37 km inside Tokyo to Patisserie Partage: Aphredite, Marc, and Chocolat Pistache Griotte

Sorry, no pictures today due to camera preparer failure (got to put the memory card back in the camera before you pack it).

The important thing was that I could go 37 km safely, more or less by this route. I looped around north to avoid leaving Tokyo (otherwise, it's about 30 km and passes through Kanagawa Pref.), although the initial turn was supposed to follow the river just for the sake of following the river, but initially I found myself up on the hill/bluff above one side, which surprised me when I got a look beyond the first time. Also, the whole loop took me up, down, through, and under (really wide sidewalk in the tunnel, a whole lane, but it's noisy in there; the shade was appreciated, but it really was not that much cooler: not such a long tunnel) hillier areas, so it was much different than my normal flat runs.

Lessons learned:
  I need to get up another 30 minutes earlier, 3:30, although today was mostly okay.
  The new running-shop socks seemed to work much better than the old general athletic socks; that is, my feet from the top of my sock down to my heel were not bright red after my run, just somewhat pink. So I need more of these expensive socks (or find cheaper thin ones that are good for running elsewhere).
  Need to simplify the path: the residential section at the end was a mystery, with roads on different levels of hills. I should have traded the river path for a main road to the road along the rail line (which runs by the shop) to my destination, or at least zoom in with Google Maps on the parts that might not be clear. For these runs outside the Tokyo core, I have to rely on a 1:50,000 scale map, although I already frequently was using the 1:25,000 part from than the 1:12,500 of my Tokyo's 23 (special) districts map.
  Two pieces of cake is enough.

For the cake, the first one looked like this, because that is what it is: Aphrodite. It resembles an ice cream sandwich, but is more of a firm mousse. It's tayberry, as far as the jam, which is a cross between red raspberry and blackberry. But the middle is cinnamon Bavarian creme (if I'm translating ババロア correctly) and the cookie is sablé, with almonds I'm guessing. Very good, like ice cream (I'm not that into actual ice cream, but I find that really rich cake reminds me of ice cream flavors). Getting the cookie to break to edible pieces without squishing the middle is a challenge with this cake. I think taking off the top, as messy as that is with the jam, and breaking that up separately to the side and putting it back is the best bet. I would definitely get this again.

My second pieces was the Marc (マール) (as in Marc Brandy) for 490 yen, which has a baked tart base under cassis (black current) and vanilla mousse. Very good. This person has a picture, the red one. I've only made custard tarts, so I'm not sure what you do to get the solid crumbly but rich middle. Something involving butter or almond butter and flour, I assume.

The last is the only one on their website, the Chocolat Pistache Griotte. I really need to stop getting chocolate pistachio everywhere I go, especially mousse in summer. It was fine as this standard cake goes. The griotte is the cherries, which are under the pistachio core. I don't really like cherries in my cake, but these were okay, not a bad idea.

Although not convenient, if they come back to Isetan again (which would not be for a couple years), I'll want to visit their counter again.

Now to plan the 39 km run for next week.