A new friend!

I am of the opinion that it is necessary to make friends with certain people in life. your bartender. somebody at your favorite boutique. and of course, the person who makes your pastries. the latter being the most important...

in part because it is essential to have regular pastries in your life, no?

My first run-in with Japanese pastries was very sad. The bakery section of the nearby grocery store seemed so promising! Early on I bought an attractive bun, only to bite into it and discover that it was basically a glorified ham sandwich - except it didn't even have the cheese! After that I turned to Starbucks. At least there I know that a cheese danish is a cheese danish, and even though the staff probably don't know what they're saying when they shout cheese danish! we all know what I'm going to get.

Quite fortunately for me, I have found my bakery! It is conveniently located about 5 steps from my train station, on the way to my apartment. The first time I noticed it was like magic! I was coming off the train from work, already a little hungry, and right before my eyes a small, slightly wrinkled Japanese woman pulled a tray of buns out of an oven and put them in the window. My heart quickened for a few beats but then, remembering my previous pastry debacle, doubt crept into my mind. All this over a pastry, you ask? Yeah, you bet. I decided to go for it. It's not like I'm not trying something new every .001 seconds of the day, why should this milli-second be different?

The bun was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I was hooked. That was a few days (a week?) ago. I went for the second time earlier this evening and the woman and I started chatting – as best as two people can when the only common language is food. I pointed to the bun and she told me the name. I totally didn't catch it, so I tried to indicate that I wanted her to repeat it. After pointing repeatedly and trying a few English phrases which fell on linguistically deaf ears she understood and repeated the name. I think I forgot it as soon as I started eating. But before that she pointed to me and said 'kawaii' - one of the 6 Japanese words I know! It means cute. She assumed I didn't know what it meant (I don't blame her) and pointed at me and said 'pretty'. So I smiled, bowed a few times, and said 'arigato'. For the compliment, for the food, and for what I sense will become a great friendship.