Cake-off: Maison Douce's Trevi vs. Del'Immo's Royal Milk Tea

This is the view from a bridge crossing the Tama River.

Finally did the semi-long run to Maison Douce in Hachiouji City, on the west edge of Tokyo. Things went a little more smoothly than the last bike ride, though I still got a little off track and was uncertain about turns, because its in the part of the usual pocket map for the 27 Wards of Tokyo that's at 1:62,500 scale, so it doesn't really resolve the details. I stuck to the main roads and was okay until where I was supposed to follow a river and ended up following the wrong one, but that only took me about a kilometer out of my way, so no big deal. I kept it to a reasonable jog, which was about 8.5 km/h averaged over 37 km. I could have kept going (I did keep going for the kilometer after I got the cake, Trevi, since I was not sure how far the entrance of the train station was and ended approaching from the wrong side (I eventually realized that and back-up a bit and found an elevator that took me up to the right level so that I could see the station. It took about 90 minutes to get back with the cake, since I stopped in Shibuya and again went out the wrong side and spent a walked a long way to get to Hikarie, where Del'Immo has a shop, so I could get the Royal Milk Tea (at least, that's what's written in English on the card, but you have to keep in mind that the phonetic Japanese says something different, Earl Grey, I think, when you're trying to tell the counter person what you want).

"Big Chestnut" River, followed to reach Ouzawa.

This was the hardest cake-off ever because both cakes were excellent but I could not say which was better and I wasn't sure I was feeling the greatness. Both are impressive for what they do with what they have. The tea cake is very mild but has an interesting dry biscuit and the right about of sweetness, whereas Trevi is sort of chocolate mousse, nuts, and fruit at a low price (about 400 yen) that still works. I decided every combination and then took it back. I wouldn't try to be strict, but Maison Douce is so far, that I'm not going to commit myself to going back there lightly. In the end, I decided that I have a long list of great cakes and I'm glad to revisit them, but have enough doubts about their greatness that I don't want to give either the win, so I'm not: they both get excellent rates on the second taste and get demoted to semi-great.

The above was Sunday. Monday I rested from cake, though I still ran, after some errands, to check out any changes in Ginza shops. It was about 12.7 km on the low end of 9 km/h. Actually, my right ankle was very weak afterward, so another reason to be careful about distances (though it's also probably related to doing stretching exercises that I usually don't and the fact that I also did a long bicycle ride on Saturday, which my ankles probably haven't become used to). Knees seem fine, though. Rather than cake, I took the cheap and convenient choice of a croissant from Andersen at Isetan, which was definitely at least good.

Del'Immo (Akasaka): Royal Milk Tea

Went for a short run to conserve my budget, but have since found out that my first choice for tomorrow, Yu Sasage, is closed. The second choice was Tron Coni, also closed. Fine, I'll go to La Glycine, which had its summer vacation last week.

Anyway, I also went short today because I'm adding running (broadly speaking). I went only 5.8 km, 1.9 km of it "running", all at about 6 km/h, so really pointlessly slow running, other than to build up slowly. I'm way behind from last weekend of not running or walking much, so I'll aim for 3 km running 7 km/h tomorrow (not sure I have that much control), as well as another 9 km walking comfortably fast. Saturday, I'll try to hit the reopening Yu Sasage, with is more than 20 km round trip, and then Sunday I'll make up whatever deficit I have left (taking Friday night off) to get myself up to 110% of a week ago. I ran last Monday, so I can still head to Ginza next Monday, or save it for a long trip Tuesday (it took so long just to plan tomorrow, I'm not going to figure out Tuesday's target tonight).

Cake! The cake was Royal Milk Tea from Del'Immo (the Akasaka branch) for 580 yen, which is called phonetically "Early Grey" in Japanese, so the counter person had to confirm with me, since apparently she hadn't actually read the English on the cards (just like I didn't bother to read the Japanese). This is majority mousse, with chocolate and earl grey, maybe bottom and top, with a fairly solid chocolate base. I passed up the high-chocolate specialty of the "chef", since I just had chocolate cake, and was rewarded with great (but lighter) cake. Very nice and an excellent shop. The macaron was not bad (they also sell macarons there).