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Where can I get those plastic recycle cartons?
I have a craft project that could really use a couple of these and was wondering where I could get a few.
yeah those plastic crates come from the building's waste contractor, not the ward office directly. most complexes have a contract with a cleanup company that supplies and maintains them, so you wont find them at city hall counters
if you're in shibuya or setagaya, try the recycling corner at the local ku yakusho. the one in setagaya ward office has a little exchange shelf where people drop off old bins and you can just take one for free. i grabbed a yellow 3-sai there last month for a planter project
otherwise hit up the hard-off in nakano or the recycle shops along yamate-dori. they sometimes have stacks of them in the back for like 300 yen. the blue ones are everywhere but the green or yellow ones are rarer, those are usually from specific apartment contracts
honestly just check the free section on jmty or tokyo sayonara groups, people are always trying to get rid of those bins when they move out. i've seen them listed for 0 yen a bunch of times, usually in shitamachi neighborhoods like shitaya or kuramae
if you're near a big recycling center like the one in shinjuku gyoen area they sometimes have a take-it-or-leave-it shelf near the entrance. the staff at the shinjuku eco center are pretty chill about letting people grab stuff for non-garbage use
fwiw the standard blue ones are like 1200 yen at daiso now if you're in a hurry but the bigger yellow ones are harder to find new. the ward offices in tokyo sometimes have a few spares from old distribution events but you gotta ask specificially for the 3-sai size if u want the craft-friendly one
Another option is to check with a local janitorial supply shop, the kind that stocks stuff for building maintenance companies. There's one near Okachimachi called Yamazen that sells the standard blue incinerator bins, around 1000 yen for the medium size.
You can also try the recycle shops near larger train stations, the ones that deal in home goods rather than electronics. The shop on the west side of Koenji station usually has a few stacked near the entrance, the yellow ones are more common there than the blue.
If you're in a hurry and just need one or two, the 100 yen stores sometimes carry a smaller collapsible version in the kitchen section. They're not the same heavy-duty plastic but might work for a craft project if you don't need the exact municipal kind.
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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.