There are a number of places in the PNW that grow wasabi, at least one on Vancouver island, one in Oregon, and I think one in Washington. The price at my local asian grocery store seems to range from $99 to $199 per pound over the last 3-4 years. Totally nonscientific, I just pay attention when picking up other herbs. I'd guess about $129/lb is normal there. I still haven't convinced myself to make a meal to justify the expense, I don't cook enough Japanese food.

https://www.thewasabistore.com/the-farm-1

NC State University’s horticulture program also cultivates it in mountain stream beds.

Yes, even in Japan real wasabi is a treat at a nice sushi place. Most wasabi is gathered and cultivated by hand, and then freshly hand grated for your seating. You can buy the root at some Japanese stores and grate it yourself.

side remark wrt wild catch:

Take good care of parasites. The deep frying of stor bought fish is also a parasite treatment, so is cooking. Wild catch needs detailed knowledge for the specific species, if and how it needs inspection and if and how it can be eaten uncooked and unfrozen, ie completely raw.

Wild catch is not just in and by itself "good and healthy"

This article has some sound references at the end:

https://sushimodern.com/sushi/safe-sushi-grade-species/

Oh yes. I am well aware of the parasites.

Our next freezer will be of the requisite grade.

Local fishing charters here like to dice up fresh salmon or trout on the boat as sashimi. I reckon their customers stay thin, if you follow my meaning.

I don't think you need a special grade freezer. Just one that isn't self defrosting. It only has to be at -4F for a week or two.

Yeah, you can shorten that time with colder temperatures I have read.

Also, some fancy sushi chefs let the fish age a while at very low temps. See: Naomichi Yasuda

Freezing deep freezing! autocorrect fried my freezing, can't edit any more, thanks for reading my gibberish as intended

According to the FDA tuna is the only one that's not required to undergo parasite destruction. Even then is not "no risk" its "extremely small risk".

yeah but if you get real wasabi, to do it justice you're gonna need the traditional shark pelt mounted on an artisanal wooden board to grind it on. we aren't peasants.