I find eating to be one of the major hassles when travelling, when it's time I just wander about where I am until I find somewhere that looks good. Usually in a food court type setting.

I would also suggest to folks about to travel to Japan for the first time, visit a Japanese restaurant at home a few times to get the basics down. In a pinch, you can always order tonkatsu or tempura if you know what they are beforehand. And yes, it seems that almost every burg in America now has a Japanese restaurant (Indian too). In fact, I saw an article recently that indicated a lot of Chinese restaurants are changing over to Japanese or adding it to their menus because the profit margins are higher.