Emma R. was diagnosed with celiac disease in September 2025. Her partner had already booked their long-planned Japan trip for March 2026 — a trip that Emma quietly assumed she would have to cancel. Then she found Gluten Free Getaways. This is her story, in her own words.
The diagnosis
“I had been sick for probably four years. Bloated after every meal, tired in a way that no amount of sleep fixed, and — this is the part I only realised later — quietly anxious about eating in restaurants without knowing why. The diagnosis, when it came, was almost a relief. There was a reason. And there was a solution.”
— Emma R.
Emma was diagnosed at 38, which is common — the average age of adult celiac diagnosis in Australia (where she lives) is 41. She started a gluten-free diet the same week, and within a month felt better than she had in years. But there was one problem: she and her partner had already booked and paid for a trip to Japan the following March.
Why I stopped travelling
“I spent about four weeks reading Reddit threads about celiac travel in Japan. What I took away was: don't do it. Every second post was someone getting glutened at a restaurant that had assured them they had a gluten-free option. Soy sauce in everything. Language barrier. Cross-contamination in ramen shops. I told my partner I couldn't go.”
— Emma R.
This is the pattern we hear most often from newly-diagnosed celiac travellers: intense online research produces a maximally-conservative conclusion, and travel gets shelved. It is not an irrational response. The information available online skews toward horror stories because horror stories get engagement; the boring, uneventful trips do not get written up.
Booking the tour
“My partner found Gluten Free Getaways one night and forwarded me the March 2026 tour link. I remember reading Josh's about page and thinking — 'oh, he actually has this'. That was the thing. It wasn't a travel company that had researched celiac disease. It was a celiac who happened to run a travel company. I booked a call with him the next day.”
— Emma R.
Emma's discovery call with Josh ran for 45 minutes. She asked every question that had been keeping her up at night: what happens if I get glutened in the middle of Tokyo, will there be someone with me at every meal, what if I can't eat the food that everyone else is eating and I feel isolated. Josh answered them one by one. Two days later she and her partner confirmed their places on the tour.
The first meal in Tokyo
“We arrived in Tokyo late afternoon and the first tour dinner was at 7pm at a restaurant Josh had booked six months ago. I remember our Japanese host — Kai — walking us in and speaking Japanese to the manager for maybe two minutes before we even sat down. Then she turned to me and said, 'They have your tamari on the table already. The chef knows about you. Enjoy your dinner.' That was the moment I stopped being scared. It was fifteen minutes into day one.”
— Emma R.
The highlights and the hard moments
Emma's tour ran for eleven days: Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima Island. She reports zero glutening incidents across the entire trip — every meal safely accommodated, every restaurant briefed in advance, and (on the two occasions where a menu could not accommodate her) a pre-arranged alternative brought to the table so she was never sitting there with an empty plate while others ate.
“The hard moments were about being sick, not about being celiac. Day four in Kyoto I had a migraine and skipped dinner. Day nine in Hiroshima I was overwhelmed by the Peace Museum and needed to be alone for an hour. Neither had anything to do with food. The food was — I want to say — a solved problem. Josh solved it. Kai solved it. I was free.”
— Emma R.
What I tell newly-diagnosed people now
“I say three things. One: it does get easier. Two: do not let the Reddit threads talk you out of the world. Three: if you can afford it, travel with someone who has already solved the problem for you. There is no medal for figuring it out alone. The point is to go.”
— Emma R.
Emma is booked on our October 2027 Italy tour with her partner. She has since introduced two other newly-diagnosed friends to the company. She occasionally sends us updated Tokyo restaurant recommendations from her own subsequent solo trips — which is the highest compliment a celiac travel operator can receive.
