Sorry I've been busy, havnt had a chance to respond.
In general I find it much easier to access fresh, healthy food here (711 has fresh sandwiches and onigiri every day, as do all convenience stores).
I find the culture is more to healthy food, we will go out and more often than not eat thinks like claybpot or shabushabu (both have lots of vegetables, and very few additives or flavour enhancers).
Soft drink isn't as popular, ill more often see someone drinking brown or green tea fr a vending machine, than a coke or other sugary drink.
As for specific foods. . . I wouldn't know where to start, aside from a certain fermented bean(sorry the name escapes me at the moment), I'm in love with everything food wise here.
The summer festivals have some amazing noodles, chicken skewers and more.
I find as an ex chef the flavours are a lot more subtle(when it comes to overpowering the natural flavour of the ingredient), so the focus there is a nice surprise for me.
As a pizza wannabe-snob, I thought their Neapolitan pizza was outstanding (ingredients, dough, charring) pretty much everywhere I went. (Similar to fancy pizza in the US).
Also their croissants were fabulous (almost on par to the ones I got in Paris) and compared to the mostly crap (unless you go to a passionate bakery) you get in the US.
