Isetan twice and long run.

Actually, running and cake were completely separate events, and I'm not completely sure about the order, but I think it was cake, run, cake.

The running was down to confirm the location of Q-pot Cafe, which Joshi+ blogged. It's a cute building and I could see cutely dressed serving girls inside, so I'm not so optimistic, especially given that it is a cafe, not a patisserie, but at least they specifically indicate takeout on the website, so I'll try it (if they really have cake by the time I can get there, which I did not check). I also tried a different route to (P.) la Glycine, which still was not optimal, though better, and confirmed that they are closed until the weekend. I was running really hard much of the time, but still only managed 13.6 km in 1:18'12'', which is disappointing, but there as a lot on-the-go navigation involved and a few people, but Aoyama Dori/Street was pretty dead because of the New Year holiday.

On the cake front, there was a pending request from last time for a visit to the Kihachi counter at Isetan, so we went there. I choose the Gateau Chocolat and the other cake was Fruits Short for 540 yen each. The chocolate cake was not fancy, but it was actually very good. 

Didn't get more than a little taste of the bottom sponge layer from the other cake, but the report on the Fruits Short (which is "shortcake" with seasonal fruit) was that it was just okay, except that it had some banana hidden in it, which we agreed was not a good idea. One hopes that a different season would bring a better class of fruits (note: I eat a lot of bananas, but in yogurt, not in cake), but since there was no hint from the top that one could expect banana inside, I'm not inclined to trust them without asking (and I generally don't want shortcake anyway, so I probably never will). 

Given that about half their other cakes were roll cakes, which are usually too soft for my tastes, I'm designating Kihachi as "good" rather than "worthy" on the map. 

Apparently, the Fruits Short was so unsatisfying that a great cake was required, which is a concept that I can well understand. The solution was Mont-Blanc, if possible from Jean-Paul Hévin, and Kihachi would have been acceptable, which I managed before they were sold out (they were close and a lot of people waiting in line outside when I left). Sensing correctly that I was not going to get even one bite of it (and since I've blogged it before), I got a Chocolat Framboise, which was 647 yen. I'm struggling regarding whether to say it was great cake, but ultimately I'm still finding that I'm burned out maybe on raspberry flavor, but I would not want to discourage anyone who isn't burned out from enjoying this excellent well-constructed cake.