I was in Ginza at the beginning of March and was hungry, didn’t had time to drop in a cafe so decided to drop by at Kimuraya Ginza flagship store.

Kimuraya is famous for An-pan, a soft bread stuffed with sweeten Azuki beans. Their history goes way back to 1869, 154 yrs ago. Around 160 yrs ago, Japanese government started to open the country to accept foreigner therefore a lot of foreign culture bloomed in Japan. In Japan, they called this Bummei Kaika (文明開花), simply translated as blooming of culture. A lot of foreign culture flowed into Japan but the seven main things which symbolize Bummei Kaika were [New paper], [Postal service], [Gas street lantern], [Steam boat], [Photography], [Expo Exhibitions], [Air balloon], [Steam train] and [Bread].

What I thought was unique about Kimuraya is that because it is based in Tokyo or Edo back then, it was a bit far from the center of Bummei Kaika which was in port city Yokohama. Their main customer was local Japanese which kept their products from being completely westernized. (On the other hand Yokohama bakery served to a lot to expats.) Kimuraya’s trademark is by using sake’s rice malt as a yeast. This mix-culture of applying the rice malt to the western bread making technique and stuffed with a Azuki beans was a hit within the Samurais, which they thought it was such a creative product and brought the An-pan as a gift to the Meiji Emperor. The Emperor loved it and therefore made the common people wanting to try one too and became the most famous bakery in Japan for making An-pan.

Kimuraya is all over Japan. You can get them at any major department stores or malls etc. I’ll buy some once a year, not much because it’s all over Japan and you can get it anytime. When I walked in the main store, which was like my 5th time in my life (I’ve been living in Japan for 55yrs!!) I didn’t expect much. Once I stepped into the store, the atmosphere was really great. They seemed to be doing some minor changes and it feels good. The famous An-pan were all placed in a wooden Japanese style trays like in old times and the men behind the counter where all wearing Indigo dyed Happi jackets, Japanese style short coats which a lot of craftsman wears it as a uniform.

My husband grabbed the An-pan and I was curious about their seasonal sakura cream bread and got that. The fun thing about dropping by at the head branch is that you can get seasonal bread which are sold only there. The sakura cream bread (picture above) was a shape of a sakura petal and the cream was so smooth and lightly flavored with the sakura leafs. I didn’t expected much but it was really good. I was definitely sold by this experience and will try to drop by Kimuraya whenever I’m in Ginza.

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先日チェンマイでお世話になったギャラリーが銀座で展示会をすると言う事で銀座へ。午前中、午後とちょっとバタバタしてて、慌てて銀座に向かったので2人ともなんだか小腹が減っていた。どこかへ立ち寄って食べる時間も無いし、そうだ、近くに木村屋の本店があるからそこに寄ってパンでも買ってかじりながら移動すれば良いかと久しぶりに木村屋本店へ立ち寄りました。

随分久しぶり、何処でも買えるゆえ、意外とあまり買ってない。私のお気に入りはピーナッツコロネ。パンの食感とピーナッツクリームの味が好き。もうあんぱんを飛ばして、これしか買ってない気すらする。

とにかく本店に入ると、お店の佇まいに圧倒される。休日で混雑していることもそうかもですが、入り口近くに木箱に並べられたあんぱんの光景が圧巻で、その背後に藍色の半被姿の男性従業員が、なんとも江戸っぽい感じで見とれてしまいました。

木村屋本店には本店限定のパンがあるのですね、この時初めて知りました。（はい、ピーナッツコロネ担当なので）さくらクリームパンと言うのを買いました。桜あんぱんなら、よく聞くけど、桜クリームって？後、パンの形が桜の花びらがなんとも愛らしくって、ついつい。夫は定番のアンパン。桜クリーム食べてみると、ほんのり桜の香り。クリームの食感も滑らかで良い。いやー木村屋さん、当たり前すぎて見落としてたけど、良いわ。また銀座へ行く際は立ち寄ってみよう。ちなみに２階のカフェもお気に入りです。