Afternoon Tea

Japan is not known for invention so much as it is known for innovation. Ramen comes from China, but cup ramen comes from Japan. Robotics developed in western science before Japan was a major contributor to the global economy, but today the country has more robots per capita than any other nation in the world. Tea Ceremony, Calligraphy, Martial Arts, Video Games, etc. The list could go on indefinitely it seems.

One of my biggest surprises in discovering Japanese innovations is the Japanese take on baked goods. The word for "bread" in Japanese is non-native ("pan"). It comes from Portuguese as Portugal was the first sustained European contact with the isolated island nation. This country has almost always had a rice-based agricultural system, so it would not seem likely that bakeries would be all too common here. Yet, they are.

Every day on my commute through the Fukui train station I pass Vie de France, a Japanese bakery wherein I frequently stopped for afternoon tea until I finally purchased a kettle for my own home tea-making purposes. When I was studying in Nagoya, I also frequently stopped by a train station bakery on my way home from school. What draws me to Japanese baking is, as already mentioned, innovation. Japanese bakers have taken the proud, long history of European bread making and, in a short period of time, adapted it to create own tradition. Green tea, poppy seed, pumpkin, sweet beans, black sesame and many other flavorings contribute to a style and taste that is uniquely Japanese.

They also produce many items on a seasonal basis. Pumpkin, for example, is very common in the autumn. At the moment they are featuring many sweet baked goods for Christmas (even though less than %1 of the population is Christian people still love to celebrate any holiday that includes cakes and presents).

some Christmas tree cakes at Vie de France