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I don't think I'd want to be a professional baker. They have to get up in the wee hours of the morning to be in the bakery by 4 or 5, so that there will be fresh hot breads for the morning customers. I don't function so well at 4am. It's why I play mostly folk and Delta blues guitar instead of jazz...
Bakeries are getting quite popular here as the Japanese population's tastes evolve, but they just aren't making breads. To the Japanese, one either eats rice with a meal or bread, and as rice is the norm here, bread takes a poor second. In 15 years of telling my wife that in the West it's either 'rice or potatoes,' she will still ask me if I want rice or bread. When we travel in Europe she sees bread being served with every meal, even when rice is on the plate, but once back in Nippon, she reverts to the local thinking.
I'm afraid that it will be another 20 years before good breads get a foothold here. It's been tried many times in the past, but to date, only the trendy ex-pat areas of Tokyo have better breads, and one small bakery in the European section of Kobe. Both too far to travel for a loaf of bread on a Sunday morning. That said, I can get fresh bagels (well, almost bagels) delivered. It's a start!
Stitchawl
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