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want to meet at fmd_good Forno Centrale
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Finding good onigiri?
the made-on time thing is real but the bigger tell is the nori. if the seaweed looks shiny or slightly wrinkled it's been wrapped a while, the fresh batch has a matte finish and you can hear the crack when you open it. at 3am everything's fresh anyway so you're fine.
for your breakfast plan though, dont sleep on the rice ball vending machines. there's a few scattered around Shinjuku, one in the basement of the Lumine building near the south exit, and they stock stuff like grilled salmon and ikura that the konbini dont carry. cheaper too, like 150 yen each.
Konbini onigiri do rotate, but it's not a strict daily schedule. Family Mart and 7-Eleven both run limited-time flavors tied to seasons or promos, usually swapping in new items every couple of weeks, while the core lineup (salmon, tuna mayo, kombu, umeboshi) stays put year round. If you want the widest variety, hit a bigger store like the one on Yasukuni-dori near Shinjuku's east exit rather than a tiny one, they carry more SKUs. Also worth knowing: 3 am is actually a sweet spot, staff restock overnight so the case is often fullest right when you're there.
One thing worth knowing about Family Mart specifically is that their onigiri rice changed a few years back, they now use a different blend that holds up better cold, which matters if you're buying at 3 am and eating it slowly while you wake up. The nori is also wrapped separately in most of their premium line, so you peel the plastic and the sheet stays crisp instead of going limp on the rice. For your breakfast plan, the tuna mayo and the mentaiko ones are the safest bets across all stores, while the seasonal stuff like sakura rice in spring or chestnut in autumn is where you'll actually notice the rotation. There's a Family Mart on the west side of Shinjuku near the Oedo line entrance that tends to have a slightly better stock than the ones right at the station concourse.
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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.