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Hanazono Shrine's Secret?
Since nobody's touched on the actual mechanics, here's how it works in practice. You buy an omikuji for 100 to 200 yen from the little counter near the main hall, usually self-service with an honor box, and the paper comes folded. If it's good fortune you keep it in your wallet or purse, if it's bad you fold it and tie it to the designated branch or wire rack. The knotting itself is the point, it's called musubi and it symbolizes tying your fate to the kami rather than carrying the bad luck around.
Hanazono specifically has a reputation as a power spot for enmusubi, so a good chunk of what you saw is probably matchmaking wishes, which is why the trees near the main hall get so loaded up. The shrine is old, it dates back to the early Edo period, and it survived the wartime bombing and the postwar redevelopment that swallowed everything around it, so locals have a real attachment to it. If you go back, weekday mornings before the office crowd shows up are the calmest time to actually look at what people wrote.
hanazono also does a setsubun thing in february where they toss beans from the stage, and the crowd ties their bad luck fortunes to the branches right after, so the trees get extra loaded that day. also check the small stone fox statues near the back, people leave little offerings there separate from the paper stuff
One thing nobody's mentioned yet is that Hanazono runs a taisai every November, around the 17th to the 23rd, and it's one of the bigger autumn festivals in Shinjuku. During that week the whole approach from Shinjuku San-chome gets lined with stalls and the shrine grounds turn into a completely different place, so if you want to see the omikuji and ema tradition in full swing, that's the time. The shrine also sells a specific charm for enmusubi, matchmaking, which is why you'll see a lot of younger people there on weekends. Come back on a festival day and the strings on the branches make a lot more sense in context.
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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.