I enjoy Japanese food except breakfast. To start the day with dried fish, raw egg, pickles, seaweed, soy sauce, miso soup and green tea I don't find appealing. Lunch and dinner are excellent meals, and preparation of Western dishes is surprisingly good. The only problem I have is when fish, lobster and chicken are served raw.
Raw fish isn't so bad, but it gets progressively worse with lobster and particularly chicken. In fact, the special preparation of trout is very good. This is done at a counter restaurant where you select the fish you want from the tank in front of you. Once chosen, the live and wiggling trout is filleted on one side. This you eat raw. The fish has died by this time, and what's left is served grilled en toto later in the meal.
Eating lobster is another interesting experience. It's first held up for inspection with pincers opening and closing, beady-eyed and dull green in color. A lobster turns red when cooked, but this one remained green. I ate it raw as the server pulled it apart bit by bit offering me selected delicacies.
I won't go into detail with raw chicken except to say it was dead before being cut up and served. It would have created too much confusion were it still alive. Concern of salmonella aside, it tasted terrible.
Different cultures have different tastes. In