There is a storm brewing on this side of the Pacific: a storm in my mind that is.
Having recently moved back to the U.S. after living in Japan the past six years, I have encountered many episodes of confusion, dismay, and bewilderment, and at times, excitement, elation, and joy. The mixed bag of emotion comes from the fact that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing the best of both worlds, and the worst. For example, in Japan I would run into a convenience store more frequently than I would a McDonald’s in the States. (Anthony Bourdain did a segment on his show “No Reservations” back in 2013 on the awesomeness of Japanese convenience stores). Another thing that I miss about Japan is the customer service. Upon entering any establishment you are always greeted by the ubiquitous “irashaimase,” or welcome in English. On this side of the Pacific, I enjoy more freedom – the sense of freedom that comes from having more space and room – bigger homes, cars, wider streets. I feel less constricted, bound, or confined as I did in Japan.
And as a native level speaker of both languages, on occasion, I don’t know which side of the Pacific I’m on! I converse to my wife in Japanese, and speak to my kids in English. To add to this dilemma, the two cultures can be incompatible. Individuality is more emphasized here where as group harmony is more important in Japan. I personally value both. Why can’t we have both? Being introspective about this, I started to have fun. Being bewildered about both cultures is actually exciting. Sometimes it’s over trivial things like “why don’t we have more ramen shops in the U.S.?” Other times, I am conflicted over self-expression vs. group harmony.
I will use this blog as a vehicle to explore the angst and bewilderment, elation and excitement, that I feel about things on both sides of the Pacific.
To kick things off, I will start with the trivial. I want to talk about bakeries. Bakeries are omnipresent in Japan, but not so much in the U.S. Not to say that there aren’t any bakeries here, just not as many. I got a glimpse into why when I visited the Boudin Bakery & Café in San Francisco and took a tour of their museum last June. Just going off of memory here so please bear with me! – But I distinctly remember from the tour that Americans got their bread fresh every morning from the neighborhood bakery before the advent of industrialization of food processing. As standard of living rose and with it came the demand for variety, processed foods became more prevalent. At least that’s the cursory explanation of things in America.
Oh, by the way, bread in Japanese is “pan” but pronounced more like “pun,” which comes from the Portuguese word for bread, “pao.” When Japan opened its doors to the West in the mid-1800s, many Western concept and words were adopted into its language, but it’s a topic for another week.
I have yet to study why there are so many bakeries in Japan but just know that there are. And the variety and selection of bakery items are just mouthwatering. You do find donuts, brioche, chocolate swirl bread, and other breads that you would find in any bakery here. But add to that custard filled bread (called cream pan in Japan), sweet bean paste bread, milk bread, and melon bread (not made of melon or taste like one but just called that because of similar appearance to melon) to name a few. If you’ve been to Japan, you know that a trip to the local bakery is a must on the itinerary.
I am bewildered as to why we don’t have more bakeries here. But I am not discouraged; the spirit of neighborhood bakery is still alive in America. I would argue that Panera is one, and you do come across a mom and pop bakery from time to time. You can always take a trip to San Francisco to the Boudin Bakery & Café for fresh baked sourdough bread and learn more about the history of bread making in America.
If you want a taste of offerings at a Japanese bakery, typically there is one in every alpha city (New York, Chicago, Atlanta…ect). You can always consult Google for location near you. For me, I bought my wife a bread maker for Christmas. Now I can enjoy additive free, fresh bread anytime I want. She makes a killer raisin bread as well as banana nut bread.
Stay tuned next week for what I’ll be bewildered about on this side of the Pacific as I explore the other side.
Bewildered! On This Side of the Pacific 
Very Interesting read. Look forward to the next one and more. As far as bakery goes, I have my own theory to explain why there aren’t as many bakeries in the States as in Japan. Some may disagree, I recon, but simply put, Americans are very pragmatic. They pursue convenience in such a way that they are allowing themselves to compromise their taste buds and healthy choices. As you mentioned, processed foods, including canned and frozen foods, became more prevalent – as they are convenient, long lasting, and relatively economical. The Americans are not willing to buy fresh bread or greens that are needed to be consumed and replenished within a day or two, nor do they go to the grocery stores frequently. I would say once a week is most common in the States, whereas many of the Japanese (and Germans) do the grocery run almost every day. That’s why off-the-shelf sugar and preservative loaded plain pastries are more sought after than freshly baked “pan” or fine confectionery.
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As Anthony Bourdain or any great chef or baker will tell you, the art of food all boils down to attention to detail. Americans are good at many things, but attention to detail is not necessarily one of our strong points. We tend to always be in a rush and this is reflected in how we select ingredients for and prepare our food.
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Very interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t think this rich culture of bakery like the one in Japan will ever make it to the US. The biggest reason being simply that the county is just too large in size. In smaller counties like Japan and France, it makes a lot more sense to walk over to the nearest bakery to grab freshly baked pastry, where it would only take a few minutes at most. Out here in the US, especially in rural areas, people would need to drive their cars just to see the nearest neighbor. More densely populated cities with a large population of Japanese, who already have this culture of fresh bakery engraved in their souls, may have a little more success, sort of like Torrance.
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