This is a “Melon Pan” shop in Fukushima City. This is actually a chain, so this particular shop is in other places like Tokyo and Osaka.

Melon Pan has always confounded me.

Melon means melon.

Pan means bread. (You may notice its similarity to Romance Languages. I took French so I see its resemblance to pain. In Spanish, the word bread is pan. The Japanese word パン pan comes from Portuguese–pao, with a wavy line over the a.  The word came over to Japan from Europe by way of Portuguese missionaries over 500 years ago.)

Anyway, thanks to Google, I now know that the reason Melonpan is called “Melon bread” is because it is bread that resembles a melon. (Not because of its flavor. It can be virtually any flavor.)

“Do you think it looks like a melon?”

I got Tiramisu flavor, which is rather fancy. Melonpans are very common in Japan (grocery stores, bakeries) but are usually more of a plain flavor. They taste good, but I’m more of a croissant fan.

And the reason croissants are called croissants is because….Oh, never mind. LOL