Everything Counts in Large Amounts

Today we had our second downpour since I arrived here in Kyoto, making me a very happy Oregonian. It started right as I was leaving work, and naturally I had not brought my new umbrella to school with me. Unlike the rain in the Pacific Northwest, however, the raindrops were large and warm. Oregon rain generally manages to be cold with a bit of a sting; this rain simply soaked me to the skin like a second sweat. Still, I enjoy watching it come down and things have cooled down a bit here (however slightly) as a result. ^^

On a completely different vein I am finding that now I'm actually -in- Japan I'm having more dreams about coming here than I ever did in Oregon. For the third night in a row I've woke up in a sort of haze not remembering if I'm in the United States, Japan, or some intermediary space in between (perhaps the island of plastic flotsam in the Pacific). It's a bit surreal to be sure.

Similarly surreal is my experience with the Japanese Patisserie. I had believed that I would be eating mostly rice and vegetables while I was here, figuring that bread and other baked goods had never really caught on in Japan. Two days ago I had a revelation in lieu of forgetting to pack a lunch- my supervisor had mentioned that her favorite bakery was right across the street from the school. I reasoned that I could go buy a couple of dinner rolls to hold me over until...well, dinner. So my coworker Libby and I wandered over to investigate around lunchtime.

Now briefly I want you to think of the nearest bakery to you in the United States. It might be a grocery store bakery that makes cookies and baguettes, or it might be a healthy whole-grain loaf sort of place (i.e. Safeway and Great Harvest Bread Co. for those of you in Oregon). Anyway, the sheer glory of this bakery was apparent from the moment we walked into the door. Customers needed only to pick up a tray and a pair of tongs by the door and then select whatever they wanted on their way over to the cash register. The choosing was the hard part. There were buns, danishes, tarts, cinnamon rolls, little pizzas on pastry crusts, sausages wrapped in biscuit, and nine different kinds of bagels in six different colors. Only after you moved past the generous sandwich selection did you get to see the rolls, artisan baguettes and bread loaves. This might be taken as a fluke, except these places are -all over- Kyoto city. Like the protagonist in Miyazaki's well-known film “Kiki's Delivery Service” I have flown away from home and found my city- and now I've found my bakery as well!

(Drawn on my work computer during a lull in activity)

On a similar caliber of excellence are the 100 yen shops here in Japan. This is not to say that the quality of the goods are the same, but the sheer variety and volume of items (“cheap plastic crap” as my dad would say) is quite exciting. The store we visited last Saturday in downtown Kyoto was a two-floor shop with house wares, clothing, and craft supplies on the basement floor and food, toys, stationary, dishes, etc. on the first floor. I took some pictures of my purchases below. I'm a sucker for cute stationary sets, so they got their own picture.

I get a six day weekend coming up because of the Obon festival here in Japan. Expect to hear lots of exciting things!

-Andrew