Run to Toranomon Hills: Pastry Shop (Andaz Hyatt): Barley Tea & Chocolate

Safe to run (except for the cold drizzle), so I did a short run of about 58 min to Toranomon Hills. It's kind of a pain to get there, but everywhere is inconvenient compared to running to the moat course by way of Meiji Ginju Gaien and Aoyama Road, although I used them too. In particular, the Toranomon intersection seems to have been under construction for about 10 years now, and it doesn't look like they're close to finishing, although maybe I just get over there infrequently and there have been different projects.

Anyway, as expected, the Andaz Hyatt Pastry Shop is mostly about eclairs, which is not my thing. I got the Barley Tea and Chocolate cake, for 594 yen, and it was working pretty good for me except near the end, when I got sick of the barley taste and the sweetness: it went from maybe great to never again. Doesn't mean one of the other cakes is not great, but there were not a lot of choices, so I don't think I'm going to bother going back there intentionally. Relatively big cafe (I assume) area with a few giant tables. I immediately regretted not trying an eclair, since if their eclairs are good, then there was plenty of reason to go back, but even if eclairs can be great, and I haven't had proof of that yet, I'm not sure that ones that have been sitting around all day are the way to go.

I've been adding History and Culture courses (version 2010) to my map with the intention of using them. I've been on some before, though not running recently. They are not all reliably marked, so you want to carry a map as well as watching for the markers. I'd like to the Shinjuku one first, but since it goes right through the most crowded area, a lot of it is not going to be running, so I may try to get up early and do it before shops open. Since it would not be that far for a weekend run, I would want to do it a day I have other business rather than a free day, when I like to go for my maximum run.