of it isn't.
This vegan Tokyo guide is built on what the SERP's most-linked pages consistently leave out: the district-level planning, the traditional Japanese food that's already vegan, the sushi situation, and the specific language you need when a restaurant insists everything is vegetarian while stirring bonito flakes into the broth.
Tokyo now has one of Asia's most developed plant-based dining scenes. That doesn't mean it's easy — it means it rewards preparation. Here's what you need to know before you go.
Is Tokyo Vegan-Friendly?
Tokyo is reasonably vegan-friendly if you know where to look, and genuinely difficult if you don't. The city has dozens of 100% vegan restaurants, hundreds of places with solid vegan options, a growing convenience store plant-based range, and one traditional cuisine (Shojin Ryori) that has been naturally vegan for over a thousand years. The challenge is that Japanese food culture doesn't always label animal-derived flavouring agents clearly, so a dish that looks vegetarian often contains fish stock or pork-based tare. Language preparation matters here more than it does in most cities.
Vegan Restaurants in Tokyo by District
The most useful thing any vegan Tokyo guide can do is tell you where vegan food clusters geographically, not just hand you a list of restaurants without context. Tokyo is enormous — something at position 16 on a generic "best vegan Tokyo" list might be 45 minutes from your hotel. Here's how the city breaks down.
Harajuku and Shibuya
This is your most reliable base for vegan dining. The density here is high enough that you won't be re-routing your whole day to find food.
Vegan Bistro Jangara — Harajuku is the spot most vegan travelers hear about first, and it earns that. It's run by Kyushu Jangara, a well-established ramen chain, so the broth work is taken seriously. The kobonshan ramen has a rich, layered flavour and realistic soy meat toppings that don't feel like an afterthought. Their gyoza are worth ordering alongside it. Expect a wait — 20 to 30 minutes at peak times is normal. The queue system works by waiting near the lift; staff call you in. You can scan a QR code on the wall to read the menu while you wait.
2foods — Two locations, both inside Loft stores: one in Ginza, one in Shibuya. The concept is creative vegan Japanese, and they do it without the usual compensatory effort. The omurice (egg-style rice) is one of the more convincing vegan versions you'll find in the city. Worth a stop if you're already in either area.
Vegan Cafe PQ's — In Taito City, which sits on the Shibuya-Harajuku orbit for many itineraries. This spot has the souffle pancakes that appear on every Tokyo food list for good reason — they're gluten-free, somehow still light, and properly sweet without being cloying. The seasonal vegetable curries are also excellent and change throughout the year. If you're choosing between their pancakes and a generic tourist spot's version, come here.
Cosme Kitchen Adaptation — Also in Shibuya. More of a health-food café format, but the karaage here is stronger than at several dedicated vegan restaurants. Useful if you want something lighter after heavy ramen meals.
Shinjuku and Shinjuku City
Ain Soph Ripple — The fourth location in the Ain Soph chain and the most casual of them. The crispy chicken burger is the reason to come; it holds up texturally and flavour-wise better than most plant-based fast-food options in the city. The Ripple Cheese Burger is fine but less interesting. The burritos are worth trying if you have room.
Shinjuku also has a cluster of international food options — Indian vegetarian restaurants in particular — which are worth knowing about for days when you want something different from Japanese food. Several of these are fully vegetarian, making cross-contamination less of a concern.
Nagi Shokudo — About 15 minutes' walk from Shibuya Station, this is a 100% vegan restaurant doing traditional Japanese set meals. The lunch sets give you a rice base with miso soup and rotating vegan dishes — typically soy meat, pickles, and vegetables. Portion sizes are generous. It's one of the places where you can eat like a local without spending time decoding a menu.
Mr. Farmer — Multiple Tokyo locations including Shibuya and Omotesando. The menu spans grain bowls, salads, and rice dishes, all plant-based. Not strictly a Japanese food experience but a reliable fallback when you need something predictable and fast.
Ginza
Ain Soph. Ginza — The most formal of the Ain Soph locations. Multi-floor setup with a bakery and sweets on the ground floor. The bento boxes here are worth getting if you're doing a sit-down lunch; they're presented well and cover more of the traditional Japanese dishes spectrum than most vegan restaurants bother with. This location also does the pancakes.
2foods Ginza — Same concept as the Shibuya branch, inside the Ginza Loft. Good for a quick creative-Japanese lunch if you're in this part of the city.
Tokyo Station and Ueno
T's Tantan — The most famous vegan restaurant in Tokyo, and for practical reasons: it's inside Tokyo Station, which means you'll walk past it on the way to or from Shinkansen or airport connections. The golden tantan noodles are the go-to first order — creamy, peanut-forward broth with soy mince and sesame. The black sesame ramen is worth trying on a return visit. The gyoza are solid.
The Tokyo Station branch is the busiest and the trickiest to find. Follow signs for the Keiyō line (the red JE line for Maihama) — T's Tantan is past the ticket gates on Keiyō Street, which means you'll need to buy a platform entry ticket (~130 JPY) if you're not already travelling. Branches at Ueno and Ikebukuro are less crowded and easier to navigate. There's also a T's Tantan at Narita Airport Terminal 2 (landside, fourth floor), which is genuinely useful if you're arriving or departing hungry.
Also at Ueno: T's Restaurant, the flagship full-service branch in Jiyugaoka. More menu options than the station locations, and worth a specific trip if you want to sit down properly.
Asakusa
Asakusa is heavier on traditional Japanese food and lighter on dedicated vegan restaurants, but it's worth knowing about Nagi Shokudo if you're staying in this part of the city (see Shinjuku section above — multiple locations). The area around Senso-ji has street food vendors, most of which are not vegan-friendly, but plain rice crackers (senbei with soy sauce and no dairy) and roasted sweet potatoes show up at various stalls seasonally.
Minato City
Minato City is home to several vegan and vegan-friendly spots in the Roppongi area, including the plant-based café and restaurant ecosystem that's built up around the international dining crowd. Falafel Brothers — technically not Japanese food at all, but worth flagging: the falafel quality here is genuinely good, and on a long trip where Japanese cuisine starts feeling repetitive, this is a useful option in the Minato area.
Vegan Ramen in Tokyo: What's Worth Queueing For
Ramen is the obvious draw, and Tokyo delivers. The challenge isn't finding vegan ramen — it's knowing which bowls are actually interesting and which are just tolerable plant-based substitutes for a tonkotsu original.
T's Tantan (multiple station locations) — The golden sesame tantan is the most consistent bowl in the city for the money. The broth doesn't approximate meat-based ramen; it does its own thing with peanut butter, sesame, and soy mince, and it works on its own terms. Around 1,100 JPY. They also do a yuzu ramen for something lighter.
Vegan Bistro Jangara — Already covered under Harajuku, but the ramen here is worth emphasising separately. The Karabon bowl is for people who want real heat — the broth is spiced aggressively and the soy meat holds up to it. If spice isn't your interest, the standard soy sauce ramen has a milder broth and is a cleaner, more traditional bowl.
Miso ramen specifically: if you want miso ramen at a vegan restaurant rather than navigating a pork-miso broth at a standard ramen shop, Vegan Bistro Jangara and T's Tantan both offer versions. The miso broth base is easier to veganise than tonkotsu, and both restaurants do it competently.
Tokyo Vegan Ramen Center (Harajuku) — A dedicated vegan ramen shop in Harajuku that runs seasonal and rotating bowls. Less famous than T's Tantan but worth adding to your list if ramen is a priority. Focused specifically on the ramen format rather than a broader menu, which generally means the execution is tighter.
Vegan Ramen UZU — Frequently cited by repeat visitors and the subject of a notable amount of search interest (260 monthly searches for "vegan ramen UZU tokyo"). Worth checking current opening times before visiting as hours have varied. The broth work here is more experimental than at the established chains.
One practical note for ramen-focused vegan travel: the Tokyo Station cluster (T's Tantan) is convenient as a first or last meal before travel. For better ramen at a sit-down pace, the Harajuku and Jiyugaoka options give you more time and less station-concourse noise.
Vegan Sushi in Tokyo: It Exists, and Some of It Is Good
No currently-ranking Tokyo vegan guide gives vegan sushi proper coverage, which is strange given that it's one of the most-searched subcategories in the cluster (720 monthly searches in the US). Here's what you actually need to know.
What Makes Sushi Vegan?
Traditional sushi rice is made with rice vinegar, sugar, and salt — all vegan. The issue is what's on top or inside. Fish, shellfish, tamagoyaki (egg omelette), and most kani (imitation crab, which contains fish) are all out. What's left is more substantial than you'd expect.
Standard vegan sushi options at most restaurants include: cucumber rolls (kappa-maki), pickled plum rolls (umeboshi), pickled radish (takuan), avocado, fermented soybean rolls (natto), and seasoned tofu skin (inari). At a conventional sushi bar, you can construct a decent vegan meal from these without any special menu.
The trickier question is the rice itself. Some restaurants add dashi (fish stock) to their rice seasoning. This isn't standard practice — traditional sushi rice doesn't require it — but it happens. If you're at a restaurant rather than a cheap conveyor belt chain, it's worth asking.
Can you ask "Is your sushi rice vegan?" at most sushi restaurants? In practice, yes, though you'll need the right phrase (see the language section below). Most sushi chefs know immediately whether their rice contains fish-derived ingredients.
Best Options for Vegan Sushi in Tokyo
Dedicated vegan sushi remains rare in Tokyo compared to the general vegan restaurant scene. Most vegan-leaning spots approach sushi as part of a broader menu rather than a specialist offering. Ain Soph restaurants occasionally feature vegan sushi as part of their set menus. The itravelforveganfood platform's Tokyo map lists a handful of sushi-specific vegan options and is worth checking before your trip as it's updated more regularly than most static guides.
At conveyor belt sushi chains (kaiten-zushi), the approach works differently. Chains like Kura Sushi and Sushiro have labelled vegetarian and occasionally vegan options on their digital ordering systems. The systems are in Japanese but have image interfaces that make selection possible without language fluency. Avocado rolls, cucumber rolls, inari, and pickled vegetable options are generally available.
Inari sushi specifically — rice packed into sweet seasoned tofu pockets — is worth calling out separately. It's traditionally vegan (or close to it, depending on the seasoning broth), available at most supermarkets and some convenience stores, and genuinely good. It's not the same as trying vegan omakase, but if you want to eat sushi without the navigation overhead, inari from a depachika (department store basement food hall) is a legitimate answer.
Vegan Gyoza in Tokyo: A Rapidly Growing Category
Vegan gyoza is trending faster than almost any other subcategory in the Tokyo plant-based scene — search volume is up 133% year-on-year, and the restaurant scene reflects it.
What's in Traditional Gyoza?
Standard gyoza is filled with pork mince, cabbage, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil, wrapped in a wheat dough. The wrapper is already vegan. The filling is the issue. Vegan versions typically replace pork with mushroom, tofu, soy meat, or a combination — sometimes with the addition of chives, carrot, or other vegetables.
The cooking fat matters too: traditional gyoza is fried in lard at some restaurants, vegetable oil at others. Worth asking if this is a concern.
Best Vegan Gyoza in Tokyo
T's Tantan offers some of the most consistently reviewed vegan gyoza in the city — available at Tokyo Station and the other branches. Three pieces as a side to ramen is the standard order. The skin-to-filling ratio is good and they hold their shape properly.
Vegan Bistro Jangara — Their gyoza are plump, well-seasoned, and the pickled vegetable accompaniments work well with the richness of the filling.
Vegan Gyoza Yu — A specialist vegan gyoza restaurant that's developed a following among the vegan-specific food community in Tokyo. Focused on the gyoza format specifically, which means more variety in fillings and dipping sauces than you'd get at a general vegan restaurant.
For the broader Japanese food context: gyoza in Tokyo is usually eaten as a side dish with ramen or rice, not as a standalone meal. The pairing with a bowl of miso ramen and a side of gyoza is the standard format at most ramen shops.
Shojin Ryori: The Vegan Cuisine That Predates the Word
Shojin Ryori is the oldest vegan dining tradition in Japan. It's the food of Buddhist monks, developed over centuries in temple kitchens, and it has nothing to do with the modern plant-based movement. It predates it by about a thousand years.
What Is Shojin Ryori?
Shojin Ryori is a Buddhist temple cuisine that excludes all meat, fish, and animal products — and also garlic, onions, and chives, which are considered too stimulating for meditative practice. What it uses instead: tofu in multiple forms, mountain vegetables, seasonal vegetables, sesame, miso, soy sauce, pickles, rice, and mushrooms. The cooking techniques are precise and the flavour depth comes from patience rather than umami shortcuts.
The result is genuinely good food — not "impressive for vegan food" or "surprisingly tasty given the restrictions," just food that happens to be entirely plant-based. The distinction matters for the experience: eating Shojin Ryori doesn't feel like a compromise. It feels like a different kind of cooking entirely.
Is Shojin Ryori always vegan? Most Shojin Ryori is vegan by default since it was designed for Buddhist monks who avoided all animal products. However, a small number of modern interpretations introduce eggs or dairy for texture. Ask when booking. Traditional temple restaurants will be fully plant-based; newer interpretations may vary.
Where to Eat Shojin Ryori in Tokyo
Daigo — In Minato City, near Shiba Park and the Tokyo Tower area. This is the most formal Shojin Ryori restaurant in Tokyo, and it's the right answer if you want to understand what this cuisine can be at its ceiling. It's expensive (typically 10,000–20,000+ JPY per person for a full kaiseki-style progression), requires a reservation, and is worth it for one meal on a longer trip. Daigo held a Michelin star for years; its approach to temple food is precise and seasonal.
Sougo — A less formal option also in the Minato area, with set lunch courses at more accessible price points. Good for a first encounter with Shojin Ryori without the full kaiseki commitment.
Bon — In Taito-ku/Asakusa area, this is one of Tokyo's older established Shojin Ryori restaurants and runs set course meals in a traditional setting. Booking required.
Temple visits — Several Tokyo temples serve Shojin Ryori in their precincts or associated restaurants, particularly in Asakusa and around Ikegami. The quality varies; the experience of eating in a temple setting is its own thing regardless.
For context on what to expect: a Shojin Ryori meal is usually multi-course and unhurried. It's not a quick lunch. The serving style is typically individual trays with multiple small dishes of tofu, rice, pickles, and vegetables — visually precise and flavour-layered in a way that feels nothing like a restaurant checklist.
Vegan at the Izakaya: How to Order Without Accidentally Eating Fish
The izakaya problem is real and it catches vegan travelers who haven't prepared for it. This section is worth reading before you go.
What Is an Izakaya?
An izakaya is a Japanese pub-restaurant format — informal, meant for eating alongside drinking, with a menu that covers small plates across multiple categories. Think of it as somewhere between a tapas bar and a gastropub. The food is designed to accompany alcohol, which means it skews salty, fatty, and flavourful. Many izakayas are not set up for vegans and don't particularly advertise it.
The problem isn't malice. It's that dashi — a stock made from dried fish (katsuobushi) and kelp (konbu) — is a standard flavouring agent in Japanese cooking, including many dishes that look vegetarian. Miso soup, sauces, glazes, braised vegetables, and even some seasoned rice dishes can contain it. The kelp component of dashi is vegan; the katsuobushi is not.
Dishes That Are Often Vegan (or Can Be Made Vegan)
- Edamame — almost always simply salted and boiled. Vegan.
- Agedashi tofu — deep-fried tofu in broth. The tofu is vegan but the broth usually contains dashi. Ask them to serve it with just soy sauce instead.
- Yakitori (vegetable skewers) — most izakayas offer vegetable skewers alongside the chicken ones: mushroom, spring onion, pepper, shishito. Often grilled in the same oil as meat, so worth asking if cross-contamination matters.
- Zaru soba — cold buckwheat noodles served with a dipping sauce. The sauce typically contains dashi. Asking for noodles without the sauce and with straight soy sauce on the side is usually possible.
- Steamed rice (gohan) — plain. Almost always vegan.
- Pickles (tsukemono) — most are vegetable-based and vegan. Ask about the brine if you're uncertain.
- Natto — fermented soybeans, served on rice. A dividing food — people either love it or can't get past the texture — but entirely plant-based.
- Inari — if on the menu. See the sushi section above.
What to Watch Out For
- Miso soup — almost always contains dashi. The miso paste itself is vegan; the preparation is usually not.
- Gyoza at non-vegan restaurants — filled with pork. The vegan gyoza spots listed above are the answer here.
- Tamagoyaki (rolled omelette) — egg. Obvious, but it appears on many izakaya menus as a seemingly minor side.
- Tempura batter — sometimes contains egg.
- "Vegetable" dishes with meat stock — this is the category to probe. Braised or simmered vegetables in Japanese cuisine frequently use a meat or fish stock base even when no visible meat is present.
Useful Japanese Phrases for Ordering Vegan
The most important phrase is a clear statement of what you can't eat, not just what you are. "I'm vegan" doesn't translate cleanly because the concept isn't culturally embedded in the same way.
"Watashi wa niku, sakana, tamago, nyūseihin wo taberaremasen"
(I cannot eat meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products)
"Dashi ga haitte imasuka?"
(Does this contain dashi?)
"Katsuobushi nashi de tsukutte moraemasu ka?"
(Can you make it without bonito flakes?)
"Shojin ryori wa arimasu ka?"
(Do you have Shojin Ryori?)
Tokyo Convenience Stores: The Vegan Survival Guide
This section is useful not just as a backup for when restaurants are full or closed, but as a genuine part of the vegan food experience in Japan. Japanese convenience stores (combini) are a different category of shop from their Western counterparts — the food quality is higher, the range is wider, and they're open at 3am when you've just got off a 14-hour flight and your hotel's restaurant is closed.
The catch is that most convenience store food is not labelled for vegan consumption. Here's what to look for by store.
7-Eleven Japan
The largest convenience store chain in Japan by location count. Vegan-friendly picks:
- Onigiri — specifically the ones filled with pickled plum (umeboshi) or seaweed (kombu). Read the label: tuna, salmon, and egg fillings are obviously out, but some rice balls that look vegetable-based contain fish flavouring in the seasoning. The soy sauce-seasoned brown rice onigiri is usually safe.
- Steamed edamame packets — straightforward, usually just edamame and salt.
- Cold soba noodle packs — noodles only, with separate sauce sachets. The sauce typically contains dashi; avoid it and bring your own soy sauce sachet, or check if the packet lists a vegan seasoning option.
- Plain mochi and some rice cakes — check ingredients but many are vegan.
- Fruit cups — consistent and good quality.
- Soy milk (豆乳 / tōnyū) — available in multiple sizes and flavours. The Marusan and Kikkoman soy milk brands are the most commonly stocked. Original (plain) is most reliable as a vegan option; some flavoured versions contain honey.
Lawson
Baked goods — Lawson has seasonal plant-based items that change throughout the year. The store bakery section occasionally includes soy milk-based breads and vegetable-filled rolls that are vegan. Ingredients are listed on the label in Japanese; the word to look for that indicates egg is tamago (卵) and for milk products nyū (乳).
Rice balls — same principle as 7-Eleven. The seaweed and pickled vegetable options are the safe defaults.
Yakisoba noodle packs — the standard yakisoba is not vegan (contains pork extract in the sauce). Check specifically for vegan-labelled versions, which Lawson occasionally stocks as a seasonal item.
FamilyMart
Onigiri — The kombu (kelp) and umeboshi options are the standard vegan defaults. FamilyMart also sometimes carries a brown rice variant that's worth checking.
Tofu products — FamilyMart stocks a range of ready-to-eat tofu in small cups, typically flavoured with soy sauce and seasoned kelp. Usually vegan.
100% fresh-pressed juices — available at some larger FamilyMart stores with juice bars.
General Combini Strategy
Buy a bottle of soy sauce from a convenience store on day one — it costs almost nothing and solves the dressing problem for plain rice dishes, cold noodles, and tofu throughout your trip. Sesame oil sachets are also available and useful.
The depachika (department store basement food halls) are a step up from combini for ready-to-eat food. The basement floors of Isetan in Shinjuku, Mitsukoshi in Ginza, and Takashimaya in Shinjuku City all have prepared food sections where clearly-labelled vegan dishes are easier to identify, and where the quality is consistently higher than convenience store equivalents.
Vegan-Friendly Hotels in Tokyo
Most generic Tokyo hotel guides don't engage with the breakfast and dining question from a vegan perspective. Here's what to look for.
The Millennials Shibuya — Capsule-style design hotel in Shibuya with a morning smoothie bar that's entirely plant-based. Not a full breakfast by any standard, but the location puts you directly in the highest-density vegan dining district in Tokyo.
Hotel Gracery Shinjuku — Has a restaurant with a clear vegetarian and vegan breakfast option. In the heart of Shinjuku City, which means easy access to Ain Soph and the Shinjuku dining cluster.
Yama no Kami — A nature-focused guesthouse-style option popular with vegan travelers specifically for its kitchen access. Useful if you're staying long enough to do some self-catering alongside dining out.
Booking.com and the "dietary requirements" filter — When booking Tokyo accommodation, the "mentions vegan breakfast" filter on Booking.com is not reliable — too many hotels check the box without actually delivering on it. A more useful strategy is emailing the hotel directly before booking to ask specifically: "Can you accommodate a fully plant-based breakfast without dairy, eggs, or fish-derived stocks?" The answer will tell you whether they understand the question.
Self-catering from depachika — For stays of a week or longer, choosing accommodation with kitchen access and shopping at department store food halls in the evenings is the most reliable high-quality vegan food strategy in Tokyo. The breakfast problem essentially disappears.
Vegan Fine Dining in Tokyo
There's a tier of Tokyo dining above the ramen shops and café menus that most Tokyo vegan guides don't cover, because the intersection of "fine dining" and "vegan" in the city is small but genuinely interesting.
Daigo — Already listed under Shojin Ryori. Michelin-recognised, fully plant-based, expensive, worth it for one meal on a longer trip. The address is in Minato City near Shiba Park. Book at least two weeks ahead.
Pierre Gagnaire Tokyo — Not a vegan restaurant, but worth knowing: the French fine dining restaurant Pierre Gagnaire Tokyo, in the Intercontinental Tokyo Bay, will prepare a fully vegan tasting menu on request with advance notice. This requires contacting the restaurant directly before your reservation. French haute cuisine has more flexibility for plant-based adaptation than traditional Japanese formal dining in some respects — the sauce and foam work translates reasonably well to dairy-free preparation. It's an unusual choice for a vegan food tour of Tokyo but sits at a different point in the experience spectrum to ramen and temple food.
Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon — In the Château Restaurant Joël Robuchon in Yebisu Garden Place, Ebisu. Again, not a vegan restaurant, but operates with enough kitchen flexibility to accommodate advance-notice plant-based requests. The afternoon tea format works particularly well as a vegan adaptation since the sweets can be reformulated more easily than full tasting courses.
For vegan travelers specifically interested in fine dining, Four Seasons Est Tokyo and a handful of other modern Japanese restaurants working in the kaiseki format have introduced seasonal plant-based courses in recent years. The right question to ask when booking any higher-end Tokyo restaurant is not "do you have vegan options" but "can your kitchen prepare a fully plant-based course with advance notice of X days." Many will say yes.
Apps and Tools for Vegan Dining in Tokyo
HappyCow — Still the most comprehensive restaurant directory for vegan and vegetarian dining globally. The Tokyo listings are extensive and updated by the community. Filter by "vegan only" vs "vegan-friendly" to calibrate expectations. Opening hours listed on HappyCow are not always current — verify with the restaurant website or Google Maps before travelling.
Google Maps Saved Lists — Before your trip, build a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood saved list from HappyCow and the guides above. When you're standing in Harajuku hungry, having a pre-built list of nearby options sorted by proximity saves a lot of unnecessary friction. Label each pin with dietary notes (100% vegan, vegan options, ask about dashi, etc.).
VegeProject Japan App — Beyond the printed card, VegeProject Japan maintains a restaurant database and has worked with a number of Tokyo restaurants on vegan certification. More niche than HappyCow but more reliable on the Japan-specific nuances.
Yelp Japan and Tabelog — Tabelog is the dominant restaurant review platform in Japan. Reviews are in Japanese but Google Translate handles it well, and the photo content is useful for confirming what you're ordering. For vegan travel specifically, searching for 「ヴィーガン」(vegan) or 「植物性」(plant-based) in the Tabelog search function surfaces relevant results.
Google Translate Camera — Point your phone camera at a Japanese menu and it will attempt a real-time translation. The accuracy on food items is about 70–80%. Combined with your key ingredient words to avoid, it gets you through most menus.
Day Trips from Tokyo for Vegan Travellers
Tokyo's excellent train network puts several day trip destinations within easy reach, and some of them are substantially better for vegan dining than their reputation suggests.
Kamakura — 50 minutes from Tokyo Station on the Yokosuka line. Kamakura is a temple town, which means Shojin Ryori is more accessible here than in central Tokyo, and at lower price points. The restaurant Hachinoki near Kita-Kamakura station is one of the most established Shojin Ryori restaurants in the Kamakura area and takes lunch reservations. Wander the temple district first, eat at Hachinoki, take the Enoshima line along the coast back. A better day than many.
Nikko — 2 hours from Shinjuku. Another temple town, more remote feeling, with Shojin Ryori accommodation options that serve vegan meals as part of a stay. Less of a day trip, more of an overnight. The temple complexes here are more elaborate than Kamakura's and the mountain setting is different in character.
Hakone — 85 minutes from Shinjuku on the Romancecar. A mountain resort town built around hot springs (onsen). Vegan dining options here are thin compared to Tokyo — this is one of the destinations where the Japan-is-difficult-for-vegans warning has more truth to it. Pack food from Tokyo or rely on convenience store options. The draw is the landscape and onsen access, not the food.
Yokohama Chinatown — 30 minutes from Tokyo Station on the Tōkaidō line. Yokohama's Chinatown is the largest in Japan and has a substantial number of Chinese vegetarian restaurants that operate on Buddhist principles — fully plant-based, sometimes including wheat-gluten mock meats. A less conventional day trip from Tokyo, but for vegan travelers specifically, the density of genuinely plant-based Chinese Japanese food here is notably higher than in most Tokyo neighbourhoods.