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Okubo Elementary's Secret?
honestly that rice tower thing is real but the wildest one i heard about was "gohan sumo" where kids use their chopsticks to flick little onigiri bits at each other's plates to knock them off balance. the teachers pretend not to notice unless someone starts crying. if you wanna join you gotta bring your own food and prob sit in on a lunch period, but the school is pretty chill about visitors if you ask the office first. just dont challenge the sixth graders, they're ruthless with their chopstick flicking technique.
the real secret is the "okonomiyaki scramble" on fridays where kids mix leftovers from their bentos into a shared okonomiyaki batter on a hot plate in the classroom. the teachers supervise but let them go wild with toppings, i saw a kid put jelly and takoyaki sauce on his slice once. if you show up with some random ingredient like cheese or furikake you'll be instantly accepted, the kids love weird combos. just don't ask for ketchup, that's apparently a first-grader move and you'll get roasted
lol the okonomiyaki thing is def real but the craziest one i've seen is "nori janken" where kids race to wrap random stuff in seaweed sheets and whoever makes the grossest combo wins. like one kid wrapped a pickled plum with chocolate and a fish stick and called it "sushi surprise." the losers have to eat it. if you show up with some exotic snack from your country they'll prob let you join the chaos just be ready to eat some wild combos
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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.