Japanese food

The best way to experience Japanese food is to be introduced to it by a local I think. I didn't have this luxury and so have spent my time feeling, or should I say feeding, my way through the options. I have eaten dishes over the past 10 days that I have had little or no idea what they were even after they arrived and I had tasted it. I did try sushi and some of it tasted pretty good. Maybe it was my cold, but the textures to other bits produced a gag reflex in me.....not the best reaction when you are trying to blend in! And a lot of soy sauce was needed on other bits. It wasn't horrendous but I would just prefer to eat something else I concluded. The Japanese eat eel at this time of the year as there is something in it that combats the heat. But I can't look at the things when they are alive never mind raw and dead so I had to put up with the heat instead! It came to my notice that getting hold of any fresh fruit was a major challenge - why I never got to the bottom of. I resorted to drinking cartons of orange and grapefruit juice. When I did find fresh fruit, I ended up paying over two pounds for one, albeit humungous, apple - I kid you not! I was so desperate at that point I didn't care!
Another curiousity is the trend to show cooked dishes in the windows of their restaurants - probably plastic imitations but as they had a glaze over them, it gave the appearance that the dishes had congealed - very unappetising to look at!
So food wise, Japan hasn't made a great impression on me and there hasn't been one thing I have eaten that has made me go "Wow" I'm afraid. But then again, I probably wasn't in the right places with the right people!