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want to meet at fmd_good Market Deli
want to meet at fmd_good The Spot
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Are we not welcome ?
nah that noodle thing is weird, never heard of a place doing that. i've lived in tokyo for 3 years and eaten at hundreds of ramen shops with chopsticks, nobody cares how u hold em as long as you're not flicking soup everywhere. maybe you stumbled into one of those old school places in asakusa that's stuck in the 80s and hates foreigners on principle, they exist but they're rare
the passive aggression thing is real though. japanese social rules are more about what you don't do than what you do. like talking on the train is fine in london but here people will side-eye you hard. walking while eating is another one, you'll get stares in shibuya for chomping a convenience store onigiri on the street. it's not hostility, it's just a different baseline for what's normal
fwiw i think the vibe is more "we don't know how to deal with you" than "we don't want you here". tokyo gets millions of tourists but the service industry isn't trained for it the way paris or london is. next time hit up a smaller izakaya in shimokitazawa or koenji where the owner's chatty and drunk, way more welcoming than the fancy places in ginza
honestly that noodle thing sounds more like a specific shitty restaurant than a tokyo-wide thing. i've been here 8 years and never seen staff do that, usually they just ignore you unless you're being loud or messy. maybe it was one of those tourist trap places in tsukiji that's annoyed at the crowds
the passive aggression thing i get though. it's not that you're unwelcome, it's more that japanese social rules are super specific and nobody will tell you when you're breaking them, they just give you the silent stare. like eating while walking is a big one, you'll get looks in harajuku for munching a crepe on the move even though everyone does it. or standing on the wrong side of the escalator in shibuya will get you sighs
i think the real disconnect is that in the uk you learn by being told off, but here they expect you to just know. try a place like golden gai in shinjuku next time, the bars are tiny and the owners are usually old and drunk and will chat with anyone. way less stiff than the department store restaurants in ginza where they're all about formality
you probably did something you didn't realize tbh. eating noodles with chopsticks is normal, but maybe you were slurping too loud or holding them wrong. staff telling u to use a fork is weird though, that sounds like a one-off rude place. tokyo can be cold to outsiders
Where can I find crispy, pan-fried bacon similar to a certain international style?
if u have a costco membership the kirkland thick cut is the move, 4 packs of 500g for around 2500 yen and it crisps up proper in a cold pan. for smaller runs, precce in azabudai hills & the basement at isetan shinjuku both carry imported US & danish brands in the chilled case, just read the label for "thick cut" or "smoked" and not "loin". also worth knowing japanese bacon is often wet-cured so pat it dry before frying or it steams instead of crisping
kaldi coffee farm is hit or miss but their smoked bacon from denmark shows up pretty regular, the 200g pack runs about 600 yen. what actually works better for me is asking the butcher counter at peacock or life to slice the block bacon thick, like 5mm, they do it for free and it crisps way better than the pre-packed stuff. also fwiw cheap bacon crisps faster, the fatty supermarket kind at 300 yen a pack works fine if u cook it from cold in a dry pan and pour off the fat as it renders.
tbh the gyomu super store brand bacon is surprisingly decent for crisping up, its not thick cut but if you cook it low and slow it gets pretty crunchy. the key is the dry cure vs wet cure thing, wet cure steams. also check hanamasa if you have one nearby, they sell big packs of american style bacon thats actually smoked and firm.
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