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want to meet at fmd_good Wildlife Reserve
want to meet at fmd_good Market Deli
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Lost in Hyakunichō?
learn the landmarks, not the street names. the big red post office on the main road, the old sento with the blue tiles, the bakery that always has a line at 11am. once you know those, you can always triangulate back. and if you're near the yanaka cemetery, you've gone too far east, just turn around
The trick is actually to use the train tracks as your guide. Hyakunichō sits right between Nippori and the JR lines, so if you can see or hear a train, you know roughly where you are. I always aim for the sound of the Yamanote line rumbling, then walk perpendicular to it until I hit a main road. The streets near the tracks also have those little blue signs pointing to the station exit numbers, which is way more reliable than trying to follow a GPS dot that keeps jumping around.
honestly the trick is to use the yanaka ginza shopping street as your anchor. if you find that main drag you can always backtrack to nippori station in like 10 minutes. the side streets off the main strip are the real charm but just keep one eye on the big signs pointing back to the station
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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.