Waking up to the smell of freshly-baked bread

One thing that I was looking forward to during our stay at OMO5 Kyoto Gion hotel was being able to bake our own bread for breakfast.

I had booked five nights in a 40sqm Double Zashiki Tatami Room and chose a rate that included breakfast, just so that I could try out their in-room bread maker.

OMO5 Kyoto Gion is great, but not so good on the knees

In Japan, we would typically just get some onigiri from a konbini the night before, and have it with instant coffee the following morning.

But the novelty of being gently woken up by the enticing scent of freshly-baked bread was simply too intriguing to pass up.

After we stepped into our room, it was the second thing that I looked for.

The first, of course, was the humidifier, to ensure that my delicate tropical skin would be able to obtain sufficient moisture throughout our stay.

With the most important thing sorted, I proceeded to study the bread making instructions. There was a cute manga that outlined the various steps, featuring two ladies who clearly adored the end result.

While the cute drawings managed to convey the basic idea, the details were written in Japanese. Thankfully, an accompanying gaijin-friendly “7 steps: How to make bread” English tutorial was provided.

Only three ingredients were required: flour, dried yeast and butter water.

The first two were left on the kitchenette counter, while the last item (not pictured) was stored in the fridge, together with two sets of spreads.

Following the instructions was as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

First, detach the baking pan from the machine and attach the kneading blade. Next, pour in the butter water, followed by the flour and then the dried yeast.

After that, return the baking pan to the machine and key in the correct settings. The process takes four hours to complete and the timer had to be set to the desired end time.

So, if you want the bread to be ready nine hours later, set the timer to 9:00. The machine will do nothing for five hours, and then start mixing and kneading at the 4:00 mark.

Finally, place the cover on the noise dampening box that the bread maker sits in, et voilà!

The next morning, as dawn approached and sunlight started peeking through the blinds, we were awoken by an enticing scent.

We wanted to roll around the bed longer, but it was hard to resist the lure of the loaf that we had made with our own hands.

Well, technically all we did was pour stuff out and press some buttons. But still, it was a meaningful accomplishment.

Our “Morning In-Room Bakery Set” came with two Blendy drip-coffee bags. We’re fans of Blendy instant freeze-dried coffee, and the drip bags were a significant step up.

Of course, it wasn’t as flavourful as the pour over coffee that I brew at home using freshly-ground and recently-roasted Ethiopian beans, but it was still quite good.

Good enough for me to actively search for them at local depatos and konbinis.

After brewing our coffees, I fished our still-warm loaf of bread out of the bread maker and sliced it in half to reveal the pretty cross section.

It didn’t look as professional as store-bought loaves, but it was nice and fuwa fuwa. There were stars in our eyes as we admired our creation, just like the ladies in the manga.

Six different spreads were provided in a compartmentalised wooden box: butter, bean paste, matcha, pork rillettes, egg salad and tofu dip.

The butter, bean paste and matcha were average, but the egg salad was moist and savoury. The pork rillette on its own was a bit dry, but paired quite well with the tofu dip.

We’re not breakfast people, especially when travelling overseas. Given our limited stomach capacities, we prefer to save space for lunch and dinner at local eateries.

But we happily made an exception for the “ownself make bread” at OMO5 Kyoto Gion, which also conveniently doubled up as our morning wake up call.