[Nyororin]

If the rare occasion pops up where friends want to go to a sushi place (Which is pretty rare in reality, as the type of sushi place you`d go to with friends is often fairly expensive) just say "I don`t really like sushi."

It`s not impolite. Chances are, if the friends are Japanese, 9 times out of 10, they`re going to assume you don`t like / can`t eat sushi anyway. Believe me, you`ll be asked "Do you like sushi?" about 1500 times, so chances are they`ll already know by the time you are close enough to head out to eat together.

Sushi may be the current most famous Japanese food - but it`s not all that common in daily life... Unless you want it to be. No one is going to force you to eat something you don`t like.

ETA; Back on the actual topic... After having lived in Japan for 10 years, I can say there is only really one thing I miss. The price of things in the US. That is it. I would love to just have the ability to continue living here but somehow shop in the US. Or rather, at US prices.
Seriously, you guys in the US complain about gas prices? At $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon? HAHAHAHAHA I filled my car up today at about $6/gallon. And it`s still expected to go up more and more. *sigh*