Creamy Essay

I've tried to be fairly true to the Japanese as I wrote it without embellishing it or making it sound too much more natural than it fails to be. I did this mostly so that I could make sure that there were no serious gaps in the writing that I was just missing because I couldn't evaluate the writing as a whole. Or something.
Now, I'm not saying that there are no fairly serious gaps where you're just like "Wait, what?" But they're not serious enough for me to want to reflow each paragraph.

When you're dealing with Asian names written in roman letters, last names are sometimes written in all-uppercase letters for clarity, as I have done here.

菓子クリームパン！ ウィルロクド	Pastry Cream Bread! William Lockwood
もし一年前の私は「クリームパンって、何のことですか」と聞かれたら、答える事ができなかったはずだ。日本に来る前には「クリームパン」と聞いた事がなかったので知らないのは当たり前の事かもしれない。去年２００８には初めてクリームパンを見たのだ。クラスのみんあにはちょっと信じがたいだろう。	If you were to ask me a year ago "What kind of thing is a kuriimu pan?", I don't expect I could've answered. I hadn't heard the word before coming to Japan, so I think that my not knowing may be kind of a given. Last year, 2008, I saw cream-pan for the first time. Kind of hard to believe, right?
さて、クリームパンの発明に関すして話したいと思う。日本に１４世紀に中国からまんじゅうと言う食べ物が伝わった。当初、肉しかに詰められていなかったが日本人の口に合うようにあんこに詰められて来て、日本のまんじゅうが発明された。１６世紀にポルトガルからの探検者が日本へ火縄銃や宗教やパン、つまり技術と文化を日本に持って来た。その時に日本人の初めてパンを見た。もう少し後、日本は鎖国を始めた結果、パンは外国文化の一部として禁ずられたので約三百年間にほとんだなかった。でも、あんまんじゅうはのこっていた。	Okay, I'd like to talk about the invention of cream-pan. In the 14th century, the Chinese brought a food called manjuu ["steamed yeast bun", a super-soft bread-thing]. In the beginning, they were just filled with meat, but came to be filled with anko ["sweet bean paste", the Japanese version of corn syrup, basically. It's in everything.] in order to suit Japanese tastes and thus was the Japanese manjuu invented. In the 16th century, Portuguese explorers came to Japan and brought matchlock muskets, religion, and bread, in other words, culture and technology, with them. At that time, the Japanese people first saw bread. A little later, Japan started its seclusive phase and bread was forgotten about for about three hundred years. But anko-filled manjuu remained.
１９世紀の明治時代に侍の地位が政府にとられた。その前に侍だった人々は武士ではなくなって来たら、新しい就職を探された。その中の一人、木村安兵衛は西洋文化を普及させたほうがいい思っていたため１８６９年に日本の初めてのパン屋を作った。パン屋の名前は「文英堂」だって、すぐ「木村屋」に変わった。木村屋の新しいパンの種類として、アンパンが発明されて、毎日売り切れていたくらい大人気だった。	In the 19th century, during the Meiji period, samurai were stripped of their rank by the government. People who were previously samurai, when they came to lose their status as warriors, were forced to seek out new employment. One of those people, Yasubei KIMURA, thought that Western culture should be spread and, in 1869, made Japan's first bakery. It's name was "Bun Ei Dou" ["sentence","beauty","hall". Go figure.], but soon changed it to Shop Kimura [kimura-ya]. As a new kind of bread from Shop Kimura, the anpan [bread, filled with anko] was invented and was so hugely popular that it sold out every day.
１８７５年に天皇の侍従が木村屋に行ったら、天皇にアンパンをあげようと申し入れた。桜はずっと前から日本の印だったので、木村屋は新しい桜アンパンを作った。天皇と皇后がその桜アンパンを食べたら、もちろんおいしかったので、その時から木村屋のアンパンを注文して引き続いた。この出来事でアンパンは全国の人気できた。現在でもアンパンはまだ一番人気のある菓子パンだ。	In 1875, the emperor's chamberlain went to Shop Kimura and suggested that they give some anpan to the emperor. Because the cherry blossom has long been a symbol of Japan, Shop Kimura made a new kind of sakura anpan. When the emperor and empress ate that sakura anpan, it was, of course delicious, so from then for a long time they ordered anpan from Shop Kimura. By way of this big event, anpan gained nationwide popularity. Even today, it's the most popular of pastries in Japan.
今までの話は日本の菓子パンの全員に関する長話だった。アンパンは大人気になったら、さまざまな中身と作り方の変更をされて見た。その菓子パン実験によって、今日ジャンパンやメロンパンなどを食べられる。	The story up until now was the long story about all of Japan's pastries. When anpan became really popular, various fillings and recipes were tried. Because of those pastry experiments, you can eat pastries like melon pan and jamu pan [basically a sealed PB&J sandwich, hold the PB).
その一種はクリームパンだ。１９０４年に中村屋で働いていた相(そう)馬(ま)愛(あい)蔵(ぞう)と言うパン屋さんがカスタードを中身として試した。もちろん、すばらしくおいしかった。その慶事あったからずっと日本の全国にはクリームパンも人気のあるパンだった。というのは、現在日本の三番目人気だ。	One of those types was cream bread. In 1904, a baker working at Shop Nakamura, Aizou SOUMA. tried custard as a filling. Of course, it was wonderfully delicious. Since that auspicious day, cream bread has also been a popular pastry in all of Japan Japan. That is to say, even today, it's the third most popular pastry.
でも、日本に来る前クリームパン聞いたことすらないからそれら全然知らなかったのだろう。私の日本にいる二日に学校の前のショップ９９で証明写真を撮りに行ったと店の中のおいしそうな物は多そうだったため、できたらさっそく行きたかった。戻ったとき、三十秒うちにカスタードメロンパンを見つけて、買った。今でも、それは私の一番好きなクリームパンだ。	But before I came to Japan, I hadn't even heard of cream bread, right? On my second day of being here in Japan, I went to the Shop99 in front of the school to get some ID photographs taken and inside the store there seemed to be a lot of delicious-looking things in the store, so I wanted to come back without delay if possible. When I went back, within 30 seconds, I found a castard melon cream bread and bought it. Even now, that's my favorite cream bread.