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Parents looking to buy a 2BR around the Tokyo area. Totally impossible?
They sleep in separate rooms, so 2BR is the minimum setup. Mom loves museums, shopping, and city exploration, and on a recent trip (her 5th time in Tokyo) was a fan of the Akasaka and Omotesando areas. She likes the quiet, high-end vibes but probably can't afford to / doesn't want to blow all their retirement money buying there. As long as she is somewhere within the city center (let's define this as either Shinjuku, Ginza/Nihonbashi, or Roppongi), she would be pleased. Dad doesn't know Tokyo as well, but would be content as long as he could keep a wall-to-wall library at home and have a decent home office setup with a big screen monitor or two. Their budget is USD <$1m, ideally ±$150k within $600k.
fwiw, Mom's Japanese is elementary. She has studied tea ceremony and her main pasttime these days is calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. Dad's main pasttime is reading and these days, watching anime (again, how times have changed... he loves Demon Slayer and Dorohedoro). Most of his Japanese is hilariously gleaned from old samurai films, mostly him just yelling "WATAKUSHI HA TOKUGAWA!" when he wants to show off. Obvi they are both comfortable navigating in kanji. Mom is a little oblivious to her surroundings and dad is grumpy, but nothing about them would stand out as "obnoxious Chinese tourists."
They would plan to spend 3-6months of the year there. Renting might also be an option if buying is truly ridiculous.
Also, LMK if there's a better place to post something like this. Thanks for any help thinking of areas for my mom to investigate, and for any practical advice on how a pair of seniors might navigate something like this!
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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