A Poem for Underground Bread

Here are some pictures of a local bakery I have befriended. It's called Poem, spelled out in Japanese as po-e-mu (歩絵夢). The three characters respectively mean step, picture, and dream. This place has all kinds of small breads, mainly rolls and pastries. I've only seen it there once, but they have a terrific roll with curry and cheese in the middle. I had had plenty of curry breads and a few rolls with cheese inside, but never together in the same bread. I try something different every time I go there, and everything has been pretty good so far. Bakers are constantly bringing in trays of freshly baked goods and lining them up carefully in the proper places. This place isn't a chain, and judging by the wide variety, they seem to enjoy getting pretty creative with an oven.

The other thing that stands out about this place is the real-deal train car inside. I'm not sure if it ever actually hit the tracks, but the gigantic steel train car is where all of the bread waits for our picking. You pick up your tray and tongs at one end, greeted by a variety of baked goods on display, and after selecting a few, proceed out the other door and to the cash register. There are also some tables at the other end of the car to sit and eat if you like. I have made a habit of going there on Sundays, and there are always xylophone versions of Disney theme songs playing in the car. Maybe that happens to be the preference of an employee or that CD has a slot in the rotation on Sunday mornings, but whatever it is, it fits so well that I hope it's intentional. The bread, store name, train car, and music all go right along with a nice, slow Sunday morning, as if it's all one big poem anyway.