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want to meet at fmd_good Market Deli
want to meet at fmd_good The Spot
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Shinjuku Banking Woes?
one thing nobody mentions, mizuho's app lets you pre-register the transfer details and get a reference number before you even walk in. do that the night before on the MyMizuho app, then the counter staff just pull it up instead of typing everything from scratch. saves a solid 20 mins and cuts down on typos in the SWIFT field, which is where most rejections come from. also if you dont have an inkan yet, a registered one is way smoother than a signature for anything over 500k yen, you can get one made same day at a shop in Kabukicho for like 3000 yen.
Shinjuku Chuo gets slammed on Monday mornings and the day after holidays, so aim for like Tuesday or Wednesday around 1:30pm when the lunch crowd thins out. Bring your zairyu card, inkan if you have one, and the exact SWIFT details of the receiving bank, they'll turn you away for small mismatches. Also the branch moved its foreign remittance counter to the 2nd floor a while back, don't queue at the ground floor teller like I did.
the form they make u fill out for transfers over a certain amount is the real time sink, not the queue. if ur sending more than like 1 million yen expect extra questions about purpose and source, so have ur mynumber card and maybe a payslip or contract ready or they'll ask u to come back. also worth checking if ur own bank has a partnership with mizuho, sometimes that skips a layer of paperwork. honestly for big international stuff i've had better luck at the yu-cho bank in the same area, less theatrics
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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.