My mac thinks im japanese

What is Text Encoding set to in Safari/Camino/Firefox?

Could be lots of reasons for it, but to change it, go down to the bottom of the page and where it says "Choose Country" click the arrows to open the drop-down list box. Then click, "United States."

Then, just to make sure, go up to the upper right corner where it says "Account" and sign in. If you don't have an account, then you can create one using your .mac account or any email address. (But, this shouldn't matter)

The next time you open iTunes, it should be the same, unless you have your browser set to delete cookies everytime you close it.

When I go to the Itunes store or visit certain web
sites there are japanese (?) characters displayed
instead of english.

Since you are dubious about what you are actually seeing, best to send a screen shot. You could also just have a bad font. Send it to tom at bluesky dot org.

I know this one not related, but also check:

system preference > date & time > time zone

It also might be still set to Japan if you bought it from Japan area.

Good Luck

For the iTunes Music Store I would check which store you're actually looking at. Make sure you're not looking at the Japanese store.

As for Safari, go to Preferences > Appearance and check your default encoding. It should be Western (ISO Latin 1).