Takeout only — easy to visit alone. Grab your bread and settle into the sunny garden chairs outside. Eat with the Yatsugatake range in front of you. One of the best solo moments in Yamanashi.
Third place in a Paris baguette competition. Baking in a small town in the Yamanashi highlands, almost entirely unknown outside Japan.
This is the kind of thing you discover when you stop following the tourist trail.
Le Plaisir du Pain is run by a French baker who settled in Hokuto City, at the base of the Yatsugatake mountains. The bread is the real thing: proper crust, open crumb, the kind of baguette that makes you close your eyes on the first bite.
The bread
The star is the baguette — crunchy outside, chewy and fragrant inside, made with the slow fermentation techniques of classical French boulangerie. Each bite opens up: wheat, a hint of acidity, something warm and satisfying that lingers.
Beyond baguettes, the shop carries a changing lineup of hard breads, soft breads, viennoiserie, and baked goods. The tarts and cakes are worth a look if the timing is right.
Go early. The best loaves sell out.
The setting
Pull up to the bakery on a clear morning and you’ll understand why a French baker chose this particular corner of Japan. The Yatsugatake range fills the horizon. The air has the clean, dry quality of a high-altitude plateau. Outside the shop, a few garden chairs face the mountains.
Sit down. Tear your bread. Eat it while it’s still warm.
It’s a small thing, but it’s the kind of small thing you don’t forget.
Getting there
Le Plaisir du Pain is in Hokuto City — a town of highland farms, horse ranches, and mountains that most visitors drive past on the way to somewhere else. That’s exactly what makes it worth stopping.
If you’re driving from Tokyo, the Chuo Expressway will take you there in about two hours. From Nagasaka IC, the bakery is roughly twenty minutes.
The shop opens at 8:00 AM. On weekends and holidays, the most popular items may be gone by mid-morning. Checking the website before you go is a good idea — the lineup changes by the day.
What to buy
- Baguette tradition — the one that won third place in Paris. Buy two.
- Pain de campagne — country loaf, good for several days
- Seasonal tarts and cakes — check the display case
There’s no eat-in space. This is a take-out bakery. Which means your meal is whatever you make of the mountains in front of you.
Le Plaisir du Pain
- Hours: 8:00–17:00 (or until sold out)
- Closed: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and irregular days — check website before visiting
- Website: le-plaisir-du-pain.com
Getting There
By Car (recommended): 5 minutes from Kai-Oizumi Station on the JR Koumi Line. Free parking on-site. By Train: JR Koumi Line to Kai-Oizumi Station, then 30 min on foot or a short taxi ride. Note: A car is strongly recommended for exploring the Hokuto/Yatsugatake area.