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Internet provider with good latency to Europe?
I am soon starting my life in Tokyo and I am thinking about what internet provider to go with. I have a hard time picking since my Japanese still has some ways to go so I can only see what the on… Hi,
I am soon starting my life in Tokyo and I am thinking about what internet provider to go with. I have a hard time picking since my Japanese still has some ways to go so I can only see what the ones with English support have to offer.
My hobby is gaming, so I care a lot about my ping. I know I won't have anything bellow 200, but that is still better than some 300 or above because the provider chose to go through the states instead of Asia or something.
Incidentally, a good VPN recommendation for Japan-Europe works too, since I will most probably end up getting one of those also, especially if the company dormitory will already have a contract with a provider and I won't have a say. (considering Nord VPN for now)
Forgot to mention, but since the main focus is gaming, I am mostly interested in Tokyo-Frankfurt(or at least Germany in general). For some reason all my games have the Europe server there.
I am not an expert at those things so sorry if I will sound dumb at times.
tl;dr: I just want low ping for my Europe accounts. Be it with a provider or with a VPN that reroutes the providers mistakes.
Thanks!
honestly the dorm thing is gonna be the biggest factor here, most share houses and company dorms in tokyo use flets hikari collabo which is basically the cheapest bulk deal and it routes everything through the US west coast. i lived in a leopalace for a year and my league ping to frankfurt was 280-300 no matter what i tried.
if you can get your own line, go with nuro. they have direct peering with equinix in frankfurt and you can get around 220-230ms which is about as good as it gets from tokyo. au hikari is second best but their routing can be weird depending on your ward, i had a friend in shibuya who got routed through london for some reason.
for vpn i'd skip nord tbh, mudfish is better for gaming but even better is exitlag. they have specific tokyo-frankfurt routing that actually cuts off like 15-20ms compared to regular vpns. costs like 5 bucks a month and you can try it free for 3 days. just make sure you set it to game mode only or your regular browsing will be slower.
if you're in a dorm and stuck with whoever they use, you can still improve things a bit. get a router that supports qos and set your gaming traffic as priority - it won't fix bad routing but it stops someone else streaming 4k from spiking your ping
for vpn i'd skip nord tbh. try wtfast or mudfish, they let you pick the exact cable path. tokyo to frankfurt on the apg cable usually sits around 180-190ms for me. mudfish is pay per traffic so costs basically nothing for gaming
also check if your building has fiber to the room or just vdsl. i lived in a place in nakano that advertised "fiber" but it was actually vdsl to a closet and the ping was awful. real fiber direct to your unit makes a bigger difference than the provider name on the contract
honestly for gaming to europe in tokyo you want Nuro Hikari if you can get it in your building. they use a direct fiber line and dont route through the US like some others do. ping to frankfurt is usually around 220-240 which is about as good as youre gonna get from here
for VPN skip Nord, its kinda meh for gaming. try WireGuard with a VPS in Frankfurt instead, you can set it up yourself for like 5 bucks a month and itll be way faster than any commercial VPN. just grab a Hetzner or Netcup server
if youre stuck in a dorm with pre-contracted internet you might be out of luck. some of those share connections with like 50 people and ping goes to shit. ask the dorm manager if they have fiber or if its just ADSL, ADSL in tokyo is genuinely painful
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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.