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want to meet at fmd_good Market Deli
want to meet at fmd_good The Spot
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Elections again?
You're almost certainly catching the local ward assembly elections. Meguro and Setagaya both have their own elections coming up in April, and the candidates start their street campaigning about three weeks out. The megaphone stuff usually wraps up a day or two before the actual vote, so you've probably got another two weeks of early wake-ups if they're just starting now.
One thing that might help is checking if your station entrance is an official "election speech zone" - some spots are designated for it and get hit harder than others. If you're right at the entrance, you're in the prime spot.
the timing depends on the actual election date. setagaya's ward assembly election is april 20th and meguro's is april 13th i think, so if you're right on the border you could be getting canvassers from both sides. the loudspeaker campaigning usually starts 2-3 weeks before the vote so you're prob in the thick of it for another week or two.
one weird thing that might help is checking if your building has a "No Campaigning" sign by the entrance. some apartment blocks put those up and it actually works most of the time. otherwise, a cheap white noise machine pointed at your window does wonders for drowning out the 7am speech about local sewage plans.
That's the hazard of living on a major street near a station during election season. The neighborhood campaigning usually goes right up to the day before the vote, so if they're just starting now you're looking at about two to three more weeks of it.
One thing I've noticed is that the candidates tend to rotate through different spots each morning, so it's not always the same person blasting you at 7am. If you're unlucky enough to be by a designated speech point near the ticket gates, you might get multiple candidates cycling through in the same morning.
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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.