Saturday, October 30, 2010


The other day in class, the J teacher and I were doing a lesson on expressing amounts for countable and noncountable items. For example we say "many apples" but not "many waters." "How many oranges" as opposed to "how much meat?"

At one point I added that we can say something like "many breads" but instead of many pieces or loaves of bread, it means many different kinds of bread. In my head I was thinking of white bread, rye bread, various types of bagels, baguettes, raisin bread, sourdough, etc. When the teacher explained it to the students, though, he used the examples of "curry pan, anpan, and melon pan." Bread with curry inside, bread with red bean paste inside, and melon-flavored bread. All sugary or fatty and all very pastry-like.

One thing I miss about living in America is that in Japan, there just aren't as many types of bread available, and (as I believe Orchid pointed out in a comment to an earlier post) most here are packed with calories and sugar. I guess because rice is the prevalent "grain" in these parts, bread has been rather sorely neglected.


  1. mm this made me get up and make some bread and butter :) lol

  2. It may change in the future (and hopefully it does!) I've been reading for awhile about how bread is now more popular than rice here.

    It's still tough to find anything except white bread (especially here in the boonies! (okazaki)), but at least all the bakeries have started serving rice bread. It's a start.

    Luckily I've convinced my wife of the superiority of rye bread, so she has started making a loaf a week. Lucky! (the rye flour is expensive tho....)

  3. Bread and butter is a good idea.

    Rice bread, you say, David? Don't know if I've tried that but sounds pretty good. And yeah, I'm a rye guy myself.

  4. Packed with calories, eh? That sounds like... food.

    Jokes aside, MOST bread (bland, fluffy, pre-sliced) in America is also sugar-laden (often in the form of HFCS) and quite unhealthy. Unless you go to a local or special bakery, American bread isn't all that great, either.

    Anyway, more of an excuse to make your own bread at home (oven permitting).

  5. Your point's well taken, Fluff. What I was (inartfully) trying to express, though, is that even though there is certainly plenty of unhealthy bread in America, it's also a lot easier to find healthy or not-as-unhealthy breads than it is in Japan. Most supermarkets have rows of white bread, and if you're lucky maybe you'll find a couple loaves of rye or grape bread.

    And yeah, I'd like to get a bread maker in the future.

  6. If most of the bread in Japan is white, I'm definitely going to have to do some baking if I go there. Life just wouldn't be right without the occasional loaf of multi-grain bread.

    I assume wheat flour, corn meal, and oats are available, at minimum, plus various rice products of course, and someone mentioned rye flour... it shouldn't be too hard to whip up a batch of something good.