Japan has its fair share of good bread. Many quality supermarkets have their own in-house bakery, which makes for some excellent fresh breads, snacks, and sweets. I especially enjoy getting a load of fresh-baked bread before a big pasta or stew dinner.
But store bought breads are lacking. More specifically, they lack heels! When it comes to pre-packaged bread, you'll be hard pressed to find a loaf of bread that actually has heels (the crusty ends of the bread, called "ears" here). The sliced bread has crust, so obviously the heels used to be there. They must cut it off at the factory. Why is that? I've been told Japanese people don't like bread crust. Certainly this could explain why most store bought sandwiches are completely crustless.
So with millions and millions of loaves of bread sold daily in Japan, where do all of those orphaned heels disappear to? Do they simply throw them out? Make other bread products? Feed them to the hungry? I'd certainly like to get to the bottom of this.