Jouvaud, Douceur aux Mûres

Working my way through the potentially fine shops (I need to cut more than half), since Jouvaud visited Isetan, on Wednesday I went to get a second cake from them. The name was definitely Douceur aux Mûres, and that's a blackberry on top, but it's seasonal, so nothing on their homepage. I plan to get back there Saturday morning, so I'll get what else is in it. I suspect fig and chocolate, but I'm not sure. Certainly, it has an odd taste and I wasn't happy with the uniformly soft texture, but I did feel they were trying to do something, so I've giving them the benefit of the doubt. Still, two good cakes isn't going to make the cut, so I can't expect to ever get cake from them again. [Update] As I suspected from info on another berry cake, the other mousse besides blackberry is earl grey tea, which isn't that unusual.

In other news, Tuesday I actually tried to get new cake from the list of neighborhood shops. I was told the Stadium Café was open later when there is an event, but they weren't open Tuesday, when there should have been an event. I'll try again Friday, maybe. Instead, I tried the Glorious Chain Café. Their cake of the day was actually apple pie, so they aren't going to be a cake place for me. Still, I decided to try it. They heated it up without warning me (which took more than 5 minutes) and it was ok but sort of looked like a perfectly manufactured pie, which is what it was. Came with ice cream, which was good as ice cream. So I wasn't so satisfied except about checking them off the list of local places that need visiting.

   
 

Wittamer, Thé et Raisin

Had some coupons for the food sections of Odakyu. The cake selection is pretty weak, but I never willowed the "fine" list of shops that seem to be just average, so now I'm after getting second cakes from all, which should take a few years. The first of two counters (and coupons), was Wittamer, which is a Belgian brand, apparently. It's pretty widespread, though this was also probably where I got my first cake from them. This time I steered clear of the obvious choices and when with Thé et Raisin, maybe because I previous takeout cake was a basic chocolate cake. As the name suggests, this is tea (Earl Grey) and grape (though it actually is raisin, the dried form), with some rum. It was a well-made cake with no out of place flavors. Good but bland in a competent way. Certainly, being a safe place to get consistent cakes had it's merits, but I don't expect I'll need to visit again.

The above was the cake from Monday night. Full disclosure, I had some non-patisserie cakes of high quality Saturday afternoon as a part of an afternoon tea set. 

I think the ones with berry halves are actually pear, whereas the little one's above are chestnut madeleines, with the larger ones to the left behind the glass desserts being sweet potato mont-blancs. The middle layers was savories and the bottom was mainly tiny scones. This was also at Odakyu, in that it was their 20th floor lounge in the Southern Tower of the Century Hotel at Shinjuku.

Bien-être, Chiboust Earl Grey

First Thursday of the month, I completed a streak of four and scored an early cake for the next week by visiting Bien-être and finding a new cake at night, Chiboust Earl Grey (so no pistachio chiboust). I can't remember what fruit accent this had (and fruit accent is redundant with earl grey tea, but it wasn't anything strong), but it was excellent cake, which is what matters. 

Kanomi no Mori: Earl Grey Apricot

I'm five days behind for the usual reason: no, not laziness (but there is that), map-updating. I've had various revised and added loops. Thursday, I finished off the Kita-Aoyama east loop (though the subway access stairway I'm planning on to use when doing the full clump around Akasaka Palace is still closed. I also did three Akasaka loops: the main Akasaka-Roppongi loop and two added loops for Hitsugi Public Park and Akasaka Biz (the Akasaka 5 west and east loops). The first requires using subway access, but the latter doesn't. Both were added as I become stricter about needing access to the actual site, not just pass it on the other side of a barrier street.

Friday night, I did the same loops the opposite directions (so I'm up to day with all as loops), but while doing other errands during the day, I stopped in at the Meiji Memorial Hall (Meiji Kinenkan) and got their brand cake, Kanomi no Mori, on the grounds being highest priority among shops on the neighborhood running course. I foolishly got Earl Grey Apricot, even though it's a chocolate cake that doesn't have "chocolate" in the name, which should have tipped me off that something was wrong. Not that it was bad, and I'm willing to allow that maybe my opinion is not universally shared, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and call it good. The apricot was very strong, which would have been fine if not contaminated by chocolate. Chocolate fruit is not a good idea. Fruity chocolate is good. Fruit and white chocolate works, and also you can make mousse out of nuts, for example to dilute the fruit, if it has to be a mousse cake. So I won't need to visit again, I think. Sorry, I think I have the cake backward, as there is probably a little apricot hiding behind the chocolate decoration.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Récolte

Wednesday, I went by bicycle again to Tokyo Midtown to run the Akasaka loop (even yesterday's two days in a row was more than recent running, so it seemed reasonable to speed up the first part), but also to get a cake from Toshi Yoroizuka because of the previous cake-off win. I choose the Récolte (I'm guessing), which is earl grey tea and orange. It's good quality, but too subtle for me, perhaps, so just good. I ate at one of the tables outside, so that lighting wasn't great.

I had a good run, but I noticed at the appropriate point that my map had a major flaw in that I no longer went by one of the parks, though I was very conscious of where it was (the street in front of it is blocked off at the cross-street that the new course follows). I did a on-the-fly swing past the park, which had me coming down the stairs of another park, so I was able to successfully complete the counterclockwise route, but it meant that I still need to do the clockwise route.

Thursday, I was back doing the same thing, only clockwise with the corrected route, so four days in a row of running at least 7 km. I seem to be okay from it, but still need lots of stretching for my plantar fasciitis. I was successful, so I'll finally be able to move on to a different loop, but I got comfortable with rather than tired of the Akasaka loop. On the way, I tried something from Honolulu Coffee, thinking that I would add this to the course. Strictly speaking, I got a café item, since they had to make it for me, but since it's actually a type of age-pan, which I've already allowed elsewhere, I can't complain. This Hawaiian treat is a cinnamon Malasada, so similar to a yeast cinnamon donut, without the hole.

I had originally planned to a fourth cake for the week, but say that Pierre Hermé's now was featuring Fetish Infiniment Citron, which includes two cakes that I rated as great but never followed up with a cake-off, so potentially I could need to run extra cake-offs with a month's time to catch up, though there's a pretty good chance that at least one won't make the cut, since I became more selective over time. Since I don't do cake-offs with two cakes from the same shop, though, I've going to have to hunt to get another new cake, so this weekend I plan to review all the shops that also haven't had great cakes that I later couldn't find, probably a hopeless search. Otherwise, I'll just have to focus on my top shops as much as possible and hope that I get lucky.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Chocolat Earl Grey

Did a run combining various purposes. First, I ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine, where Saint-Marc is still in the line-up but Chiboust Poire has not returned (probably I need to wait for pear season is, whenever that is). Also, on the way, I notice Landtmann in the Ao building along Aoyama-doori, so that's another cake place on my neighborhood map to get to.

Then I went to Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett at Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs (my current newly visited neighborhood shop) and got, I think, the Chocolat Earl Grey (a seasonal cake). Like the previous cake, this was very much a café cake versus a patisserie cake. It was not solid like a torte, but softish biscuit or a coarse sponge, not sure which (it's somewhat spongy but not the spherical bubbles of a sponge cake, more a bread-like weave). The chocolate is also not dense, but enough for flavor and it is balanced by the small amount of fruit. I was completely ready to just call this good and keep this place firmly in the quite good category, but I ate in and had it with just water, so there was an after taste: I really nice harmony of chocolate and raspberry, it's inconvenient, but even though it's not what I look for, this was an excellent cake, so I'll probably back back soon, since now it's challenging a lot of my excellent shops.

Next, was a visit to the Shibuya Seibu, which I had overlooked. In stretches over a few buildings and the food section is tiny and fairly empty of customers. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go out of business, although I was probably going minutes before closing. Isetan or Mitsukoshi would have several times the density of people. Anyway, they have two places with cake Factory Shin, which I've visited in Kobe, so I've blogged them, but not as Tokyo cake. The other is Kihachi, which is at Isetan.

Lastly, it did the Jinnan loop of my neighborhood course correctly this time, so I can do it and the other loop in that clump counterclockwise next, though I'm maybe not going to get time until Saturday night.

Très Calme: Exquis

Saturday, I did another long run. My first destination was Sengoku to visit Très Calme, which was made longer by the fact that I kept running laterally rather than wait for lights to change and the streets don't run straight. As usual, I ate in (the only person). I choose Exquis (not sure that was the spelling provided, but it matches the Japanese phonetics) and immediately forget the ingredients. It's chocolate cake with sponge bottom and a chocolate mousse layer above which has a mellow and fruity taste. Actually, the card said Earl Grey, though I was thinking blackberry, since that's the garnish, but Earl Grey is infused with bergamot, which should be quite a different flavor. In terms of construction, I'm against sponge cake, and certainly wouldn't combine it with a block of mousse. However, it worked perfectly well, so what do I know. Maybe not otherwise remarkable, but the chocolate was harmonizing well with the tea and I can call it excellent. I had this shop was listed with very good shops, but I'm upgrading it to excellent. Now the standout very good shops is Maison Douce, which has the advantage of a sample of only two, one which I have listed as semi-great (it got demoted from great after it's first cake-off round). That's a problem because it's a 35-minute run or more than 1 hour by train, so I keep hoping that it visits Isetan again, but I've been waiting quite a while.

The run continued down to Nihonbashi, to visit Mitsukoshi, and then as far south as Ginza 6, with various stops along the way. Other than the first visit, where I noticed a cake counter that I can now ignore as they visit Isetan and bought a kitchen gadget, it was fairly fruitless, because shops are waiting until Jan. 15 to change their line-ups. Coming back home, I was only just in time for a 2 pm appointment, which I was fortunately able to put off until after a shower and lunch.

Café Le Cordon Bleu: Earlgrey Chocolate, Macaron Chocolat Gianduja

Saturday, went to a new place for cake for two, which is to say I had half of each of these first two cakes, Café Le Cordon Bleu (supposedly the current name, though the old name is still on the receipt: Le Cordon Bleu La Boutique). It is close to the old Asakura Family Estate, which dates from early Showa (about a hundred years ago), which is a cheap (100 yen/person) visit. Back to the cafe, it is self-serve and has a limited selection of cake, pastries, bread, and simple cafe lunch, salad maybe. On a Saturday, they ran out of at least one of our cakes shortly after us, maybe a little before 3 pm.

Both of these are chocolate (there was also a strawberry mousse/cream and a cream puff), but are quite different. One is Earlgrey Chocolate, a fairly standard mousse cake, but definitely good. The tea gives, well a tea taste, but I would say it makes the chocolate a little fruity. The other cake is a macaron, Macaron Chocolate Gianduja, and I advised cutting it, though it turned out that picking it up was very possible, as there is a center of chopped nuts (I assume hazelnuts) in chocolate that acted as a central post while not offering resistance to biting (so it was sort of sticky rather than solid). This sort of heavy cake is more my preference, so I thought this was excellent. Based on two cakes, it seems a quite good shop, which is a fairly good find for just a local shop I noticed on my neighborhood route.

Ryoura: Beauté

Trying to make this quick and catch up, though I'm still not great working with this computer (it's a little small and no mouse). Should have the new computer in a week.

Forgot to mentions (should anyone cake), that I visited Crossroad Bakery Friday and got a Croissant, which was definitely good. They had other things and definitely good is really above average for a croissant, so I'll try to get back there. I still have one more local shop that I want to get to and then I can finally use previous rating to focus on quality rather than novelty. I'll say the goodness was that it was pretty flaky, leaning on the cake-shop pastry type versus the more bread-like type of most bakeries, though it was still seemingly trying to strike a good balance, which I think it achieved.

For cake, I went to the recently promoted Ryoura and got Beauté, which apparently was introduced last November. I like this kind of cake with a hard coating and don't mind the whipped cream on top (I've cheated and turned the Ryoura insert 180 degrees so I can take a picture of the less damage side, but it traveled pretty well for a long trip hanging from my handlebars. (Still cycling, but I'm ready to start running, I think; I'll start small tomorrow, cycling first). This is earl grey mousse flavored with blackberry and raspberry gelatin and cassis cream. It's a very nice harmony, so I don't think I'm relying just on the style of cake and prejudice to a newly promoted shop when I say that it was excellent. Still, I'd like to get to some of the other shops that it currently looks like I might want to promote before getting back to Ryoura, but I look forward to more cakes from them in the near future.

The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli: Earl Grey Bergamot

Sunday, without running, I went to the The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli and, after some wait (because we didn't want to eat outside), I got the cake set with the Earl Grey Bergamot (this was the English name on the card, but the Japanese name was completely different). Anyway, it is a chocolate mousse ovoid disk flavored orange (I'm assuming the tea as well). The base was chocolate and crunchy, which helped it. It was at least definitely good and I've giving it the first cake benefit of the doubt and calling it excellent, so I'll be back there before too long. They also have a selection of pastries. The other available cake with the cake set was the strawberry short cake, which I only had one bite of. It seemed good, but I'd like to have more to form a full opinion.

Monday, much of Tokyo closed down due to a few inches of snow. It was still reasonably nice for a run, so I went to Bubó Barcelona and got Gianduja Raviolo, which is a croissant-type pastry encasing some, but not a lot of gianduja (hazelnut and chocolate). It was a nice change of pastry from must a simple croissant, so I can call it excellent. They did not actually have anything else, so I'm not sure what's going on with their pastry selection. Even if I don't get a pastry, I'm going to have to stop in their next time I go by. However, the nearby pedestrian bridge was taped off, which means that right now that neighborhood, which I haven't quite got memorized, but close, is cut off, so I don't have 60 km of continuous neighborhood course prepared any more. I thought it might have just been for the weather, but later pedestrian bridges on other paths were not closed.

[Sat] Limevert: Noir Chocolat

Saturday was another long research ride. I tried the technique of asking, which rarely works (Hidemi and Viron it did, but those are pretty high-end with long histories, so I'm not surprised that the staff has some knowledge of the schedule, unlike part-time staff at less famous places). Also, I spent a lot of time lost from not trying to follow a particular path; too many rivers make too few straight roads, so on a cloudy day, it's easy to get turned around. More than once I had to reverse course once I realized where I was, but at least I never completed loop myself. Need to find out about mounting a smartphone with a map app to my bicycle.

At Limevert, I got the Noir Chocolat, which is dark chocolate with some nuts over chocolate mousse with probably Bavarian cream flavored by earl grey. It was well composed and so should perhaps have been excellent, but perhaps because I have a lot of chocolate, I couldn't say that this was interesting enough that I would want to make it even if I could, which is my working definition of excellent cake (not that I've done any baking at all lately, which is a problem, because I have two eggs at the limit of their usability, perhaps: 3 months past "expiration"). Although not pretty, I'm including a half eaten version so that the inside is visible. I'll without hold that from Twitter version and would certainly not post that to Instagram (which I've yet to post to, since I don't have a smartphone, but see the above related remark to guess my future shopping plans).

As almost the last shop (I stopped at the Ginza Mitsukoshi on the way back), I also got a pasty from Éclat des Jours for the first time, a Kouign Amann. This was usual, in that what would usually be a single solid crystal of caramelize sugar was instead left almost completed granular, melted only just enough to make it stick together. I'm not convinced that its a better idea, but its was interesting to try. Also, this seemed like the saltiest puff pastry I've ever had, though not to a point of being a problem.

Yu Sasage: Symphanie

Took a long walk, 23+ km round trip, to Yu Sasage at a good speed (little over 6 km/h going, a little under 6 km/h coming back). I'm tired, but the leg seems sound. However, I've hit 101% walking/running load relative to my peak as of 1 week ago and I didn't exercise last Sunday, so I don't have the budget for a full-speed round trip Nihonbashi, which is my goal, so I either need to take the train back (which could be justified if I buy perishables) or take the bicycle out for the first time in a while and figure out how to count that in my budget (in terms of calories, its about 1/4 running for slow riding, supposedly, but calories don't really capture the physical strain, which is what I'm after).

Unfortunately, Yu Sasage let me down. I'd already had both the specialties displayed, and there were a lot of new things, maybe because they were coming off a holiday, but I chose one of the couple other things. This has mascarpone cheese, cream, and an earl grey biscuit. It started off good, and I was considering whether it was excellent. It had a kind of fruity flavor, in addition to the tea. For some reason, though, by the second half, the fruity sweetness was not working for me. Honey in that top layer? Not sure, and not sure honey would be a problem, but ultimately, I can't say this is good. It mostly worked or worked most of the way, so I'll say it was "ok". Maybe it just caught me at a bad time or it needs a particular beverage; I had water, but since it's already tea, I wouldn't think it needed anything else to balance it. It's supposed to already be a balance. Sorry, forgot again to get a shop picture. And cake fell over, so it got a little smushed.

Del'Immo (Akasaka): Royal Milk Tea

Went for a short run to conserve my budget, but have since found out that my first choice for tomorrow, Yu Sasage, is closed. The second choice was Tron Coni, also closed. Fine, I'll go to La Glycine, which had its summer vacation last week.

Anyway, I also went short today because I'm adding running (broadly speaking). I went only 5.8 km, 1.9 km of it "running", all at about 6 km/h, so really pointlessly slow running, other than to build up slowly. I'm way behind from last weekend of not running or walking much, so I'll aim for 3 km running 7 km/h tomorrow (not sure I have that much control), as well as another 9 km walking comfortably fast. Saturday, I'll try to hit the reopening Yu Sasage, with is more than 20 km round trip, and then Sunday I'll make up whatever deficit I have left (taking Friday night off) to get myself up to 110% of a week ago. I ran last Monday, so I can still head to Ginza next Monday, or save it for a long trip Tuesday (it took so long just to plan tomorrow, I'm not going to figure out Tuesday's target tonight).

Cake! The cake was Royal Milk Tea from Del'Immo (the Akasaka branch) for 580 yen, which is called phonetically "Early Grey" in Japanese, so the counter person had to confirm with me, since apparently she hadn't actually read the English on the cards (just like I didn't bother to read the Japanese). This is majority mousse, with chocolate and earl grey, maybe bottom and top, with a fairly solid chocolate base. I passed up the high-chocolate specialty of the "chef", since I just had chocolate cake, and was rewarded with great (but lighter) cake. Very nice and an excellent shop. The macaron was not bad (they also sell macarons there).

Walking to Limevert: Mer

Had a half day off today, so walked to Limevert patisserie café, which took about 13 km at I guess 5 km/h (had trouble with starting and stopping chronometer correctly), sometimes in heavy rain (tｙphoon pasｓing through tonight). Happy keeping it slow, as I want to work on my distance before trying again to regain some speed. Managed to follow the correct route in the middle for once going to this area.

The end is easy, because I'm following the elevated train line for several stations. Never can remember the station name (Soshigaya-ohkura), but recognize Ultraman (not sure what the connection is, and there's at least one more in Yokohama).

Shop does not really stand out and is narrow, but they have the usual stuff and pastries. Already ordered the canelé (230 yen) for the road before noticing the bostock (which would have been hard to eat neatly walking down the street), but it was good (it was a well-baked one, which I like over soft ones).

The Mer (550 yen) is various things: earl grey flavo(u)red milk chocolate, apricot gelatin, and caramel walnuts. It was definitely excellent and I'm going to call it great because I haven't had one this before and I'd like to have it again. For good or bad, the flavor makes me think of pie. For one thing, it's not very firm, but it took a while to bring it back. Not sure what the connection to the "Sea" is.

Almost forgot, tried a couple more caramels from Henri le Roux yesterday: Citron Vert (lime) and Diable Rose (banana, raspberry, and passion fruit). Very good candy and it's interesting to taste very good candy, but I prefer the chocolates.

Thursday: Passion de Rose: exotic

As planned, I went to Isetan after work and got cake from Passion de Rose, which is this week's visiting patisserie, whom I haven't posted on but have had their cake some time in the past and found it good but not exceptional. Maybe because the next day was a holiday, there was the longest line I've seen since the renovation (which is not that long) and most varieties were sold out. My best choice was this, which I think is the Exotic, for 560 yen. Supposedly, this is chocolate with passion fruit, as well as earl grey and banana. Although imported, it is hard for me to think of bananas as exotic, and I almost just left without buying anything, but I got this give them a chance to impress me. However, even though banana was mentioned last in their description, it was dominant (although I could taste the chocolate). It's a good cake, but nothing special and definitely does not convince me that I need more cakes with banana in them.

Clover [Isetan] and 9.9 km

Got cake from (P.) Clover, at Isetan and did a run down to Aux Bacchanales in Akasaka, which closes really early (before I got there), although I was just trying to confirm their existence. I thought at least the café was supposed to be open, but apparently not. There were still staff, so they were open sometime today, I assume.

The run was a moderately paced 4.9 km in 29'35'' there and a slow 5.0 km in 31'48'' coming back.

The cake was the standard chocolate mousse type that attracts me and usually disappoints me (because I'm tired of chocolate mousse), but this was good. I think it was Chocolat Noel, but I'll have to check back at Isetan, which I don't always remember to do. It was definitely 509 yen and is a small seasonal cake, so it's not posted on their regular website (they have a large seasonal chocolate cake by this name, but it has strawberries). The cream layer inside was earl grey flavor, and there was a layer with orange peel, giving a good balance of flavors. It was not great, but it is a kind of cake that I'd like to enjoy, so I'm happy with it being definitely good and marking this place as "Worthy" on the map, although it clearly is serving the lower end of the Isetan basement market (other evidence is that they also sell at other department stories in the Shinjuku Station area, although that doesn't necessarily mean cake) and was not busy (unlike Sadaharu Aoki, which is doing a brisk Valentines Day business). Also in favor of this place, when I asked what was in the cake, not only could they immediately tell me, but they pulled out a schematic cross-section of the cake showing what the parts were. I'll go back just for more of that.

34 km to Il Fait Jour (Tachikawa Station)

Route was approximately this, although poor navigation and deliberate but fatigue-addled (gack: spent more time trying to figure out the spelling of this word) judgement may not all have been accounted for. Most of the route was pretty good for running. Liked this part of Kanda River and following the road north of Chuuou line was also nice: good width of sidewalk, nice enough neighborhood, and not too much traffic. Last bit was not great, but then it was also not the original plan (although it is what Google would have told me to do). This is in the very not detailed part of my central Tokyo map, so I need to add notes about turns better so I know what intersection names are if I'm going to follow a less obvious route. Did fairly well most of the time, though.

Started out too fast, but if I don't go fast at the beginning, then I never will. Ended up with 3 28' for the run and then another 12' of running from Shinjuku Station (which was slow). Considered going on to Yotsuya Station and coming back or switching to the local at Shinjuku Station, but kept it simple.

Not a big counter of the cake shop, so there might be better things elsewhere (although not that much more listed on web site, but they don't have the fig tart, which they did have and I know is good), but could find at least two good things (the berry tart would have been the next choice) at the Il Fait Jour counter in Ecute at Tachikawa Station. Got the signature tart for 567 yen, which is navel orange tart base with an Earl Grey mousse which includes orange peal. Excellent.

The second was Melissa (the Francois Pralus chocolate) for 511 yen. This is a chocolate dacquoise (I always have too look up what that means, which I think is just a cake having layers of meringue and/or cream in this context, although this definitely was specifically mousse). I'm not a fan of milk chocolate in general, but it is often a good choice versus the dark stuff, as in this case. Excellent cake/tart.

No running: Lettre d'Amour [Closed] and Fraoula

At Lettre d'Amour, I got their Shirogane Fromage (Shirogane is neighborhood name), which is their cheese cake, for 600 yen. There were actually several customers, so I had to wait a few minutes, but most of those disappeared upstairs to the cafe by they time I had made my decision. The cake is three kinds of cream cheese blended into a mousse with a little citrus juice and gelatin with a sponge base. I went through a progression of thinking it was good cheese cake through about half, not something I need more than half of in the second half, and maybe not something I need at all afterward, although I'm not sure why. Rare cheese cake is not my favorite anyway. That's only my fourth from there, and there were plenty more cakes. More importantly, I found a good nearby park to eat in.

It was Sunday afternoon, so Ryoco had people lined up outside (early afternoon, that is; late afternoon when they run out, they just close), despite the light rain. From experience, I would say it would take about an hour (for 10 people: most people get several pieces and it takes time to box those up well), so I passed and circled back to Fraoula, who are never that busy (I hope they have some restaurant contracts; there were a couple people in the back busy, so they must have something).

I got this Senteur for 486 yen, which is Earl Grey flavored and has prunes. I was very happy with it. I'd be a good compliment with something sweeter, which I mean in a good way.

This is the Arre, I think (the register is having a little problem printing). It's a huge, flat, crunchy thing, perhaps with sesame but very sweet and chewy, for 324 yen. I prefer the Bostock, but I wanted to try this.

So, I'm thinking maybe I'll give up on cake shops outside Tokyo. I'm past the point of needing to go to new cake shops every time and I'd rather find nice paths for running than visit every shop within range. There's plenty that I've been to before that I haven't blogged about, and I can set other destinations and then visit, on the way or on the way back, whatever cake shop is convenient. Since I have a place 30 km out within Tokyo that I want to visit, I won't need to change my habits soon.