ASHIYA, Hyogo Pref. -- The Dutch team at the Winter Olympic Games has a hidden ally in this city more than 300 km from Nagano.

To provide their athletes with the ideal nourishment during competition, officials of the Dutch team last fall began searching for rye bread made in the same way as that produced in the Netherlands. But they were unable to find a bakery in Nagano that could meet their criteria.

Then, Kjeld Duits, a Dutch resident of Ashiya, recalled that a bakery he frequently visited offered a taste that could fill the team's needs.

The Ashiya store of the Kobe-ya bakery chain has long offered bread for many non-Japanese customers in the city. Duits introduced the shop's manager, 34-year-old Kenmu Nawa, to the Dutch team. "The Dutch team contacted me last October," said Nawa. "I have since put great energy into making the bread's taste as close as possible to that of its motherland."

The baking method for the bread is simple but takes time and care. "It takes half a day to make the bread. Even though five of our workers start work at 3 a.m., three hours earlier than usual, 60 loaves a day will be the limit," he said. Still, the bakery manages to provide a total of 100 loaves, including 40 supplied from an affiliated shop, and sends them to Nagano through parcel delivery every day.

The bread received such good response from the Dutch team that the Norwegian Olympic team also asked for delivery of the bread. But with demand already exceeding supply, the Ashiya shop had to decline.