Akasaka laps and Sébastien Bouillet: Tarte Tatin Yuzu

I think I've only ever timed one lap around Akasaka Palace. Today was just two laps. Since it is a 3.3 km course, 20 min seemed a modest goal and I got the modest times of 19'36'' and 19'44'' for the two laps, which was a little disappointing but I was not running really hard. The differences from Meiji Gingu Gaien are that it is a longer course, it has a lot more grade to it ("saka" being "hill"), and it's a little farther to get there to begin with. I'm still stiff since the last time I was running fast, weeks now, but I should be able to do better. I might only raise the bar to 19'30''/lap, but simultaneously see whether I can do that for 3 laps, either of which goals will have me working harder. I definitely feel like I ran today, so I was not taking it easy by any means.

Cake was obtained ahead of time from (Sébastien) Bouillet at Isetan, Shinjuku. I haven't blogged them and I haven't bought from them much or at all recently, partially because I had a bad service experience buying a macron once, although I should maybe blame Isetan rather than this patissier/chocolatier. The cake was Tarte Tatin Yuzu for 496 yen, which is a fancy apple tart. The tart base is a little flaky and seems to be a yuzu-flavored butter tart, although the yuzu was very subtle. The top is baked apple, like you would have in a pie, but well baked. It was good, so I'll mark them as worthy of attention (and because of their convenience to me).

I haven't given up on great cake shops, and hope to get down to Lettre d'Amour this weekend, since I changed my plan to go their last weekend and now they are my least visited.