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Were was pre Meiji-era Tokyo (Edo) located?
yeah nihombashi was basically ground zero for edo, dead center of the city. the whole five highways started there, so it was the busiest intersection in japan for centuries. the area between there and kyobashi was all wholesale warehouses and merchant mansions, tons of canals bringing goods straight from the sumida river. minato-ku was more of a southern gateway, not really downtown. if you go to hama-rikyu gardens you can still see the old tidal moat they used for boat access, that was the daimyo mansions district and the start of the tokaido road heading south. the real action was in shitamachi, like nihombashi, ningyocho, and asakusa, that whole low-lying east side near the river. chuo-ku covers a lot of that actually, ginza too was mostly samurai estates before the fire rebuilt it as a modern brick district
tbh you're on the right track. Edo's core was basically what's now Chuo-ku and parts of Chiyoda-ku, centered around Nihombashi and Kyobashi. Nihombashi was absolutely inside the city, it was the commercial heart, not the outskirts. The Sumida river was more of a transport artery and the east bank (Fukagawa, now Koto-ku) was mostly shitamachi working class and merchant districts.
Minato-ku was more of a mix. The area around Shiba and Shinagawa had temples and some daimyo estates, but it wasn't really downtown Edo. The real action was between the castle and the river, roughly from Otemachi down to Nihombashi and then east into what's now Nihonbashi and Kyobashi. The Yamanote side (like Akasaka, Aoyama) was mostly samurai mansions and temples, not commercial.
you can still see the old layout if you walk from Tokyo Station towards Nihombashi. The street grid there is basically Edo period. Also check out the Edo-Tokyo Museum if you havent, they have a big model showing exactly where everything was.
yeah nihombashi was basically the center of Edo, not the outskirts at all. the whole area around the castle, from nihombashi east toward the sumida river, was the heart of the merchant and artisan districts. chuo-ku covers a lot of that, especially the nihombashi and kyobashi neighborhoods.
minato-ku was more the southern edge of the city, where daimyo had their mansions, especially around shiba and azabu. it was kind of the upscale residential zone for the samurai elite, not the bustling downtown you'd picture as "Edo proper." if you go to the edo-tokyo museum in ryogoku, they have a massive scale model of the city around 1840 that makes it all super clear. the sumida river was the eastern boundary, with shitamachi (low city) on the west bank being the commercial core, and the east bank (honjo, fukagawa) was more working class and temple grounds.
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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.