31+ km to P. du Chef Fujiu (Maison Mere): Istanbul and W Vanilla

Was a good run and the foot and skin seem okay. I forgot my running cream, but my knees are okay. Was getting pretty sweaty at the end, so would have been smarter to use it. Only kicked my left ankle with my right heel two times, both when weaving around people, so my work to improve my form and strengthen my ankles seems to be paying off. My right foot was a little sore at the beginning and I was using the "expert race" shoes rather than my heavier high-cushion shoes, so I was a little worried at the beginning, but no problems there. I had just resolved to not run today, because I didn't want to run into the sun in the afternoon (which now I don't think would have been a problem), when my 10 am canceled. I have to say, that 10 km out, west of Ring Road 8, Hitomidairo has no space for pedestrians and a lot of traffic going to the Ring Road 8. The last bit along a canal was nice until it ended with me on the wrong side of the tracks (don't believe the Google Map).

At Fujiu, I got the Istanbul for 400 yen and the W Vanilla (which was written phonetically as "Double Vanilla" in Japanese). These are both hazelnut and pistachio cakes, and both have buttercream, but only one has vanilla (I'll leave it to you to guess which one). The previous cake I got from there was hazelnut, too, and there's still at least one more that I haven't tried, so its a theme. Unfortunately, these were only good and not great, although the other unfortunate thing is that they are really far away, because they were good and I like nuts and buttercream.

Good area for hiking, though, if you want to take the train first. However, the train was a problem coming back today. It's not a good sign when you see train personnel running hard with backpacks of tools between parallel tracks down into a tunnel (although, that was the other direction). I need to check the news tonight. They were supposed to have arrested the person petrol bombing equipment and putting lines out of action for hours at a time around central Tokyo.

Added Fujiu to the base map already. Probably will try another long run Wednesday (5-day weekend), so maybe a little cycling tomorrow, and shorter runs Monday and Tuesday.

Similar but longer run than yesterday: Tranche noisette

I was going to try to plot the route from today, but got lost and Google Maps is slow, so I gave up. Anyway, it was like yesterday, only a little further out from Akasakamitsuke. Today was the 7th extreme heat day in a row, extending the record, that will probably reach 8 tomorrow, doubling the old record.

I got my cake first at Isetan from Chef Fujiu. It was the Tranche Noisette for just under 400 yen, which is nuts and chocolate. The cake is dense and coarse but still a little spongy rather than biscuit-like and the filling is very dense, like butter cream. The description just says nuts and chocolate and that it has some texture, or something like that. Very good. Lost their card already, but they are in Tokyo, but way out west. They open at 8 am, though, which sounds great. That should be my next long run: I can leave at 2 am. But I already have a plan, so I'll stick to it. Maybe in two weeks.