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Do you agree more big cities should be built like Tokyo??
I know Asia has small apartments compared to the big houses in the West, but your apartment size doesn't really matter (as long as it's not micro small) when the outside is a city that has every food every type of restaurant everything that you ever need or want to buy within a maximum 1 hour journey by car, and usually you only need at most 40 minutes to go anywhere that you need to go.
I just feel strange there isn't a single city in America or Europe that is built like Tokyo or those Asian cities I mentioned, I don't know that they have any city that is compact, walkable, and full of tall buildings.
You're right that no Western city fully replicates Tokyo's model, but Paris is actually closer than most people realize. The 15-minute city concept they've been pushing since 2020 is basically trying to engineer what Tokyo does naturally, with mixed-use zoning and local services within walking distance. The difference is Paris has to retrofit a 19th century city whereas Tokyo was rebuilt from scratch after the war.
What gets overlooked is that Tokyo's density isn't just about skyscrapers. Most of the city is actually low-rise, with those narrow streets in places like Shimokitazawa or Yanaka where buildings are three or four stories max. The key is they eliminated single-family zoning decades ago, so you get those mixed neighborhoods where a ramen shop sits under an apartment building next to a hardware store. That's the zoning change, not the height.
Hong Kong is honestly a different beast entirely. The density there is so extreme that Tokyo actually feels spacious by comparison. I'd take Tokyo's model over Hong Kong's any day, the 23 square meter apartments in Kowloon are genuinely unhealthy. Tokyo manages to be dense without making you feel like you're living in a filing cabinet.
man honestly the thing people miss about Tokyo is how the little neighborhood shopping streets work. like you got your shotengai, these covered shopping arcades that run for blocks with a grocery store, a pharmacy, a dentist, a ramen shop, a hardware store, all within a 5 minute walk. america has strip malls but those are designed for cars. here the whole street is for walking and the roof keeps you dry. that's the kinda infrastructure you just dont see in the west
yeah this gets posted every damn week. tokyo works because japan actually planned for density with strict zoning and insane rail investment, not just because they built tall. you cant copy the skyscrapers and ignore the 30 different train lines running on time. london and par
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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