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Lost in Translation?
yodobashi dai 4 is up in Kunitachi, kinda far west, so the kids there are pretty used to the occasional foreign visitor but not exactly fluent. honestly the best window is kyushoku (school lunch), its like 40 min of semi-chaos where everyone wanders between desks and nobody cares if your grammar is a mess. bring a pack of those small erasers or Pokemon stickers from a conbini and you'll have a crowd in about 2 minutes.
one thing nobody tells you, the kids will prob want to practice English on you more than let you practice Japanese. lean into it, do the whole "you teach me, I teach you" game with simple words. also learn their names fast, write them in hiragana on your notepad, they lose their minds over that.
if ur there for more than a couple days try to get into the asagakko (morning club) or whatever after-school thing they run, thats where the barrier actually drops cuz its not a lesson, its just kids killing time & they get bored enough to talk to anyone. also theres a 100 yen shop near Kunitachi station, grab a pack of those little memo pads with cute covers, kids will literally trade u japanese words for one
one weird tip, learn the local dialect of kid slang not textbook stuff, like saying "maji" or "uso" gets a way bigger reaction than perfect grammar. they think its hilarious when a foreigner drops casual words
Bring a small omiyage from your home country for the staff room, not the kids. Something individually wrapped that travels well, cookies or magnets or whatever. The teachers at Yodobashi Dai 4 are the ones who decide whether you get pulled into random classroom moments or parked at a desk in the back, and a five minute chat with them over tea after the morning staff meeting (they usually gather around 8:15) does more than any amount of trying to charm the students directly.
Also, kids there mostly commute on foot within a few blocks, so the walk to the school gate in the morning is underrated. You'll see the same faces and parents every day, and by Wednesday someone's mom will start saying ohayou to you. That's your in.
One more thing, don't overprepare your Japanese. If you show up with textbook sentences they'll answer you like a textbook. Broken and curious gets you further.
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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.