Éclat des Jours, Palet de Chocolat Spicy

Took a half-day off and ran to Éclat des Jours. Fortunately, the rain came earlier than predicted today, so it was just wet by the time I was running. Today, this time imperial movements closed off sidewalks north from Hibiya Park, but I could go straight there, so no problem, though I would have turned if I could have, just because the light was red going straight. I stopped on the way at Toshi Yoroizuka and verified that they still have Cassis, which I'd like to get this weekend. At Éclat des Jours, I decided to go with the new thing, Palet de Chocolat Spicy (I think they wrote "Palait", so this is my spelling, which matches the official Japanese-spelled pronunciation). This is a simple chocolate mousse cake made up of a flour-less chocolate biscuit, chocolate mousse, and apricot coulis (thick sauce) to show off The Cacao Professionals Spicy Fruit (Meiji The Cacao), which, as the name implies, they don't sell to just ordinary folks, apparently. Anyway, it was excellent.

Tadashi Yanagi, La Deux Chocolat

Monday, they told me my arm was not broken (no surprise) and otherwise just gave me drugs and told me to come back to reception if I want more. Actually, I have the same leftover drugs from previous visits for other ailments. Doctors, often not very helpful, and/or sprains, not getting the respect that they should, or so I've heard, so I'm going to try to be careful even once the pain subsides.

In the evening, I went back to Tadashi Yanagi for a third cake, La Deux Chcolat (I'm interpreting). This is a brownie under chocolate mousse with orange (I think; they have dozen of cakes on their website, but not this one). I was not optimistic really. It has structural advantages, but a hard brownie (best as a cake base) is not really a good brownie, so I've yet to have this type of cake work out. It was still good, but that's all. With two excellent cakes and one good, Tadashi Yanagi seems to be quite good, and so three cakes is enough for at least a year.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Violette over Paris S'éveille's Le Suprême

Did a run over to my new Hatsudai-Yoyogi-Tomogaya loop to find the kilometer marks that I had set for myself and take a few pictures where I hadn't yet, including a temple that I knew about but hadn't followed the path back to. Unfortunately, I just found another temple that should have been on the route, which changes it. On the plus side, the recalculation seemed to indicate that I had messed up the involved measurement, since the distance should have gotten larger but got smaller. Still, only a 50 meter difference and I haven't actually got the route memorized yet, so plenty of time to shift the kilometer markers. Note sure whether I'm going to be ready for 30 km on the course on Wednesday, which seemed a possibility before.

Started at 7:45 and around 9:15 headed for Paris S'éveille to get Le Suprême. Judging from what I saw, today a big day for nursery school graduation ceremonies.

Note a huge line at Paris S'éveille but they were busy enough, so it took maybe 10 minutes. At Jean-Paul Hévin's at Isetan, the wait was longer. Men are still buying chocolate for White Day, apparently (and there are still special sets). Eventually I got Violette (same as last weekend). I'll admit, this was too much chocolate mousse for one sitting, or maybe just lately in general, though not the first time for that in a cake-off. Next week's planned JPH cake is maybe a little less moussy and the intended opponent (unless another great cake turns up in the next week), is a cheesecake, so it won't be comparison of similars. This time's cakes were vary similar, with the main difference being a change in the fruit providing the accent, cassis (currant) for Violette and blackberry for Le Suprême. I still think that these are both great. Maybe Le Suprême should win for being more different from the crowd, but there's perhaps a reason that cassis is a commonly used flavor, because I felt that it complemented the chocolate better, so I have to give the win to Violette again. Eventually, all the cakes in the top bracket are going to be JPH ones and I'll have to start comparing them to each, but I'll deal with that if and when it happens (I'll be limited to what's in season at the same time, though that's always true).

Yoshinori Asami: Orangerie

Finally got to Yoshinori Asami again and bought cake (I've often gone there this year looking futilely for a particular cake, but not to actually buy something new). It's +7 km, which I did 10 km/h going out and 9 km/h coming back. They close at 19:30, so the schedule is a little tight but I was fine. They are relatively new and in a big building (didn't get it all in the shot) a few blocks from the station on a fairly quite street. It's outside the Yamanote Line, so I guess we're in car country and you need to have parking, though I'm not sure I've seen anyone with a car the few times there were other customers.

The cake was a chocolate dome, Orangerie, which is always risky. It was pretty standard in construction. I'm assuming it was something like Bavarian cream inside the chocolate mousse, but that was not exactly what was written on the description (which I didn't bother to figure out the French from the phonetic Japanese). I'm pretty sure it was Bergamot orange flavoring the cream. The chocolate was suitably dark to go with the orange and this was definitely excellent.

L'Abricotier: Chocolat fumee

Had time during the day so went for an about 5-hour cycling tour of cake shops, although I probably could have done the meaningful parts in less than 2 hours with better planning. My original plan had been to get cake from Toshi Yoroizuka and do a cake-off after a training rul, but apparently Tuesday is the wrong day for doing that. The shops are only partially open (Kyobashi's salon is closed and only the dessert bar is open at Tokyo Midtown). I may try tomorrow, but getting two cakes for a cake-off is always risky after work, whereas today I was off.

Anyway, I went out to Kichiyoji by the new bicycle, where both both shops I checked were closed (the second one was a last-minute thing, and probably they are always closed on Tuesday, but they were sort of on my way anyway and I wanted to check the route, so I didn't check my notes). At Koenji, both shops were open (which I could and did check) and there were no changes from last month. One of those was L'Abricotier, which I was ready for an eighth cake from, so I got the Chocolat Fumee (their spelling), which is smoky chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate cake filled with bandy and, I think, crème brûlée seasoned with caramelized almonds, and although I couldn't really tell except for the almonds, which were mostly just the ones on top (I only found one more inside). It was a very interesting taste, as far as the chocolate mousse, and definitely good, so I was ready to call this excellent, but I had to admit later that it was not something that I was very interested in eating again, so "definitely good" is going to have to be my finial review.

Went off north, where it was demonstrated that I should not believe a shop's Facebook page which says "open now" over their general schedule (that they are closed the second Tuesday of the month). Did get by another shop and confirm that they still did not have Chiboust. However, and here's a shop I could have checked in on when going to Toshi Yoroizuka, since I essentially passed it on the way, At Sugino Hidemi, they told me that the cake I was looking for was a Fall thing and I should look for it in a month, so I'll look forward to that for a cake-off in October.

After that long a ride, I thought I deserved a second treat, so I got Praliné from Viron nearby in Marunouchi, which is a puff pastry with sesame seed sized granular praliné as filling (same as between the "fingers"). It was definitely good (it would be excellent, since there's a lot of competition among sugary puff pastries, so I'm not sure) and well appreciated.

Tout le Monde: Gallia

Today I went down to P. tout le Monde for a first look/cake. It's a nice little shop near Musashi-Koyama on the Meguro Line, in Shinagawa. This was a day time run, which is necessary because they close at 19:00 and aren't that close to me (it's about a 9 to 10 km run, depending on how direct a route I try to do; in this case, less so on the way there). The run was fine, though I'm still slow compared to winter, being around 9 km/h around trip for 19 km.

I chose the chocolate cake, Gallia. This is sort of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of cake, as the base is maybe a chocolate feuillantine, above which is Japanais (hazelnut biscuit), chocolate whipped cream, cream, mousse, and ganache layers, and a couple kinds of chocolate covered nuts, as well as just some loose pieces. It was all good, and works good together. The chocolate itself was maybe nothing special but it was also not bad. Definitely a good cake. I cake on the terrace. No drinks service (which I didn't really want, but free water would have been nice), but I got a complementary financier, which is a pretty good score, though I'm not sure how good it is, because I'm saving it to share.

14 Juillet Tokyo: Albatross

It was raining all day, but at least in the evening was not the heaviest. Still, no other runners seen on the way, and I went by the moat course. On the way back, when I was running against the prevailing section, I saw one runner coming from it and then one person just before I left it (for a couple kilometer stretch), even though the rain was down to more of a mist and it wasn't that cold (though the wind was a problem. Still, it was slow running, averaging 9 km/h both ways (about 11 km total).

I'm miffed that 14 Juillet Tokyo did not give me a rain cover for my cake. Really? I have to ask? Where did they think I was going to go that it was not raining? Sure, I could have asked, but since I had a plastic bag in my pack for similar occasions, I wrapped the box in the bag and still tried to use the paper bag. It lasted until home, but it was pretty weak when I tested it afterward, so next time I'll just leave the paper bag after repacking.

I choose the Albatross (アルバトロス; 550 yen), a chocolate mousse cake flavored with cassis and orange, on the grounds that it was obviously one of their signature cakes, since they had large versions of it for multiple people and there was only one left, so some people think it is good. Popularity is not really a good judge, but as a third cake, I went with it. And the balance between the fruit and chocolate mousse was good. Actually, the fruit was a little runny rather than being gelatinous, though not in a bad way (there is probably a better word than runny). Couldn't really taste the orange (or the alcohol), but it was presumably there to achieve the right balance between fruit and chocolate rather than call attention to itself. I'll say this was excellent, where I'm considering it relative to other similar mousse cakes with fruit.

Also of note, their former neighbor Igrekplus got the boot, which is fine with me. Have to wait to see what it gets replaced with.

Pierre Hermé: Flocon Plénitude

Yesterday's run was boringly like the previous day's: laps around Meiji Gingu Gaien at 11 km/h, just I did a fourth lap (5.3 km total), plus kept the speed up going home, but was a little slower coming. 

The cake (bought today) was from Pierre Hermé at Isetan, the Flocon Plénitude (フロコン プレニチュード ["plenitude of flakes"]; 864 yen). This is pretty complicated, supposedly: a chocolate macaron, chocolate ganache with chocolate in it, chocolate with fleur de sel (a kind of salt) in it, and chocolate mousse. It is a rich chocolate cake and everything harmonized well, except the dryness of the macaron (?) wasn't really working for me, as texture. Maybe if I had known what it was (I found the description online later), I would have appreciated it at the time. I was worried that I am overly biased toward chocolate, but I realize that I'm also critical of chocolate cake that doesn't live up to what I think is the best I've had, so I suppose those factors balance out. This was definitely a good cake, but not something I need again and so hard to recommend at the price. I would like something more exceptional than design from the half dozen shops that I am designating "superb". Of course, I already knew that holiday cakes made for shape rarely are great, so maybe I should have chosen differently, but the description is sufficient interesting, now that I've had a chance to read it, it still seems like the logical choice, so no regrets, except that the photo came out blurry.

Café Mikuni's: Gateau Chocolat

Managed to get to Café Mikuni's (カフェミクニズ) before they closed. All the recommended (おすすめ) cakes were gone, but they had Gateau Chocolat （ガトー・ショコラ; 650 yen), which the card said was a specialty, so I went with that. It is a very dense, firm mousse with icing. It uses the good stuff, Valrhona chocolate, and tastes like it. Just chocolate mousse is pretty plain in general but this passes the "excellent" test of being something that I would like to have again or would consider worth learning to make. That's only the second cake from there, so among the shops I'm currently calling "excellent", it is a top priory, but I think it's not such a priority that I need to go again tomorrow. Instead, I'll wait until they reopen after the holidays starting this Friday, which will be in February.

Besides to and back Mikuni's, running was just down to the Meiji Ginju Gaien course and one lap at 11 km/h. Actually, going home was closer to that than 10 km/h, so I'm swelling my high-speed part. On the other hand, the Mikini's part was half and half 8 and 9 km/h (due to having to run through a low point in Wakaba by the shortest route; it might be faster to take Shinjuku Avenue or otherwise avoid the low spot). No trouble from last Sunday's long run. However, with the holidays, I'm pretty busy with non-running things, so I'm not sure how much running I'll get in until the new year. I'll look forward to planning longer runs and keep building. I need basically marathon distance to get to and do the Shibamata History and Culture Course, so that's the immediate goal, besides visiting more-distant cake shops, but I'm not hurting for much closer ones that I haven't visited yet.

Clair de lune: Chocolatine

Big walk mid-week, using a half-day of soon to expire vacation days. Trying to avoid overdoing it, and was a little too successful: the first 8.4 km averaged 4.5 km/h, which I'll count as 3/4 load of 5 km/h. Actually, that was to a pastry and bread goods pro shop first, which was not particular exciting (they had lots of forms for making different shapes).

Nearby in the cheapest looking place I know (it's about on the level of a 40 year old dry cleaners, with a heavy manual sliding door), but the cakes are at a more sophisticated level than one would expect to the exterior. They were working hard in the back (also tiny) seemed like, so I suppose they have contracts somewhere.


Anyway, got the Chocolatine for 540, which is just your standard chocolate mousse cake under chocolate glaze with a little pistachio mousse in the middle. They asked if I wanted take out or each in, which surprised me, but there is a sort of shelf bar created by one side of the baked goods display table, so you can sit back there under the liquor bottles and next to the mini-fridge or freezer with a couple bags of almond powder on top (see first photo), for lack of anywhere better to store them. So I ate in (declining the 200 yen coffee, since I don't drink coffee), and when she brought the cake, she said that ideally I should wait 1 or 2 minutes for it to reach the optimal temperature, so I did. And it was great. Still just the standard cake, but it totally worked as chocolate mousse (pistachio wasn't very strong) and I doubt that I've have better, and I've had several I think, but only blogged a couple, from Yamamuro and Toshi Yoroizuka. So, still an excellent shop after three cakes.

I walked back at a more normal but tire pace, 10 km at 5 km/h. My plan is for the next two shops to also be third cakes from they same tier, since I did three supposedly great jobs in a row, and there are only three of them left with new cakes anyway, so it the blogging and visiting was getting kind of repetative, but most other places are farther away, so I either need to go slow or weight until I build up my distance. I'll rest tomorrow (well, stretch inside) and then hit a near by one Saturday, maybe, and do another similar distance one to day on Sunday.

Arcachon: Equinox

Got my cake from Isetan again today, from the visiting shop, Arcachon. It was Equinox, for 500 yen, and seems to be tea cream inside chocolate mousse with a raspberry and mini blueberry macaron on top. Now, I thought there was blueberry inside, and maybe there was a subtle amount in the chocolate, but I'll need to go back to find out, which I intended to do because I've decided, partially from giving them the benefit of the doubt, that this was excellent. It's tiny, which is fine, put it puts some of the excellent shops in perspective, because they hold their cake sizes and just raise their prices as ingredient costs go up.

In other news, I've gone almost all the way with a cake recipe from my (the library's really) Super Patissier Book for "cake/batter/biscuit" (it's hard to translate "kiji" into English), which is by the Salon de thé Cerisier guy, where I've never been. There is some overlap between this and the SPB dictionary of "batter/cake", which is available in bookstores.

The first recipe, which was not the first I tried parts of, is the Marjolaine, which has a Japonaismasse (which is German) biscuit as the cake layers, between which it has ganache, creme praline, and creme chantilly. I don't do the creme chantilly for the top or the fancy decoration.

The biscuit is in the proportions 600 g egg white, 600 g granulated sugar, "appropriate" vanilla essence (so I skip, because I don't know, have, or care so much), 500 g hazelnut powder, 100 g of (not bread) flour and 200 g of powdered sugar. From my previous experience, I also add powdered egg white with the granulated sugar, because I can't make meringue without it. All the cakes in the beginning are nut-based biscuits as the cake theme. This makes 4 30-by-40 cm pans, which is 27 pieces of cake final 4-layer cake. For one 14 cm round tart form, which is what I've used, I only need 3% (18 g) of the base recipe, so one large egg is enough for two, and I can cut one in half, although I'd really like to get a fourth form and make all four layers together. Really, you are supposed to cut after you assemble and freeze.

As I was saying, you make a meringue with the egg white and graduated sugar (plus 5-15% of egg white power by weight of egg white, depending on the season) and whip it until the peaks just bend a little before cutting in the other ingredients, which should be sifted (I've got two sifters now, a big one for flour and powdered sugar and a tiny with big homes for nut powders). Then I spread it carefully in oil-sprayed and bread-floured 14 cm tart forms and bake for 30 minutes at 170 deg C in my convection oven (the recipe says 180 deg C, which is edible, but seems overly burnt, but the normal -10 deg C for a convention oven seems to work out).

The ganache for this is 150 g milk, which you boil (which seems extreme, but this is pretty much my first experience with ganache) and then add 300 g of 66% cacao chocolate and then 45 g of rum. For the creme praline, you need 600 g 38% fat cream and 200 g praline almonde (the paste). You combine and whip 7 minutes (or maybe the Japanese means seven-tenths), which means until paste-like. For the creme chantilly, you also need 600 g of 38 % fat cream and 40 g of granulated sugar and otherwise do the same thing. If you made topping, you would need another 150 g of 45% cream and 21 g of granulated sugar and do the same thing, plus some red food coloring and chocolate powder or something. The cake is assembled bottom to top, biscuit, filling, biscuit, filling, ..., so it gets thicker but lighter as you go up; but I couldn't pile the creme praline that high, so that's the one thing I left over of. Actually, I made extra fillings for the first try, so all the fillings were at refrigerator temperature this time, which is not actually part of the recipe. I'm thinking I'm put the creme praline in the freezer next time for long enough to get it thick enough to support the top two layers.

As a said at the beginning, after assembling, you put it in the freezer to harden before cutting, and of course, before eating. The first time, I just cut one biscuit disk into fourths, but this time I cut two disks into halves, so I'll try to actually cut that into two little pieces when it's ready. I'm not ready to take a picture.

Yoshinori Asami: Royal Chocolate

Did a very slow 1.5 km to the starting point of the Gaien course, partially intentionally and partially just I was really having trouble, because of my left knee and because I was not running toward cake. But when it came time to really run, I could do two laps (2.65 km total) very fast, which was the main goal for today. After that, I went to my start point (NW corner) for the Akasaka Palace course, did half a loop, and then went down to Akasakamitsuke and on to the Inner Moat course, which is 3.33 km and done at a moderate speed. Once around the Inner Course (taking the 5.1 km path) was also moderate, and then back to Akasakamitsuke and to where I left off the Akasaka Palace course to finish that lap, from where I took the unnecessarily hilly route up to Gaien Walk, following it only as far as the Lawson 100 on Shinjuku Street, which is 4.91 km and was very slow. Oddly, although my knee bothers me when I start running, running very fast sort of numbed it out and although it gave me trouble later, it didn't mind the hills at the end. Then walking home after shopping, though, was the worst, so it's stopping and starting that is a problem. Feels okay now. So about 17.5 km, which took a lot of time, so I can't run that far the next too days, because I really need to get some stuff done at home that isn't getting done.

The cake for today was from P. Yoshinori Asami, which is visiting Isetan in their newly expanded space, with really big display cases each holding only one example cake. Seems out of control, but it was crowded before. The cake was the Royal Chocolate for 540 yen. There are a couple fruits on the top, maybe cherries, but I couldn't tell, and a raspberry layer. Then there is a chocolate mousse layer and I think an almond mouse layer, although I need to go back and check the card. Finally, cake on the bottom. It wasn't hugely sophisticated but a long way from homemade-style, as it should be. It was excellent without really telling me what to expect from other cakes, since I selected the most likely to appeal to my tastes. Anyway, I'll need to get back there while they are convenient, which is until next Tuesday.

47.5 km with Nishiarai-Takenotsuka History and Culture course and P. L'Automne

Rain in the morning, so I waited an hour before it at least was thin enough that I could not see the splashes in the street and someone was not bothering with an umbrella. It still rained light for a few hours.

Had an okay run. Went very slow the whole way, which was 47.5 km. I was very tempted (after 4 hours running) and willing to extend the run to go back to L'Abricotier, since they are a top priority in a sense and I would just have to change where I turned to go by them, but I finally talked myself down into sticking with the plan. Left knee was not happy most of the time, but doesn't seem any worse and I don't feel anything when I'm not running (when I rested for a little, it felt completely fine and didn't really get more than annoying for the whole run). I'll try more complete rest for 48+ h and taking anti-inflammatories for the next could days and see if things go any better.

Still trying to figure out my next run. I'm busy on the weekend, so I'm taking a Monday off (also, to catch up on shopping, sleep, laundry, or whatever I'm low on after being busy). If I did them in order, after this one should be Shimabata H&C course, but that one goes by La Rose Des Japanais, which is a far shop I really want to get back to but is closed Mondays. Instead, maybe, I'll jump ahead to Sunamachi-Kasai-Mizue, which is less far but long. Originally, I planned to visit a shop I remember as being good but haven't posted on, but then the run would be little long for my next run, if I try to keep my increases to 10%, so I think I'll skip that cake shop, which is not a high priority and not so far by itself. I can pick up cake when I come back through Ginza or go by Isetan later. With that shop out, I save 3 km. Of course, then I'll have to think once again about how to increase Shimabata H&C course run, which I already added visits to Chiba and Saitama prefectures to stretch it to 49 km.

Today's target, the Nishiarai-Takenotsuka History and Culture course, comprises the Shimane-Rokugatsu Temple Tour Walk and the Ikou Temple Town Walk (according to my translation of the Japanese names), as shown on my map and is just over 7 km by my calculation. It's okay. There are few nice temples to go by and much of the last bit is on a stone paved sidewalk along an artificial irrigation channel (which sounds better than drainage ditch). I don't really need to come back up here, though, probably, but I haven't planned that far ahead.

The cake was at L'Automne, which I remembers as good without really evaluating it here. It's a nice shop, spacious, modern, and elegant. There are three two-person tables for eating in, which I did, and they didn't make me buy a drink (milk or yogurt would be great, but I think they just had tea and coffee), though had some reasonable cake and drink specials. I stuck to just the one cake, though. Not sure how that works out for them. They have to wash dishes, but save a box and bag. The custard and fruit was a nice touch, but the glass of water was more important. The cake is call Collage, for 540 yen, and is a thick layer of chocolate mousse, a medium layer of pistachio mouse, and a thin layer of raspberry between, covered in chocolate with a crunchy nut base. And it was definitely good. The raspberry is gelatin, but the mousses are without I think, or at least I remember being told that about their cakes on another day when I said it would take 2 h to take some mousse cake back home (back when I was doing long walks). Everything was good, and sometimes chocolate mousse is not for me, so I'm actually satisfied (it was better than today's Seven-Eleven donut, which was a Sweet Cream Donut, I think), but there was not really anything to make it excellent. Still, they're nice, so I'll look forward to getting back there some time.

Saturday: Suminami H&C, Yu Sasage

Today's route covered the Suminami History and Culture course, which is not that far from Yotsuya, but is relatively long. Started out with 6.13 km of moderate-paced running to get to the start (should have been a little shorter). The route covered the Yakushi Peaceful Wood Walk from Araiyakushi-mae Station (where I couldn't find a starting marker, which often there isn't) to Koenji Station, which runs past (P.) l'Abricotier, a shop worth checking out, and has a little path along whatever canal goes to Myoshoji Park.. From Koenji Station to Nishi("West")-Eifuku Station goes along the river (I'm not sure how to get Google Maps to show river names) Wadabori Park. There's a little construction, but the start is open and the detours are mostly obvious; however, the new map cuts into the park north of the baseball grounds, whereas the markers keep following the river for two more bridges, before heading south. Also, there is a spur to read the big map in front of the destination station which I missed on the way there but found on the way back. Part three is the Kanda River River Walk, which spends a lot of time along Kanda River, of course, which also has a lot of parks, all the way to Takaido Station. From there is Karasuyama Temple Village Walk, which actually runs along the raised expressway and the main surface street paralleling it, but has lots of parks and has a wide well-marked path along that part. This last walk ends at Chitose-Karasuyama Station, on Keiou Line. Total, I ran 16.69 km (including the unintentional detours, but not the construction detours, which weren't that big) slowly (though not that slowly). Lots of parks, rivers, and old temples. Mostly very well marked. I really like and recommend this course, although you do go through a lot of shopping streets around stations, so don't expect to race through it.

Conveniently, this put me near Yu Sasage, which is a priority "worthy" shop. This day's cake was Comparaison, which is a milk chocolate mousse cake with honey cream in the center and lemon, or at least lemon peel. I've had this basic kind of cake before (as far as chocolate mousse with lemon), but here the lemon was more intense, as juice bursts out when biting pieces of peel, and balanced delicious chocolate, despite being milk chocolate (so I still don't know why some chocolate cakes turn me off) and the base in the middle was a nut in chocolate disk (pecan, I think), a small layer of mousse above that, and a little cake disk above that go under the cream part. I mention the base, because I've had asymmetric lumps as the base of mousse cakes which did not impress me. This was 490 yen, which is fairly reasonable and was an excellent cake, so Yu Sasage remains a priority, even among worthy shops, since it could still theoretically turn out to be great. I did not, however, see any kind of fondant, so I wonder if the one I had before was just for Isetan, even if it wasn't marked that.

The trip back took longer than I intended. After eating my cake under one of the parks under the expressway (where the main surface road isn't right next to it), I followed the expressway as well as I could back to the H&C course and to part three. I had intended to get on Honan Dori, but turned too soon and end up on Inokashira Dori, which heads back toward the expressway (which dips south before heading back north, which is why I didn't walk to follow it. Well, extra distance is not terrible, so I followed Road 431 (I think it was Nakano Road) back in, going past P. Diamond and Concent, neither of which I know anything about or looked particularly special, although Concent was more a cafe and they had baked goods (and multiple customers). So the trip was 15.81 km at a slow pace.

That gives me a total of 6.1 km of moderate running and 32.5 km, so 38.6 km total, a reasonable expansion of last week's, but less than the 40 km that was my target maximum. Still, it was a busy day otherwise, so it was good to get that much in.

Kototoi History and Culture course, Toshi Yoroizuka

Got up about 6:45, but had some things to do, so I didn't get out until 8:00. That turned out to be a little late for getting back by 13:00, but was was home for the gas check, so no problem.

Today's course was the Kototoi H&C course, although I also confirmed a correction to the Senju course. There were some corrections to the Kototoi course, too, although mostly in terms of which side of the street to be on. I ended doubling back a couple times, including the doubling back, just because part 2 meets part 3 partway in, so if you want to do both in full in one direction, you have to double back.

The first part is is named the Shitaya 'Related Day' Walk, where a related day is a special day for that particular shrine.  This was fine and fairly short, 1.89 km on my map. The second part is the Sanja Festival/Bokutei Walk, which has a few problems. First, it's definitely a walk, not a run, and it goes into Sensou Temple up the main street, Nakamise Street, which is lined with venders and only for walking. In front of the temple, you turn right and head for Sumida River and go through a park there. However, the area where the path goes through is under construction. It looks like they'll be making a nice new path, but now you have take a detour, and I went a few hundred meters beyond the turn looking for a way through before deciding to go back instead, being able to see through gaps that Sakura (Cherry Tree) Bridge, an X-shaped pedestrian bridge, was open and that people were getting to it from the south along the levee. Even doubling back, I didn't really do the whole part at that time (I picked up the last bit on the main return) because I didn't continue beyond the levee on the east side, whereas the actual end was on the far side of the road running next to the levee. For part 3, which is the Sumida River-Seven Lucky Gods Walk, I had to first double back over Sakura Bridge and down to a different regular bridge, or rather, beyond that where there is a marker telling you where to split from part 2. After crossing the regular bridge, I had to go further than I expected, and found that I was on the wrong side (though not a big problem under the bridge), but then proceeded up the road next to the levee on the wrong side before spotting a marker on the other side and doubling back  2 or 3 hundred meters. There's a small side trip past shrines and parks, mostly this walk goes up the main road, although it's not bad as main roads go: I didn't mind using it coming back, although I used a parallel neighborhood road for about a fourth of that stretch.

On the way back, I first went to Mitsukoshi, which I saw they had actual canelé forms: 1500 yen for stainless steel and 3000 yen for copper. Didn't buy one. The brioche forms they had were 8 cm, whereas I was thinking that mine were 7.5 cm, so I decided not to buy any additional ones

Next, I stopped a Matsuya to remind myself what cake shops they had.

In Ginza, I stopped at Le Chocolat de H and they seemed to have only the café eat-in chocolate tart, not take-out cake. So I tried.

Next, by a not very well-chosen route, I got to Tokyo Midtown (east), and went ti Toshi Yoroizuka and got their "Most popular", which is usually not a good sign. It's not necessarily a bad sign, just I'm only interested in what is most popular among people who come in and buy one piece of cake (which is presumably for themselves). It is the John Pierre (sp?) for 580 yen.

I checked Henri le Roux, and so that their third (besides chocolate and salt caramel) kouign-amann flavor was green tea, whereas I was hoping for lemon. Wasn't mentally prepared for green tea cake, so I decided to give it a pass today. I'm willing to try it another time.

My estimate on my running was 9.8 km of slow and 25 km of very slow. I'll have to review whether I should do any running tomorrow. I've already got a least a little more than last week, so I could rest Sunday and start the next week of running on Monday. Of course, I could still do that if I only run a little on Sunday (and get cake at Isetan, for example).

The John Pierre got a little banged up from running (it's light and I was tired, so I didn't do a good job of keeping it steady), but I was able to reassemble it. It's chocolate mousse with pistachio. The mousse is pretty light and the cake was definitely good, but not exciting or special.

Still, I'm reasonably satisfied. Still, it motivates me to do some baking. I'm interested in bostock (but still haven't looked up a recipe to see whether I am interested enough to try to make it) and financier (ditto), but think I'd like to just back brownies next, although more of my flattish canelé would be nice, too (although a different kind of trouble). I have a lot of eggs, so should/want to make something.

P. la Glycine: Concert (2nd cake)

Somehow managed to get away in time to do a run to P. la Glycine. Since I've been running somewhat hard for a couple days and I only need a few kilometers to match last week, I deliberately tried to go slow, although not to the point of timing myself (although I did check at 1.5 km, which came in over 9'30'', which seemed about right. Total, my path down to Aoyama, Avenue, through Omotesando to Aoyama Gakuen University, down to Meguro River, and following it to the shop, took 41'35''09, covering 6.49 km, which is exactly my slow pace.
Coming back, I took 46'00''04 to cover 6.79 (including a pedestrian overpass), which is very slow.

The cake was Concert (or maybe Kontsert: it was only written in katakana) for 570 yen. This is "new" and chocolate. Similar to yesterday's, the top was mousse and the bottom was not, but this time the bottom was a dry/crunchy but somewhat loose biscuit with almond pieces in it rather than being poundcake-like. They boast using 80% cacao chocolate, so it's dark. It was very good and I appreciate the effort to make a different kind of chocolate cake than I've had before, so I'm keeping this shop as worthy (versus just good).

I think that leaves six worthy places with fewer than 2 cakes posted on, four at Isetan (although one is just a bakery, which I'll probably visit tomorrow), and two are distant, so I probably won't be getting to either soon, although maybe the closer one next weekend.

Sadaharu Aoki: Mont d'Or

Okay, first with the running. I decided to time myself around Akasaka Palace again, aiming for just one lap at a moderate pace. Since this has hills, it's more difficult than Gaien, which is almost completely flat, but the hills are all during the second half (the way I run it), so I'm not sure how to pace it, and anyway, I haven't memorized enough points of specific distance yet.

Apparently, I did a very fast 1.75 km to get to the starting point (northwest corner), not by the shortest route for no go reason, but it was a good route. The actual loop then was 18'46''14 for 3.31 km, which was actually fast. As I said, it was hard to judge and I wasn't that committed to moderate.

Then a moderate speed 1.87 km to Midtown to visit Toshi Yoroizuka, who was closed for an event (at the bar area, I could see) for the first time I've seen. No problem: I went inside to Sadaharu Aoki, where they had cakes that I hadn't had before as a 10-year "festival" (which is almost over) of being in Japan. The cake, Mont d'Or is chocolate mouse and almond cream on top. The almond cream must have then the pencil line-sized part on top, with the chocolate mousse as the main body. The bottom was a dense and pound-cake like, and is reportedly chestnut and cassis. I suppose there must have been chestnut flour in the cake, as I didn't notice actual chestnut pieces. I would have guessed that the red fruit was raspberry from the taste (and the sense of seeds in my teeth afterwards), but it was just an accent and worked well with the cake. The cake was different from anything I've had before from them, but it was a great, high-quality piece, which it should be for 830 yen. It had been a while since I had cake from a great shop. Still need to get to Toshi Yoroizuka, though. Maybe Thursday.

There were multiple chromometer mishaps, but I seem to have run another 3.3 km slowly (with cake on a crowded sidewalk) coming back, so I hit a variety of speeds today.

Friday: Jun Honma (Isetan) and racing shoes

Since the last cake from P. Jun Honma was great (although not exciting), I returned to Isetan for another piece of cake, this time Majestic for 550 yen.

The run was intended to be a short run, but I wanted to use the racing rather than thick novice shoes, which I have not used since my injury. First, I ran down to the start point of the Gaien loop course (the course has a start/end marker at the south point and 100 meter tiles, which I was not making much use of when I timed from the entry point at the northwest point): a moderate 9'03'' for 1.5 km. I did just two laps, from there, focusing on keeping my pace fast but stride short. To avoid dragging/swinging my right leg around, I tried to focus on bringing the right heel down and rolling off it. Also, I checked my time at the 500 m and 1000 m markers to make sure I was keeping my target speed. I had set up my timer to ring every 36 s but didn't use it (since the track is 1325, it would not have stayed in sync after the first lap anyway). Just two laps at a moderate speed taking 7'49''.33 and 7'46''.40 left me tired; yup, I've lost some muscle. Continuing back around before, and I thought trying less hard (but maybe that meant longer stride despite the slower pace) was 1.62 km in 9'25''24, which is actually fast; don't remember why now. So the today was 1.6 km fast and 4.1 km moderate.

The cake struck me as only good at the time, but I've downgraded that to okay later because ultimately it really made me want to have great cake, which is a bad sign. It is another chocolate mousse, this time with caramel crème brûlée. Like the orange cake, this was pretty unexciting and the basic flavors did not really add up to something worthwhile to me. Not bad or poorly made, but not something that I need. Sorry about the picture; guess the auto-focus or something failed. That's toasted puffed rice, maybe, covered in caramel, on top.

I got these last Thursday and have been trying them, just to explore what else the sweets section of Isetan has to offer. This is from the Yokohama Francais counter. I suppose should show what they look unwrapped, but I don't need three photos of them and I've only eaten one a day. The three flavors in this set, "Mille feuille", of six are chocolate, which was excellent, caramel, which was okay or good, and gianduja、which was at least good. "Gianduja" was a term I did not know for a mixture of chocolate and hazelnut. I've had what looked like chocolate but tasted like this and had not known what the weird flavor was and wondered if it had gone bad. This is the first I've finally "gotten" it. I think sometimes I mistake this taste for coffee, but the nuttiness is definitely there. This set is about 600 yen, about the price of a piece of cake, but can be stretched to six servings. Not sorry I tried it, but it's not going to replace cake in my life.

(P.) Jun Honma (at Isetan): Orange Noisette

Got cake from the visiting Jun Honma, since I've never blogged them, although I've had their cake before and visited their store at some point, I think. Since I did fast running last time, which I did not do last week, I kept it slow today: 4.3 km in 26'51'', which is 6.24 min/km, going out to the Akasaka Nikunohanamasa to get nuts (mostly roasted peanuts, but some almonds). Coming with my pack stuffed with nuts (it's not a big bag, but I had more than 1.5 kg) took 29'31'', which is a very slow 6.87 min/km. I don't want to make the mistake of running too much during the week, so Friday I'm thinking 8.3 km would be ideal, since that would give me 30 km for weekdays. Fast would be bad, but some moderate running would be okay. I'll probably get cake from Jun Honma again, so maybe I'll join the mob running around the Gaien loop. Less than 11 days until the Tokyo Marathon.

Today's cake was an oddly named Orange Noisette, for 460 yen. Well, not so odd, because it does have a little orange inside and there is a hazelnut on top, and I assume hazelnut is involved elsewhere, but mostly it is the standard chocolate mousse dome with a centimeter disk of Bavarian cream (?) inside, right above a couple millimeters of orange. The taste was very smooth and well blended (I don't mind the white chocolate, either), so I can imagine that the secret is how the hazelnuts are used, unless they are just involved in the couple millimeters of sponge base. Anyway, it is chocolate without being overpowering, watery, or anything else chocolate mousse cakes are prone to. I'm reminded of the ice cream-like mousse cakes that I have had, but this doesn't go that far in richness or sugar, which I appreciate. So it's doing something right, and I'll say that it is great and that Jun Honma is worthy of special attention. Since they are out of easy jogging range, I'll take advantage of them while they are at Isetan at least one more time (as I try to bring up all the "worthy" shops to 2 cakes before needing to get back to "great" shops).

Henri le Roux and Akasaka Palace laps.

Bought cake first and then went home and did laps.

The laps were around Akasaka Palace, which is a 3.3 km course and has the most slope for the distance of anywhere I run regularly. I initially thought that I should do 3 or 4 laps for a long run, but of course, that takes time and I had work today and will work tomorrow. I went fast and recorded a good time for 2 laps, so I considered quitting there, but it's hard to stop once you get going, so I split the difference and did 3 laps for the first time and left 4 laps for a different day. Four laps around Akasaka Palace is the same distance as 10 laps around Meiji Gingu Gaien, but the Akasaka course is hilly and farther away, and so is tougher.

Times were 17'06''81, 17'21''75, and 18'14''90. The last up-slope was tough to stay running at the beginning, and obviously my time increased a lot for the last lap. I'll probably have to start slower if I want to improve my 3-lap average, or at least to bring down my maximum lap-time for a 3-lap run. As it was, I didn't break my record for 1 lap, but went from under 20' to under 17'30'' for 2 laps (each and average), and got 3 laps under 18'30'' each and 18' average, which is pretty good.

My motivation for wanting a long run to begin with was holiday weight gain. My scale says that my body fat percentage is not up, but I don't trust its reliability for that (it consistently goes down several percent between morning and night, which seems unlikely, but I don't know how much it natural varies during the day).

Since the first cake was great, I went back to Henri le Roux at Isetan for a second type: Mousse aux Chocolat Madagascar for 540 yen. I'm not sure whether the chocolate is from the company Chocolat Madagascar or is just made from Madagascar chocolate. It's mousse, but between layers of dense, finely layered biscuit. It was very good and I'm going to say it was great, although it's a little subtle, which is nice sometimes.

If I find a third great cake there, I'll designate them great, but they don't have that many more kinds of cake (everything else was sold out today, but I got the one I was after), so it will be tough. Of course, the Tokyo Midtown shop has great Kouign Amann, so it could give them a "great" for that, but it's not cake and is at a separate location, so I'll leave them as "worthy" with a special note to visit the Tokyo Midtown shop for the Kouign Amann.