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Finding late-night ramen?
Skip the combini ramen and go to a 7-Eleven for their egg sando and a can of Chu-Hi instead. The instant noodles are fine but nothing special, and you're in Tokyo with better options at every corner.
For actual noodle action at 3am, walk west from Shinjuku station toward Nishi-Shinjuku. There's a narrow alley behind the Tokyo Metropolitan Building with a shop called Fuunji that does tsukemen until 5am. Their dipping broth is thick and fishy, the noodles are chewy and cold, and you dip them in and slurp. It's about 900 yen and they have a ticket machine with English buttons now.
The real move is hitting the roti shop in Kabukicho that stays open until 6am. It's not ramen, it's Indian curry and naan, and after a night of drinking it hits harder than any bowl of noodles. The place is called Kamrup and it's in a basement near the Godzilla head. Their butter chicken curry is 800 yen and the naan comes out fresh every five minutes.
lawson's has a better instant ramen selection than 7-eleven tbh, they stock the maruchan akai kitsune udon which is a totally different thing from standard cup noodles and way more satisfying. the broth is soy sauce based with a slice of fried tofu on top, it's like 200 yen
but if u want something real at 3am near shinjuku, cut through the pachinko parlors by the east exit and find the alley behind the love hotels. there's a tiny standing soba place called nagi that does a shio ramen with dried sardines in the broth, it's open til dawn and usually full of cab drivers who know where the good food is at that hour
if you're set on combini ramen, family mart has a better selection than 7-eleven imo. their premium black tonkotsu is legit creamy and they sometimes stock the kikyou brand from hakata which is hard to find outside of fukuoka. just under 300 yen so not breaking the bank
but for a real midnight move in shinjuku, skip the instant stuff and walk towards okubo station area, it's like 10 min on foot. there's a spot called suzumuran that does hokkaido-style miso ramen til 4am and nobody talks about it online. the broth is thick and buttery, way better than anything you'd get from a plastic cup. they only take cash and the ticket machine is in japanese only so just point at the picture of the one with corn and butter on top
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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.