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Motomachi Union Mystery
umeboshi is just what japanese people eat with rice every day, not a gimmick. motomachi union is a bit upscale so they stock the fancy stuff too, the ones from Kishu and Hakusan are pricey but way better than the cheap plastic packs. if u wanna try one get the honey or the small hachimitsu type first, the straight salty ones will wreck u if ur not used to them
Motomachi Union's plum wall makes more sense once you notice it sits right by the rice and nori. That's the whole point. A single umeboshi on a bowl of plain rice is a full meal for a lot of people, so a store that size has to cover every taste: sweet, shiso-wrapped, rock hard, and the mushy ones your grandma would keep in a ceramic jar.
The sheer variety isn't marketing, it's regional. Wakayama grows most of the domestic nanko plums, so the good stuff usually comes from there, but you'll also see Kishu and a few Shinshu labels. If you want to understand the fuss, buy a cheap single pack of the honey ones near the register and eat it with hot rice, not on its own. The ume in the fancy wooden boxes is basically a gift item, skip those unless you're buying for someone's ochugen.
also worth knowing the plum wall changes with the season. around june you get the fresh green ume for making your own, bags of them with the recipe card taped on, and by late summer it's all the finished stuff. winter is when the aged, super salty ones show up because thats when people eat more rice and hot tea.
if u actually wanna make them, motomachi sells the shiso leaves and the ceramic weights too. ngl thats a whole project tho, takes weeks. easier to just buy a pack and figure out which region u like first.
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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.