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If at some normal grocery chain like Publix, Sweetbay, Kroger etc.
Scramble when at some place that has cool specialty items like Whole Foods or The Fresh Market. Also a little list and a little scramble at farmers markets.

Alton, Ina, Mario, and Jaime are the only four I really love. Although some of these new cooking channel chefs might get added to that list soon...

@PommeDG- Lol, I actually thought this was going to be a discussion on the mystical foods of some far away, little known geographical location call cereal isle... at least I figured it out before my computer loaded the page and I felt like a complete idiot.

Grill baby, Grill!

I think the words culinarian or gastronome are both good terms for any serious eater. Those terms are intelligent but lack the pretentiousness that the term "foodie" holds. I believe the both have a more specific applcation than "foodie",which now pretty much applies to anyone who has ever had Iron Chef on their TiVo.

If you ever need a personal SE ASL interpreter I'm open. Lol :)

A Po' Boy! Lovely piles of Fried Shrimp and vegetables and a few good dolloops of hot sauce. So tasty!

Wow, some good names on the list (not as many I know). Go Wylie, and Maria Hines!

I would absolutely and positively recommend Vij's and Tojo's in Vancouver. I ate at both and both were phenominal meals. I would personally give the edge to Vij's a little due to the extreme kindness of the staff.

Well the most important advice I can give is be adventurous and don’t go with too full of an itinerary. There a few ‘destination’ places you will want to eat at but other than that make sure to not plan too much because some of the best meals you will eat will at small traditional little places you had no idea you would find. It is these kinds of places that made my eating experience in Japan truly special.

Anyway, as for specific places I can best offer up Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo as a must-see and must-eat destination. The place is so amazingly massive (it should be as it supplies 90% of fish for Tokyo, so remarkable since Tokyo is the world’s largest city and the Japanese eat more fish than anyone else) and there are several places around the market to get great fresh sushi fresh off the morning boats. After touring the market you really should eat a good sushi breakfast (oh did I forget to mention you will have to go to the market really early to see it at its peak, like 6am or 7am or something and earlier if you want to see the auctions), these sushi places (I looked online and a place called Daiwa seems to be the most popular and I think that was the one I ate at) are not cheap but are certainly an amazing option for your first true ‘Omakase’ experience in Japan.

Other than that I didn’t have any fancy meals while I was there. In Tokyo I remember the Ginza district as being the upscale, fancy, posh, see-and-be-seen kind of area so you if that’s what you’re looking for then there’s an option.

I second Cassendra's advice to find a real good temepura place, it just might blow you away. A nod to trying to seek out good Yakitori place as well.

Your going in April so enjoy the Cherry Blossoms, I’ve never seen them in Japan but I will one of these years.

How would Unicorn meat on a Pizza taste?

@sailordave- The God of Cookery is really amazing! I found out about it a while ago on Alton Brown's website where he talked about it.