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For those who have a car, how much do you pay a month for parking?
Is this normal in Tokyo? Am I missing… I've been looking into getting a car, but it seems parking spots in my area are about ¥40,000 / month. It means I'd pay more for parking than for the car itself!
Is this normal in Tokyo? Am I missing something? Any trick to make this more affordable?
The trick that actually moves the needle is getting a spot bundled with your apartment, usually listed as 駐車場込み or 敷地内駐車場. Building owners rent these well below market because they'd rather fill the unit than manage a separate parking contract, so a place in Setagaya that would cost ¥35,000 standalone might come with the apartment for ¥15,000. It narrows your housing search a lot though, and spots are first come first served, so you basically have to ask the agent upfront before viewing anything. The other thing people forget is that you only need the shako shomei for the address where the car is registered, so if you can genuinely keep it at a family home in the burbs and only drive weekends, that's a different calculation entirely.
tbh the real budget killer people sleep on is monthly parking contracts at coin lots. the pink and green ones (Times, Mitsui) do 月極 contracts and if you walk 6-8 min from a station the price drops hard. i pay 22k in Nerima for a spot behind a 7-11, same lot would be 38k right at the station exit.
also check 市営 or 都営 parking lots, ward-run ones are stupid cheap when they have vacancies, like 8k-12k. downside is waitlists and you gotta refresh the site constantly. took me 4 months to snag one.
¥40,000 is on the high end but not unusual for somewhere like Minato or Shibuya. The trick most people use is renting a spot outside the 23 wards along a train line, say a monthly spot near a station in Saitama or western Tokyo for ¥8,000 to ¥15,000, then keeping the car there and commuting to it. You do need a shako shomei (parking certificate) tied to an address within 2km of the spot, so people sometimes register the car at a relative's place out there. The other angle is kei cars, since some wards have slightly cheaper designated spots for them, though the savings are smaller than you'd hope.
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.
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