Culture Day run: Hidemi and Clair de Lune

Today's run is the one shown on the map, if you check before I add another one. It was 21+ km and involved 2 h 12 min of motion (mostly running, but there were crowds and a pedestrian bridge to requiring climbing stairs. Went through some crowded areas, but also was still sore (back and hips) at the beginning (now my feet are sore). Since I have a long run planned for Saturday, I've only got Wed. or Thu. for intervals to try to build actual muscle. Not sure whether another long run after only 6 days from the previous is okay, especially with 20+ km today, but we'll see.

Wanted to go to the cafe Kneten, as a Joshi+ recommendation, but they are closed Tue, apparently even when it is a holiday (I tried calling by phone, but no answer). I had several other places in mind, though, so no problem. I ended up visiting Patissier Hidemi Sugino's place. It's a cafe and 6 of the cakes are only for eating in, but the line for getting cake was not so bad (people go in groups, so it can look worse than it is). Since I was in no condition for anyone to want me in their crowded cafe, and it was 30 minutes after opening so the cafe space was already full with a few people waiting, I got a takeaway cake: Framboisier for 680 yen, which was great, so I'll need to visit again.

Sorry, not a great picture. Too bright outside to see what I was doing (and too tired to have the sense to realize how the shadows were falling). This is raspberry, obviously. Under the whole raspberries are almond bits. There should be a couple almond cake layers in there, but mainly raspberry butter cream, although fairly light buttercream as buttercream goes. Also, some red currant gel, although not sticky or wobbly (if there were enough of it) jelly, but more of a solid sauce that cuts easily. This is very fruity cake, probably from using fruit as the sweetener rather than some other kind of sugar, but the sweetness is just right.

After another 5 km, I got back to Clair de Lune for a second time this year. Maybe this was too short a distance (even though it took several more minutes to get to a park to eat it) for cake again. As I seek quality, I find that I have to cut down on quantity, and not just due to expense. The name is The Apres-Midi (I think something else might have been written in Latin characters, but this makes sense to me and matches the Japanese phonetic name) and was 600 yen. It's almost frozen and gives off a faint ice-being-cut sound, although it does not taste icy. Obviously there are figs on top (I put them on flat-side down, so they wouldn't roll off outside) of a sort of crumb topping. Not sure what the flavors are. Could be a little chocolate or could be fig. Not vanilla. I assume tea, but not strong. It was very good, but I became less satisfied with it afterward over time, which may have more to do with what happens in my stomach when I eat and jog. Anyway, probably not great, and the shop is still not convenient (in terms of distance and crowded areas that you have to pass through to get back inside Yamanote Line) although I'm getting a little more used to jogging on that side of town, so I've removed the shop from special consideration. If I'm in that neighborhood and need take-out cake, I would go again.