Travel in Japan

I haven't personally travelled to Japan, but you need to know that you can not get benadryl or it's generic over the counter in Japan. Definitely bring your own, but not more than a
one month supply. Same with epi-pens, and you'll need a letter from your child's allergist explaining the need for both.

Check with the closest Japanese consulate in your area to specifics on that.

Elli,

In case you haven't already left...

Last March, we traveled to Japan with our 3 1/2 year old PA daughter.

Since there were so many posts describing great experiences on Singapore Airlines, we decided to go with them. We were not disappointed!

The only thing Singapore required was a note from DD's doctor describing her allergies (PA and TNA). Nothing containing peanuts or tree nuts was served; flight attendants came by before takeoff to let us know that they were aware of DD's allergies and to check if the snack they were serving was fine; and announcements were made requesting that passengers not consume anything with nuts or peanuts. When we thanked the flight crew, they replied that they were happy to do anything to keep our daughter safe.

Since we were in Tokyo for 14 days, we decided to stay at a serviced apartment (called a "mansion" in Japan) that had a full kitchen. There was a little grocery store within walking distance so we were able to eat most of our meals at home.

Contrary to what I had heard and read, there were several restaurants that fried with peanut oil or had curry containing peanuts. We found that the people working at all the restaurants seemed very knowledgeable about ingredients and we didn't have any problems asking whether or not things were safe.

The most difficult thing we encountered was trying to find a safe snack, as many of the packaged snacks had PN or TN warnings on them. Also, most Japanese snacks have extremely cute characters on them and DD drove us crazy asking us to check if they were safe. We were able to find some Disney Princess cookies and some crackers that she could have.

Speaking of Disney...we went to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. As you might expect, both parks were excellent concerning allergies. We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel, one of the Disney Resort hotels. They even had allergen lists for their breakfast buffet.

Hope you have a great trip!

Thanks for the great information (and inspiration) so far. Planning this trip is so complicated! I am exhausted already!
Seriously though, we have another problem - Travel Insurance. As I paid for my insurance the other day I discovered that under no circumstances do they cover food or drug allergy..... This is so unfair.
Does anyone know any companies who do?
Thanks
ellie