Veggi in a meat eating country

[hlover100]

Being were I am, people eat loads of meat. (Fish, octapus, cow, crab, etc) We do have vegetables here, but it seems we only really use daikon, broccoli, cabbage, and similar veggies. Thanks to my cavy, I have eaten more veggies and fruits. Over all it's a really rough transition. Because I'm trying to make the transition, people are always offering me basashi. People are honestly stupid. I could really use some transition and people dealing tips. Thanks in advance.
By the way, (I have read the tip forums here and from a couple other sources)

[Lydia]

I find that eating at Buddhist restaurants is a great way to find vegetarian food. Thankfully I live in an area with a very high Asian population (over 50% in some large cities) and so there can be some great options depending on how much research you do. Many Hindi and Buddhist restaurants cater to vegetarians... do you have some in your area where you could go to get some ideas? I'm being a bit presumptuous here, but my understanding is that there's a fairly large Buddhist population in Japan, so maybe this could be a good option for you!

[Terekins]

One thing that really helped me was to look through vegetarian/vegan cookbooks. My favourite is The Everyday Vegan (you can of course add/use dairy and or eggs if you want). It's a very friendly book, and for me it really made the transition fun. I became excited to try new things, and about eating healthier as well as more compassionately.

If you learn to cook and learn to prepare your own food to bring to work or school for lunch, you don't have to depend so much on trying to find a vegetarian friendly place to eat everyday.

Don't worry, it will get easier! Just remember that even though you probably feel alone sometimes because you don't eat meat, you are not--there are lots of people like you

It's funny, this probably sounds ignorant, but I thought people in asian countries ate more vegetables and less meat than we do in North America!