Sliced Bread

I have posted before about how a country's staple foods can be discerned by the size of the packages that they tend to be sold in. Bread was one of the examples that I cited as coming in relatively small packages in Japan, reflecting its status as more of a snack food than a staple food. This also explains why the most widespread variety of bread in Japan, called shokupan, is so light and fluffy.

Another distinctive feature of shokupan is that the width of the basic package size is absolutely standardized (at 12.5 centimeters), whereas the number of slices per package varies, thus effectively providing an index of slice width.

Japanese bread varies in width from fairly thick to extremely thick. By the time you get down to 4 slices per package, the width is impressive:

At the other end of the scale are the 8-slice and 10-slice packages:

I have never seen a 3-slice package of bread, but apparently they do exist. There are allegedly also regional differences in bread thickness preferences, with our region (Kansai) skewing towards the thicker end, while Tokyo and more eastern regions of Japan prefer the thinner-sliced loaves. (Thus, for example, 4-slice packages are common here in Kyoto, while you almost never see 10-slice packages.)

One consequence of the thickness of shokupan is that regular pop-up toasters are not typically found in Japan, whereas toaster ovens are ubiquitous:

Shokupan also lends itself more to being eaten in individual slices rather than as a two-slice sandwich with the filling in between: