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What's up with non-stop helicopters?
It's probably Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) choppers. They do regular patrols over major hubs like Shibuya and Harajuku, especially on weekends. Could be a VIP motorcade moving through or a drill, but more often it's just standard aerial surveillance for crowd monitoring. If it's really low and circling, sometimes it's the news helicopters from NTV or TBS covering a story, but MPD birds have a distinct darker paint job.
could be a police chase or some kind of incident near the meiji shrine or omotesando. that area gets a lot of tv crews for random stuff like a celebrity wedding or a protest. if it's really persistent, check the japanese news sites like nhk or tbs news online, they usually have a live feed or a quick article up. sometimes it's just a training exercise too, the mpd does those over the yoyogi park helipad
yeah those are prob MPD choppers, the dark gray ones with the red stripe. they do this pretty often on weekends when shibuya scramble crossing gets packed or there's a demo near yoyogi park. sometimes it's just a routine flyover to check traffic flow around meiji dori and omotesando.
if it's been hovering low and loud for that long, could be a news chopper from ntv or tbs chasing some celeb sighting near the cat street area. happens more than you'd think.
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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