Won't Miss #463 - baker unfriendly butter

Image from Meg Milk's Snow Brand butter page. 

This is one of those dumb little things that probably matters more to me than nearly anyone else for a variety of reasons, but it remains a personal point nonetheless. I lived in Japan long enough to leave extended tourist mode and live a normal life. Part of normal life for me is cooking and baking for myself. One of the things about butter sold in Japan is that it is sold in big foil-wrapped 200 gram (1 cup) blocks. Sometimes you could buy a variety with some markings on the foil to allow you to awkwardly cut a tablespoon out, but most of the time there was nothing at all. I had forgotten that butter in America comes in stick and half-stick sizes with clear tablespoon markings along the package to make it quick and easy to measure for baking. Even if you bake by weight, it's still easier to manage sticks than one large wad. Also, if you use butter as a spread, you don't have to handle a large amount or leave it out in the butter dish all at once if you have small individually wrapped portions. In fact, given what fans the Japanese are of wrapping small amounts, this remained on of the few things which did not come in convenient smaller sizes.  

Though many things in Japan are arranged for maximum consumer convenience, the lack of a strong baking culture meant the butter wasn't one of them and I won't miss it. 

Won't Miss #77 - ridiculous butter prices

I'm not a big butter eater, but I do like to bake and cook. I particularly like to make things like peanut butter cookies as gifts for friends and students and to cook pork and chicken in a little butter. Starting a few years ago, butter prices, which hovered around 270 yen (about $2.70 USD) for 200 grams (2 sticks/1 cup) leaped up to around 400 yen ($4) for the same quantity. At that time, there was a butter shortage. Since then, the price has hung around 370 yen (about $3.70) even though there has been ample time to recover from the world-wide conglomerates buying up all of the dairy supplies. The Japanese dairy farmers are crying that they are going to start planting rice because they can't make a profit, but the prices are so high that I can't understand how someone isn't making money.

I'm won't miss the super high price of butter and having to substitute canola oil in so many recipes because I'm not wealthy enough to use better tasting butter.