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want to meet at fmd_good Market Deli
want to meet at fmd_good The Spot
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Are you "Racist" in Tokyo ?
How is it perceived these days in Tokyo ?
that "same boat" feeling you described is still real but it's split along generational lines now. older japanese folks in their 60s+ tend to give everyone the same cautious treatment regardless of where you're from, while younger people in their 20s-30s are way more individual about it. i've had a 70 year old obachan in yanaka treat me and a korean friend exactly the same (distant but polite) while a group of uni students in shimo-kitazawa will actively try to chat you up if you look interesting
the weirdest thing is how some places overcompensate now. like there's this cafe in koenji that's so aggressively "welcome to everyone" they put up signs in like 8 languages and the owner speaks broken english at you even if you answer in japanese. it's almost patronizing in the opposite direction lol. i prefer the spots where they just treat you like a normal customer and don't make a big deal out of it either way
the quiet racism thing is real but honestly the most annoying part is how unpredictable it is. like i've had an old lady in asakusa literally grab my arm and pull me into her shop because she thought i looked lost, super warm and friendly. then the next day a convenience store clerk in akihabara pretended not to understand my japanese when i asked for a bag, even though i've got n2 certification.
the real shift i've noticed is in the service industry though, especially since covid. tons of places in ueno and asakusa now have multilingual menus and hiring foreign staff because they had to adapt when tourism dried up. there's this okonomiyaki place near sensoji that's run entirely by a vietnamese couple now and they're way friendlier than half the japanese-run spots. so the whole "gaijin treatment" thing is less about race and more about whether you look like you belong in that specific context.
i think the biggest shift is how normalised it's become to just call it out now. like ten years ago if a club tried to pull the "members only" thing on you everyone just accepted it, but now you'll see people posting on twitter about it and the place actually gets pressured to change. there's this izakaya in nishi-ogikubo that used to have a sign saying "japanese only" and someone put it on google maps, got like 200 reviews in a week calling them out, and the sign disappeared within a month
the weirdest part is how it's still totally legal though. like landlords can just say "no foreigners" and that's fine, nobody's gonna sue them. but the social pressure is real now, especially in the more central wards where businesses actually care about their online reputation. still a mixed bag but at least the conversation is happening instead of everyone just pretending it's normal
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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.