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Where can I buy hone Senbai in person in Tokyo????
everyone's pointing u to the famous spots but the real move for hone senbei is the shotengai in koenji, specifically the north side of the station near the pure road entrance. there's a tiny shop run by an old couple that only does the hard bone shaped ones, salt and soy, like 90 yen each and they wrap them in paper not plastic. go before noon bc they close whenever they run out which is usually early afternoon
If you mean the thin soy-glazed type rather than arare, the basement of Tobu Department Store in Ikebukuro has a counter that does it by weight, which is handy if you just want a small bag to try. For proper old Tokyo stuff, head to Sugamo on the Toden Arakawa line, the shotengai there has a couple of family-run shops that have been grilling senbei for decades, and they'll sell you single pieces still warm. Expect to pay somewhere around 100 to 150 yen per piece depending on size.
Ningyocho and Kuramae already got covered so lemme throw out a diff angle. If you actually mean hone senbei (the hard bone-shaped ones, not just any rice cracker) the place to go is Sugamo's Jizo-dori, specifically the shops clustered near the Koganji temple end. There's one that's been there since the Taisho era selling nothing but the hard-baked type, like 80 yen a piece, and they don't do fancy flavors, just soy and salt. Go on a 4 or 14 day if you want the market vibe, otherwise weekday mornings are dead quiet and you'll get the shop ladies to yourself.
Also heads up, half the "senbei" shops in Tokyo sell soft arare and call it senbei, so if you want the tooth-breaking kind, ask for "katai senbei" or you'll walk out with the wrong thing.
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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.