Japanese bakeries

As I mentioned in a previous post, Japanese bakeries could go head-to-head, or perhaps I should say bread-to-bread, with French bakeries and be a strong contender in the battle. For a country that consumes exorbitant quantities of rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and regularly all three within the same 24-hour period), Japan (or at least the city in which I live) has a remarkable number of high-quality bakeries. And fortunately for me, there's a Dutch-named one right down the street next to the laundromat. I'd stopped in a couple previous occasions to buy something to snack on while drying my clothes; but doing so was as much for the ¥100 coins I hoped to get as change for the dryers as it was for the food itself. But when last Saturday K.H., a new friend from church who had stayed over the night before after our late return from The Hard Rock Cafe, and I ate at the bakery before going to the station for her to catch a train home, I discovered my new Saturday morning tradition - a leisurely breakfast/brunch with people-watching followed by Bible study.

In these two visits, I noticed that most people who frequent the bakery don't eat in, despite this being the rare bakery with a dining area. Judging by the amount of pastry and bread purchases they make, they must leave because they're a) taking things home to the family, b) making purchases to last them the weekend, or c) too embarrassed to let others see how much they're planning to eat. ;~) So today when I went for the second visit of my newly-found ritual, I was able to choose the best seat in the dining room with full view of the door and the shop while I enjoyed my cheese, ham, and onion tarts, berry cheesecake, and iced coffee. (I took a photo with my phone camera to show you what I was able to enjoy; but I can't get it off my phone without paying a high fee. So as soon as I get a USB cable to transfer the photo to my computer, I'll update this post with that photo as well as one of the shop itself. Or I'll just have to make another visit and take my real camera instead!)

My dad and his wife have a similar tradition - eating breakfast at the same restaurant each day for the past several years - and have been able to establish good relationships with the staff at the restaurant. And I found myself wishing that I possessed the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues so that I could not only tell them how delicious their food is but also so that I could get to know them. But since speaking in tongues is likely not a present-day spiritual gift and there's no urgent need for me to suddenly know another language like was present on the day of Pentecost, I guess I'll have to learn Japanese the hard way. And as Japanese is proving harder to learn than any other language I've studied, it's going to be some time before I'm able to say anything other than おいしい (oishii - yummy) to the staff.

Until next time...

UPDATE (7/10/10): As promised, a picture of the breakfast of champions, although this picture doesn't do justice to the meal's yummy goodness.

Below is a picture of the bakery itself. Although I don't know this to be true, I think that the bakery owner(s) may live above the store, since the upstairs level looks to be residential. I don't know if the woman who was at the register when I paid for my meal was the owner or just an employee. But she graciously told me that my Japanese was very good. If only that were true. I really wanted to talk with her, not that she had the time. The bakery was super busy today, which I hope means that they'll be around for quite a while!