Short run to Neues: Truffletorte

I did the normal run down to Aoyamadori, along to Akasakamitsuke, and down to Libertable, where they did not have Zenith (which I'm going to hold out for, so I did not get either Grace or whatever the other one they had that I haven't tried). Instead, I headed back to Neues. It was much shorter than yesterday, but since it was supposedly 100% chance of rain (although it did not rain at all), and I wanted to concentrate on my form, which did, along with the shortened distance, avoid yesterday's foot problems. My plan is to run every night through Friday, with the big run Sunday morning, weather permitting.

At Neues, I did take out rather than sit, as it was quite lively there, for a change. The Truffletorte for 500 yen (or 520 yen, according to what the card said) is constructed much like their other cakes---multiple firm layers---with a truffle-type topping. It was dependably good, but I didn't like it as much as their other cakes, not being that into truffles, so I probably won't get it again. Sorry, forgot about the picture until it was too late, although you can probably pick it out from the link above even if you can't read Japanese. It was still better boring cakes from great shops, although I'll give one of them another try.

Shorter run to Neues: Sachertorte

Sixth day of 35+ degree high temperature in Tokyo, extending the record from yesterday. This time I stayed closer to home, and actually there were more people than usual around the Akasaka Palace loop and the Meiji Jingu Gaien loop. Stopped again at Neues, this time for Sachertorte, which is kind of a sign that I'm running out of things to try. It was good though, at 500 yen: dense chocolate cake with a little apricot in the middle and a thick dark chocolate icing. Next time I go I should probably take a list of what I've had so I don't confused by the heat and running, but next week I would probably go Libertable for a change in the Akasaka neighborhood.

9 km to Neues and Tokyo Midtown: Esterhazy Schnitten

I guess today's run was a little short, but still plenty hot. I stopped at Neues and got the Esterhazy Schnitten for 500 yen. Very good (but again, not on the on-line menu). The frosting was frosting sweet, so it would have been better with a drink, but this was in the middle of a run, so I didn't want to stop that long. Love this cafe, though. This is a kind of standard German (well, Hungarian) tort with spiced buttercream sandwiched between almond meringue dough (at least traditionally: this was a nutty cake, but not sure that it was meringue).

I stopped at Midtown to visit their nice grocery because I was interested in caramels for melting and topping my cheese pie with. I talked about caramel here previously but had not realized that the flavor I know as caramel is actually milk caramel ("caramels", as in the candy), or maybe caramel sauce, but full on caramel cooks all the water out, so that's probably why sometimes when I order caramel things they taste funny to me, because I'm only used the taste of sweetened caramelized milk. Found the same brand of milk caramels at Midtown as elsewhere for cheaper, so I went ahead and bought them. Don't know whether I'll have time today to experiment, but I'm thawing a pie.

Weekday run with cake at Neues: Dobostorte

I ran down to and three quarters around Meiji Ginguu Gaien and then tried to time myself on one loop around Akasaka Palace, but failed to reach even my previous time, which had been after several timed loops around Meiji Ginguu Gaien. It was really hot, even at 7 pm, so timed runs may have to wait for October. On the second loop, I stopped and had Dobostorte at Neues for 500 yen. It was very good and I was quite satisfied. Wikipedia shows this cake with a picture from Gerbeaud, which has a cafe the opposite direction down Auyama Road just past Omotesandou Station, although I bet it's more expensive there (and I can't remember it being better, at least if that is one of the ones I've had there, which I think it is). I'll keep visiting Neues. It's comfortable and convenient and has good cakes.

Amazingly, I have some occasional readers, some of whom are highly knowledgeable about cars. Is this an interesting car? This was taken on Aoyama Road near Akasaka-mitsuke Station. (I could have taken a picture of BMWs, but they did not seem noteworthy.)

Can't find Neues: 14 km

The weather was okay, so I did run (sorry, Google Maps is unreliable and the map disappeared), a lot, but no cake. I went along the usual history and cultural routes, which go by some of the Soka Gakkai buildings, who are an active Buddhist movement, and so kind of cult-like compared to the usual passive sort.They have a lot of money and political power, and like to get together on Sunday mornings, apparently, judging from what I've seen around there then. This Yotsu area has a lot related buildings, for example, for education and publishing.

I went off the usual route to add a new down slope 

and then a new up slope to my route.

As usual, I got a little lost and went out of my way, although it does not look too bad on the map. Neues was closed (but they were in their cleaning up) again, so I can't count on them for late cake. Maybe by 8 pm works (today was about 8:30), but I usually want more running than that on a weekday now. Not that I had planned to get cake; I had just wanted to find out the name of last week's cake and maybe buy some bread. Instead, I went down to Tokyo Midtown to Asanoya, which puts their bread 20% off late. I didn't choose well though, or I should not have tried microwaving for 30 s to heat it up. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

12 km to Neues: unknown recommended cake

I ran 12 km, but otherwise, I ran into various problems. 

First, going by the Prime Minister's place added time, because I forgot that I needed to cross to the other side of the street, and there are a lot of lights anyway (though not streetlights: a little dark on the sidewalk). 

Then I got a little lost toward the end and got to Neues just after they had closed. Not that it was close to 11 pm, just they close whenever they want, apparently. The guy bringing in the sign made sure that I was looking for carry out and not dinner before letting me in. Another customer came in after me, also looking for cake and then a blond lady, although she left when she saw that they were sold out of almost all the bread, waving at the guy in the back kitchen area through the glass. 

I asked what the guy who let me in recommended, and there is it below (I may need a better camera than my iPod), whatever it is. It seems to be chocolate layers, probably with nut cream layers. There was a little texture like coconut in there, but it could have been chopped nuts: I should really dissect these more thoroughly, but I didn't see coconut. The cake was very good, but because they were closing, there was a guy behind me also buying cake, I was really tired, and it has some German name (or Austrian), I don't know what it was. Their webpage is here, but it's way out of date as far as cake that they actually had, and I could not find a picture of mine (at least not today's) at the Tabelog restaurant website.

Anyway, it was 480 yen, I think, and very good, as I wrote, so I'll go back there again (and update this on what it actually was), but I always need to keep in mind that they might decide to close early and be prepared to head over to nearby Tokyo Midtown, assuming that they are not closed yet (or I could go back to Libertable, who I passed going through Akasaka, and has expensive cakes and is open late, though the two cakes that I've tried so far, while very interesting, were not to my taste: Luxe, a chocolate black truffle cake, and Robuste, which has banana and passion, along with chocolate and nuts).