Isuzu Bakery – Popular Kobe Bread

The Isuzu Bakery was established 70 years ago. Hugely popular among local residents and tourists alike, this Kobe bakery has as many as four stores in the Kobe shopping district alone.

Their Motomachi store lies only a short walk from the shopping area of Kobe’s Chinatown, Nankinmachi, and the old foreign settlement. Offering more than 200 kinds of bread including sliced bread, sweet buns, sandwiches, dark bread and many more, the bakery is like something out of a picture book for kids!

It is recommended you take your time and look around to see what they have and not get too excited and start piling bread up on your tray. They have five different sorts of curry bread alone, as well as three kinds of the recently popular salt bread!

If you have problems deciding what to get, you should try the bucho’s salt and kelp bread. The combination of the flavorful butter dough and the salty kelp is just perfect.

As a souvenir, get the dry roasted butter rusk. Is it French bread soaked in aroma-rich butter. You might want to get two bags, one to keep for yourself.

One particular product that is impossible to ignore is the extremely long sausage bread. It is a coarsely ground 75cm long sausage wrapped in dough. They have them cut in pieces as well, but do try to buy a whole one. The grainy mustard has a distinct bite to it, and the entire thing will be gone before you have chance to tire of it.

Kobe’s Famous Hard Yamashoku

Isuzu Bakery offers 7-8 new kinds of bread every month, so every time you come back there is something new and exciting waiting. That being said, what all the breads have in common is the superior quality of the dough.

The bread contains very little yeast and is set to rise at a low temperature for a long time, so the flavor is excellent and the dough is nice and soft. The hard yamashoku (mountain-shaped bread) is one of the most popular products among Isuzu’s bread-lovers and has been for a very long time. While the dough is the very definition of Isuzu’s dough quality, with its crispy crust, it makes perfect toast.

The main store is located close to Sannomiya Station. It has a retro-looking facade and of course sells the popular yamashoku. Here they also have cream-filled bread – something for everyone to enjoy.

Enjoying Bread & The View Aboard A Sightseeing Ship

The main way for many visitors to enjoy Kobe is to stroll the city streets while snacking on the yummy bread. If you go and visit Meriken Park and Harbor Land, how about spicing things up a little bit and enjoying your bread aboard a sightseeing ship?

Isuzu Bakery & Cruising Cafe Fantasy – a 45-minute tour that takes passengers around Kobe Harbor – is the organizer of the Kobe Japan Cruise. Every Saturday, Sunday and public holiday until Christmas this year, you can buy an original Isuzu bread aboard the boat. The taste of Kobe together with the pleasant sea breeze will surely be an experience you won’t forget.

Since you have a chance to try a new bread aboard the boat, this is a strong recommendation for tourists and local Isuzu fans alike!

Isuzu Bakery
Homepage: http://isuzu-bakery.jp/

Motomachi Store
Address: 1-11-18 Motomachidori, Chuo Ward, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture
Tel: 078-393-4180
Open: 8:00 – 21:00

Main Store
Address: 2-1-2 Nunobiki, Chuo Ward, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture
Tel: 078-222-4180
Open: 9:00 – 21:00

Kobe Japan Cruise
Event period: Saturdays, Sundays & public holidays from October 1st – December 25, 2016
Time: From 11:00 (until the bread is sold out)

Setouchi Finder Photo-writer: Madoka Hori