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which has a riverside road for runners and cyclists. It was nice. I've gone across it but it really runs across where I usually want to go, so I had to work it into a roundabout route.
I went four bridges, which is about 5 km, and then crossed and followed Shibagawa (actually, I followed "New" Shibagawa, the main branch) into Saitama Prefecture, my first time as a runner.
Eventually I reached the end of that path and took the road west toward the prefectural office, which ended around here,
which I'm not likely to get back to (who wants a "Fair Weather" cake shop?), and was definitely not so nice for running or walking, although it got me where I wanted to go and even there I saw at least one cyclist. Things stayed pretty outskirts-like (I don't think I've ever seen a drive-in Starbucks before) until actually at the prefectural offices, which are near the shop. I guess Saitama is not Tokyo.
The cakes I chose were Souvenir and Saint Marc. As usual, the park photo is not very flattering, but it's very hot today, so I wasn't going for maximum presentation. Actually, after running 39 km, I found that I was not that emotionally invested in the cake, so I was able to remember that three pieces is too many.
The Souvenir (500 yen) is chocolate mousse on the outside and lemon mousse on the inside. They were about 50:50 in terms of volume, which was a good balance (also, lemon is strong enough to compete with chocolate). The bottom was a kind of flaky in a bread-like way, which was interesting, and had nut pieces (almonds?) mixed in, for some additional flavor and texture. The cake was very good.
The Saint Marc, however, was sort of nothing. There's caramel on top, which gives crunch but not much taste, only the chocolate layer could really be tasted and it was nothing exciting. I've had Saint Marcs before elsewhere and liked them, but I'm not sure what was different this time.
The plus 1+ km in the run is the jog from the train station to home, just because I could, was dressed for it, and prefer not to waste time walking. Actually, from Urawa Station in Saitama was very convenient, with Shinjuku Station as only the third stop. I thought it was a "local" train, but I guess it does not serve that many stations, even if it runs parallel to tracks that do. They said something about it using some other line's tracks for our part of the route. It continues down to Yokohama.
The cakes I chose were Souvenir and Saint Marc. As usual, the park photo is not very flattering, but it's very hot today, so I wasn't going for maximum presentation. Actually, after running 39 km, I found that I was not that emotionally invested in the cake, so I was able to remember that three pieces is too many.
The Souvenir (500 yen) is chocolate mousse on the outside and lemon mousse on the inside. They were about 50:50 in terms of volume, which was a good balance (also, lemon is strong enough to compete with chocolate). The bottom was a kind of flaky in a bread-like way, which was interesting, and had nut pieces (almonds?) mixed in, for some additional flavor and texture. The cake was very good.
The Saint Marc, however, was sort of nothing. There's caramel on top, which gives crunch but not much taste, only the chocolate layer could really be tasted and it was nothing exciting. I've had Saint Marcs before elsewhere and liked them, but I'm not sure what was different this time.
The plus 1+ km in the run is the jog from the train station to home, just because I could, was dressed for it, and prefer not to waste time walking. Actually, from Urawa Station in Saitama was very convenient, with Shinjuku Station as only the third stop. I thought it was a "local" train, but I guess it does not serve that many stations, even if it runs parallel to tracks that do. They said something about it using some other line's tracks for our part of the route. It continues down to Yokohama.
