Well, there's dozens of sushi restaurants around here, but it's generally difficult to find pretty much of anything else in terms of actual Japanese food. I usually go out of my way looking for the less common stuff, so I've managed to come across and try katsu curry (deep fried pork cutlet and Japanese curry on rice), tonkotsu ramen (has a super-fatty broth made from pork bones), chawanmushi (savory egg custard with various meats/seafoods/mushrooms suspended in it) and some rather mediocre takoyaki* (gooey balls of fried batter with octopus in the middle).
My sister just got back from a semester in Japan and liked a lot of the food, so she's been trying to recreate some at home. Already had some highly successful Okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancake full of whatever good stuff you want and slathered in tangy sauce and mayo) and some pretty good rice balls. Neither of which I've ever actually seen in a restaurant around here.
And yes, she was very impressed with the crazy-colored pickled everything that was common there. Hot-pink pickled cucumber, for example.
*I once was excited to find a low-end all-you-can-eat sushi place offering Takoyaki, so I got some for takeout. I got it home and discovered that for some reason, instead of covering it with Takoyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce)... they'd covered them in chocolate sauce. That... was an interesting culinary experience. Never went back there. :/