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Nishishinjuku's Hidden Mail
yeah they still do the vintage stamp thing but it's not really advertised, you just have to ask at the counter nicely. the older lady who works there on weekday afternoons is super into it and will pull out all sorts of stuff if you mention your grandpa was a collector. for coffee theres a place called bear pond espresso a few minutes walk south, they roast their own beans and its way better than the chain stuff.
The weekend staff are usually younger and less likely to know about the collection, so aim for a Thursday or Friday around 11am. That's when the supervisor who's been there since the 90s is typically working, and she's the one who keeps the albums in her desk drawer. If you walk toward the Shinjuku i-Land Tower, there's a quiet basement cafe called Cafe de la Paix that does a decent French press and has a lot of natural light, nice for looking through anything you might pick up.
weekday mornings are definitely the move, the older staff tend to be more willing to chat before the midday rush. the display case near the counter is pretty small but if you ask about specific countries or eras they sometimes have a whole storage room of stuff they don't put out. coffee wise, if you walk toward the tokyo opera city tower there's a tiny spot called cafe sabou that does a killer matcha latte and has a quiet second floor where you can flip through any stamps they let you borrow
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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.