Hi, I live in Japan, and after updating to Safari 5.0.1, the browser's search bar defaults to Japanese Google. I can't seem to find a preference for editing where the search defaults to other than a choice between Google, Yahoo, and Bing. I'd like it to point to the US version of Google. My Japanese ain't that great.
Go to http://www.google.com/ncr. This will install a "no country redirect" cookie that avoids country specific search results. If you ever want to reset your browser to enable this feature, just delete your Google cookies.