Sadaharu Aoki, Florentin Chocolat

Last week, no more cake Tuesday to Thursday, but I kept running, mostly working on revising the Jinguumae, specially the area north of Omote-Sandou, where I ultimately had to combined the new loop with the main loop (which had already absorbed two other smaller adjacent loop in the previous revision). One new shop on the route is Comebuytea, which I hadn't realized until now wasn't even on my map (and not on Google map yet, as it just opened). I don't know how the tea is (uses a machine like a coffee maker, apparently, so presumably it's fast), but they have some good packaged snacks (as found in the best convenience stores), though they had a display for this tart that hid that it was packaged. I've had this brand and size before from a grocery store, though the packaging is slightly different. Still, it seems to be a good brand. I could have gone for the muffin for about 500 yen, but I'm not sure who makes that anyway; it at least looked more local.

I also found a buffet sweets place (so a curiosity, but not somewhere I would go), Maison Able Cafe Ron Ron. Earlier, I did get to Isetan again, surprisingly, but En Vedette was already gone. Actually the Ma Patisserie is closing down at Isetan as of today, though there is still the other rotating sweets shop and a shop I'm interested in comes at the end of the month, so I'll see whether they sell cake. I got useful information on JPH's line-up, which I took advantage of later, but for Wednesday, what I got was a Gâteaux Sec (baked sweet): Florentin Chocolat, which was excellent. I should get the plain one.

Various non-cake

Saturday, I made my first real attack on the (as currently constituted) Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyamachou--Kitazawa--Komaba--Motoyoyogichou--Nishihara--Oohara--Ooyamachou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop. This is 30+ km. I had hoped that I would be able to run about 3 hours, but with the walking for taking photos of the majority of landmarks that I hadn't already visited, I was on my feet for more than 4 hours after under 2.5 hours of running. Also, I did a bad job of planning provisions, so I was out of physical energy, as well as low on phone battery and losing the light. My course had me running to the point by the Honmachi 1 intersection and I ended around Ikenoue Station, which I used to return, as my feet were sore (but in a normal way that I recovered from by the next day).

Croissant (Asterisque)

Had a few snacks and saw some interesting things. Near the beginning, in the part that I had already checked and photographed, I got a croissant from Asterisque, which was busy, like other similar places in Uehara, so it took a while. As appropriate for a quite good cake shop, they had an excellent croissant, which was suitably flaky on the outside and sufficiently baked on the inside: best of the recent ones I've had.

Auro Chocolate Japan

I need to adjust my course around there, but by chance I went by a building with a new chocolate store. I've yet to sample local beans-to-bar shops for chocolate, since that's not my focus, but I wanted to add it to my map, so I went in. It's deep in the back of the second floor, where no one else was going, so while the coffee and donut shop around the corner had a long line, this place was empty. I felt sorry for them, but not enough to buy chocolate, which I wasn't ready to eat (I hadn't eaten the croissant yet) and didn't want to run with. Their name is Auro Chocolate Japan, so I'll give them this shout out. I was certainly attracted to some items and regretted not buying later, when all I was visiting was park after park.

Of course, some parks are more distinctive than others. 

Egg Tart (Toyonchinotomago)

My next food was at an egg store, which was not on my map, so I added it. They also had some (packed) cake, but I bought an egg tart. I should not have been surprised about how eggy it was. Still, it was good. I think the crust was fairly solid, versus a flaky crust. This was from Toyonchinotamago (Toyonchi's Eggs). 

Soon afterward, I encountered a complex that had a bakery cafe (Tolo) and Shiro-Hige's Cream Puff Factory, which makes Totoro-shaped cream puffs. It's in a dark little relatively wooded nook where, if you're not looking for it, it would be hard to find, but the fans come. 

It was not long (or maybe it was, as there were a lot of photo-stops in between) before I was very hungry again, so I got a donut at a shop that also I think was not on the original map, Captain's Donuts. These are extremely lightly fried, so pretty moist, though not raw. Not very modern. I think this was just called Donut. Doesn't really need much else, though I should check when I next go by.

The most interesting place I saw was The Setagaya Catholic Church. Note what I expected to find near Shimo-Kitazawa Station, which is packed with old shops and young people. This is a theatre area, so lots of artists, I suppose.

I was still really hungry at this point, having only had breakfast about 8 hours before. So I visited the local cake shop on the way to the station. I thought about getting actual cake, but wasn't very confident about them, so I went with their Croissant. This small croissant turned out to be the soft, hotel-type breakfast croissant, which is okay with jelly or something, but doesn't belong elsewhere. Still, it was okay for what it was. The shop was P. Pierre, its typical of little traditional neighborhood cake shops. I'll consider the croissant a suitable sample and not feel very compelled to try their cake.

Saturday update

As planned, I went out and hit the neighborhood running course and finished revisiting some parts. I finished revisiting the Sendgaya central and Jinguumae north loops, though I have to traverse parts of both of these to get anywhere remaining. Down on the bit of the Kita-Aoyama--Jinguumae--Shibuya loop, I got a Chocolate Croissant from The Little Bakery Tokyo, which I've newly added. It was definitely good, though the outside was a little tough and the center was denser than I expected, so it was a little bagel-like. I also will add a picture to the map after this.

It took 50 minutes to cross the road from Yoyogi west, so that gives me a benchmark of how easy it is going to be to expand my running northeast (by doubling back). Today, though, was about filling in to the south on this side of Yamanote Line. I also got the same type of pastry, under the usual name of Pain au Chocolat from 15°C, which I still need a picture from (the shop, not the pastry). This was better, much more airy inside and the patterning is obviously more tradition, though still a little tough on the outside, so perhaps its just the heat. I found it interesting that the lines of chocolate inside weren't symmetric (one was in the middle and one was above and on one side, which made it seemed more handmade. Also definitely good, though I didn't eat it until was on my way back (at about 95 minutes).

Had to check a fork on the Hatagaya-Motoyoyogichou-Nishihara-Tomigaya-Uehara loop, since it's been a while, and I overshot the new turn on the Kamiyama-chou--Shouto loop, but doubled back and could complete revisited that loop, as well as the little Udagawa-chou loop for the Shibuya Viron, so mission accomplished. I ran all the way back (except stopping at Yoyogi Park to eat the second pastry) and had a total run a little over 115 minutes and seem okay.

Ginza run: no cake, just cake news

Went to the Jean-Paul Hévin chocolate bar in Marunouchi for the Chauson Chocolat, but found out that they only get those Mondays and Fridays. I was due to skip cake at least one days, so I wasn't really disappointed and now I know when to go (it would be weird that they would have them every day, because I wouldn't think their customer volume was high enough). Thought about completing the loop around the inner moat again, but could not remember very clearly whether I had seen this month's line-up at Frédéric Cassel, so I went to Ginza Mitsukoshi, where they had the Breteuil again, finally. I've got other plans for the next cake-off, but maybe after that. The other news is that Dalloyau, which used to be my #2 shop but now is just in the top 7, has closed their main store, in Ginza. It's a really old building, I noticed, looking closely at it, and seems to be completely vacant now, so I assume that they'll tear it down. Of course, the Mitsukoshi Dalloyau counter is just one block away (and now makes more sense, as I don't think that was there has year). Dalloyau's shop in Jiyugaoka will become their new main store, after some renovations (though it's big enough already, it seems like, but I'm not sure where they actually make the cakes). Running, I was trying to go a little fast going out, since I was slow getting started and didn't want things to close on me, so it was about 10 km/h for about 11 km total.

(Thur) Il Pleut sur la Seine: Croissant aux Amandes

In order to get the name of yesterday's cake, I went back to P. Il Pleut sur la Seine. I didn't get cake, though that would perhaps have been less decadent, as they did not have bostock, so I got Croissant aux Amandes (380 yen). As usually, this had almond paste inside, which makes it very heavy, but there was also almond paste (I assume) on top, like a layer of icing. When I bought cake yesterday, they gave me a sample Gallete Bretonne (which would normally be about 300 yen, so not a bad get), whereas today they gave me Baton Fromage (I was not really expecting anything with a pastry, but it cost almost as much as a cake, and I imagine at least double the calories). The latter two "secs" were definitely good, but I'm less interested in them than cakes and pastries (and demi-secs, like financiers). I had some shopping to do, stopping by Nikunohanamasa for roasted peanut pieces, so it was about 12 km total. Even with the temperature down, it was humid and not cool, and frankly I'm out of shape/practice for running fast, so I was still only 9 km/h.

La Splendeur: Praliné Chocolat

Not a very active weekend, in terms of running and cake. Friday night, I had an event to attend so no running, just hotel-catered (I assume) mixed fruit shortcake, which is bland/inoffensive by design (if anyone objects to a particular fruit, they could pick it off).

Saturday, I ran during a window of opportunity in my schedule when a shop that would not be available on a weekday should have been open but not yet sold out (I could also have tried to run somewhere late in the afternoon). Unfortunately, La Famille choose that day to open late (14:00, as announced by the paper sign on the door), and I couldn't wait. I could have grabbed something at Seibu nearby, but I could do that on a weekday and it was not great weather for running with cake, anyway, so I decided to just cache 1 unbought cake for the next cake-off (probably Thursday).

For Sunday, which was also hot, I decided to do cycling instead. First, I went down to new shop for me, La Splendeur, in Kugahara, Ota-ku, for a first cake. There were a few parfait-like desserts, which is probably not unreasonable for the season, but only three fresh cakes. On the other hand, none were the basic Japanese staples (shortcake, mont-blanc, and some sort of milk chocolate layer wedge cake). Anyway, selection was limited but showed some effort, the shop was pleasant, and the service was good.

The cake was also good. Besides decorations, the chocolate was the sponge base and the outer mousse and the praliné was cream inside. Not disappointing, but not interesting or good enough to get me back there until in the short or medium term.

From there, I did a tour of 6 non-workday shops and Paris S'éveille to check whether any great seasonal cakes had appeared or other great cakes had disappeared. Basically, I confirmed all the same cakes as last month, including this time Monsieur Arnaud, which was missing when I visited on Tuesday late afternoon.

Toshi Yoroizuka Tokyo: Caramel Flambé

No running Saturday and café dessert rather than the usual fresh cake, but still worth mentioning, since this is a cake brand whose shops I've visited frequently and think are excellent. Their Tokyo Midtown shop is nearest, but this one is also convenient to many things and quite spacious. We each got the Grand Menu, which at 3000 yen was surprisingly cheap for this level of service, food, and atmosphere, although they were not so busy (the whole Kyobashi Station area was not that busy, though there were still plenty of people around, just not so many compared to nearby Tokyo Station or Ginza, I assume). The Grand Menu comprises three courses: the "side dish", which is chocolates, sauce, and fruit, a plate of strawberry risotto (not shown), and a main desert. I choose the Caramel Flambé. The other is gorgonzola and pistachio, I think, but I don't remember the name.

The chocolate plate was excellent. The sauces are raspberry and some citrus, that I did not catch the name, though they might not have been any more specific that that.

I didn't take a picture of the strawberry risotto, since it's pretty far from what I usually blog about and I don't photograph everything I eat, but I probably should have in this case, since it was also quite excellent, very creamy, and a unique experience that I recommend. On what to me is a trivial note but does relate to the quality through the direct attention of the proprietor,  apparently the one preparing the strawberry risotto in front of us (it's set up as a bar) was the Grand Patissier himself, Toshi Yoroizuka, who has celebrity status outside the culinary field from being a widower of an actress.

The Caramel Flambé was great, as well as being highly in keeping with my bias, which is why I choose it. The tart was pretty unstable once I cut into it, so I finished off the ice cream relatively early. Otherwise, it was a nice combination or caramel flavors, as well as being photogenic (this gets featured on advertisements), though the overlap between my tea cup and whatever those sheets sticking up out of the ice cream are has spoiled that part.

I won't try to judge the other dish, since I didn't have that much of it and it is mostly ice cream, which doesn't interest me much, but yet another example of the fine plates.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Truffe de Truffe

For lack of other cake options, to further pay off my cake debt from doing a cake-off on Sunday and reward the winner, and just because I'm behind on sampling things from my favorite cake shop, I went to Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan for something new and ended up choosing their Truffe de Truffe (~350 yen?). This turned out to be maybe great, though it is difficult to tell with something that is gone so quickly. It's light (as in airy) chocolate ganache in a thin chocolate shell covered in cocoa powder. It's very dark but not bitter. If they had other types Truffe, which I don't think they do, I would definitely try them next (until the next new fresh cake comes in).

The run for Friday was 13.2 km at about 10 km/h. I followed the Tokyo History and Culture course from the beginning of the Gaien Walk to the corner of Hibiya Park, where multiple courses meet, and then just headed home. Along some parts, I was actually following the course on the opposite of the street after being block by a demonstration near the Diet Building. I had considered doing a training run I had heard about designed to increase fat burning: 1 km warm-up, 1 km about as fast as possible, 3 min slow, 1 km as fast as possible, and then immediately run, I'm not sure how long, maybe 7 to 10 km, at a jog. But I'm not sure that fat burning is my problem (though my body fat doesn't go down) and something more fun seemed more reasonable. A training run is best for after a rest day, when I have maximum energy, so maybe Sunday night, since I'm taking off Saturday, for one reason because I've used all but a little bit of my two-week budget, at 181 km relative to 12 km/h (108% of two-week max up to one week before). Still not fully sure what I'll do next week, but I'm planning to rest Friday and Sunday will be a makeup for Saturday, perhaps, so with Dalloyau and one long run to an unblogged shop, perhaps I'll probably do another cake-off with easy-to-get-to shops (although that's been tricky in the past, midweek).

Research run around Tokyo Station:

Today was a no-cake day to make up for yesterday's cake-off, so I did some research around Tokyo station: Marunouchi Jean-Paul Hévin to Viron (where they do have their chocolate cake that I might need for the next cake-off) to the new Kyobashi Toshi Yoroizuka, to Ginza Mitsukoshi to Le Chocolat de H, where I got a Vanille (a vanilla macaron; 250 yen), because I couldn't remember which chocolate macaron I had had before. Total run was about 12 km (I ended at the Lawson 100 to top-up on tofu and yogurt) averaging 11 km/h.

The macaron was excellent. It's on the small side and a little on the dry, hard side in the sense that the outside has a crispness but the center still has some softness. I prefer this type to ones that are allowed to get really soft throughout.

Le Petite Mec: Baguette

No cake today, but I did stand in line at Le Petit Mec and managed to get half a baguette (140 yen) before they sold out this time. It was excellent, nice and chewy.

The run was a 12 km/h training run at Meiji Jingu Gaien, this time 6 laps, which is 50 m short of 8 km. The first lap was hard, as always, and yet checking every 100 m, I kept a constant pace then, and was still on track on the last one, when I was checking every 600 m. More than one lap, I speed up near the end, just in case, because my time was just a couple seconds from exactly 12.0 km/h, and I didn't want to loose the lap to a mishap. Was still okay on the last one, so I assume that I could keep this up for a 10K. Eventually, I'll test that at the 5 km moat course, though that's less flat. Pretty crowded now all the all the usual courses. Guess we're about a week out from the Tokyo Marathon.

Training run at Meiji Jingu Gaien

Did a training run of 13.0 km/h 300 m intervals, which took 4 laps with intervals. As usual, almost half was actually above 14.0 km/h, especially toward the end. Also, it was no surprise that runners are nice, as I dropped something and someone came running after me to return it. Not sure whether he saw me drop it or just looked for the stupid foreigner. No cake today, as I had cake and no running on Friday, so I show you my latest macaron efforts. Actually, they are a little dry by this point.

Maison Kayser: Chausson aux Pommes

Decided ahead of time that it was a good day to skip the cake, though I just took a step down to viennoiserie, which is to say, fancy bread. In this case, I got a Chausson aux Pommes (ショソン　オ　ポム; 302 yen) from Maison Kayser at Isetan. Maison Kayser only opened there fairly recently and has several fancy things not found at other Isetan counters, so they fill a niche. This one is rather plain, being a very flaky apple pie, but it was good. Maison Kayser used to be my favorite place when I was living in Narima District and came into the Ikebukuro Station area.

The run was lap training at Meiji Gingu Gaien. I did three laps (about 4 km) at +12.0 km/h, which was hard, but I managed to stay just high enough coming home to call that 12 km/h, so I may be able to do 4 laps next time. Not sure when that will be be. Have a three day weekend (with a Monday holliday) coming up and I need to get to Au Bon Vieux Temps one day and still keep in the budget, but would like to get somewhere the other two days, too. Monday, though, I probably won't have much budget left and will do some sort of training run, but even 4 laps might put be over.

Running without cake

Had bad luck even before I got out running. I was in a hurry (for no reason, as it turned out), and bashed my arm on a door and then got a jacket zipper stuck and broke it (it was old and cheap, though), before getting to Anniversary and seeing that they were closed at 6 pm (which is on their homepage, which I looked at but apparently it did not make an impression). From there, I decided to do a run to Tokyo Midtown to check what Henri le Roux was up to, which turned out to be being permanently closed, as of Dec. 26. While I was there, I checked out Dean & Deluca, which is a kind of deli and café, and noticed for the first that the few cakes they have there come from other local shops (whose names I recognized except one). That could be useful information at some point, since Dean & Deluca has longer hours. Now the question in my mind is whether all Dean & Deluca shops have the same selection of cakes. This time I chose to go without cake. I might get something from Isetan tomorrow, regardless of whether I run, since I'm a couple days behind (although I've also done a lot of short training runs).

From Tokyo Midtown, I came back to Meiji Gingu Gaien and did a lap and a half of intervals, 12 km/h (1.225 km in 4 intervals) and 10 km/h, which was my speed for most of the run, which in total was about 9.5 km. I'm still 20% below my weekly running budget, since I've been doing more speed work than long runs. With the holidays coming, I'm not sure how much running I'll get to, but perhaps some.

Henri le Roux: Bouchée au Praliné Croquant

Messed up Monday and ran without cake. I've been shuffling my schedule too much and forget which one I checked the hours on and Asterisque is not open Monday, but I still got in 11 km at 9 km/h, which was too fast. I was 1 km over Sunday cycling and needed to run back slower, but I didn't know the kilometer marks, just I slowed down, but not enough, I just went from less than 1/2 km/h above 9 km/h to less than 1/2 below, and I'm not doing fractions, so I was over budget. On the other hand, I expanded my running budget by less than 1% over two weeks, so if it jumps an extra 1% over the maximum (which is supposed to 10%, but I pad that with weekly walking), then no big deal. I couldn't run today anyway.

Instead, I went to Henri le Roux (at Isetan) and really splurged (it sort of counts for Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday), and got the Bouchée au Praliné Croquant (ブーシェ・オ・プラリネ・クロッカン, 972 yen) which is a big crunchy (but soft) chocolate praliné stick, which is why it costs three times a normal little chocolate, although the quality is similar. I tried to ask what ブーシェ (buushe) means and they looked it up in their notes, but didn't know (actually, it means a mouthful). Well, it's just a department store counter. What I really wanted was to try their praliné mini tarts, which are only available at Isetan, but they only come in the gift sets that started at 3000 yen, so not something I'm going to get into lightly. Anyway, great sweet, in the sense that I definitely want to remember to get it again, but not, of course, cake, so sort of a side project.

Full disclosure, I'm also working through my raspberry chocolate not-quite macarons, which I'm surprised have gone moist inside from absorbing moisture from the ganache, which is supposed lwhat you're supposed to want, but that ganache had sat in the freezer for too long and was dried out, so I hadn't expect a change even after two days (which is the recommended about of time of waiting before eating after filling, not that I'm intentionally that patient).

Homemade: 6 km around Akasaka Palace

Received food gift

Food-gifting escalated this week. It had started last spring with a simple scone/canelé encounter but a mini-macaron got out of my control and the return of a meringue-like almond cookie (but not sweet) and some sort of spice bread (banana?) forced me to retaliate with 4 mini-canelé. I'm hoping for a truce now, although there are rumors of another front opening around Christmas with a stollen attack. (I'm happy to try a new dessert.)

On the running front, had a scare yesterday with my knee. Not a good day, but woke up okay. Didn't decide until the last minute whether to run and still wasn't sure at the beginning and end whether that was a good idea (but the middle seemed okay). Just over 6 km, including the Akasaka Palace loop, all just under 8 km/h average (although with overpass stairs and more slopes than usual).

I've still got around 10 mini-canelé, but I should try to improve my carob brownies to make them less brick-like, such as reducing the carob a little, increasing the butter, and cooking a little less. Also, less mixing.

Meiji Gingu Gaien course: canelé

Just a training/body-testing run today, about 4 km total, 1.2 km of which was 10 km/h interspersed with some 8 km/h, with the final 1.5 km at 9 km/h to Marusho supermarket to get milk for canelé to use the yoke left over from yesterday's experimental cake component, which was just egg white and almond powder (basically, just an almond, unsweetened shortbread, so it was just a base). I suspect that there was an error in the book that left out more sugar that went in with the almond powder.

I include a picture of the canelé I made because these are actually new: I got a regular mold (maybe 60 ml?), so even you bake it until the outside is brown, it's still custard-like in the middle (and you can taste the rum), unlike the mini-canelés. This should tide me over as far as homemade until Friday, when I plan to make carob brownies (tomorrow, I want to run to Ginza for patisserie cake).

I should also mention that I had another chocolate from Henri le Roux that was excellent, this time the Goma (sesame), which is seasonal. Haven't had a bad one yet, though I have avoided the coffee ones and stuck to the dark coated chocolate ones. I'll do milk chocolate before coffee.

Henri le Roux (Tokyo Midtown): Kouign Amann Yuzu Matcha

Took a short run to Tokyo Midtown for the first time in a long while to visit the Henri Le Roux there, where they have kouign amann. Round trip, it's only about 6 km total, and was on the low side of 9 km/h (I don't count the vertical distance from using the pedestrian overpass twice, which is about 40 steps high). As the seasonal flavor, they just changed over to the Yuzu Matcha (powdered green tea). These are small but only 324 yen. This one was only okay. I might have gone with "good", but I was not fond of the green tea aftertaste. The yuzu was particularly detectable over the caramel taste. On the other hand, I count this as a pastry, so it does not penalize them as a great cake shop.

More importantly, I've been wrong about them: they do have cake at the Midtown store (although getting it before it sells out is a separate issue), which of course they do: they have an eat-in space. This evening, they only had one cake left around 19:30, but I should have noticed before that they have cake (the hard part is not noticing, it's retaining any memory after running). The more important information for me is they have a supposedly exclusive cake there that is only available as eat in (and is 900+ yen), so I'll definitely go back. I was planning to go to Midtown for dining over the next holiday weekend already, but I'm going to want to change the target now to them.

Tomorrow is baking, although it might just be canele to free up some eggs whites, though really I want brownies: too many competing recipes.

(P.) Porte Bonheur: closed

Yesterday, I worked late, so ran today, to Porte Bonheur in Bunkyou ward. It is supposed to be open 10:00 to 20:00 Tuesday to Sunday according to Tabelog, which is the only detailed information I have (homepage and Facebook page are not helpful), but they were actually closed and there was no sign on the door suggesting that this was unusual. Didn't have any backup, although Atelier Kohta along Karugazaka was still open, but I was okay with just eating another of my macaron stash when I got home. Maybe I'll try Porte Bonheur again some time when I'm on my way somewhere else. L'Essentielle is nearby, but it would have to be a weekend (they close at 1900), or Heritier over in Hakusan would work, though I'd normally choose an easier route. Anyway, I'll go to Mitsukoshi Ginza or Dalloyau (or there are other backups open until 21:00) tomorrow, I hope, so I'll recover. And maybe I'll get an extra cake from Au Bon Vieux Temps Saturday, since they are inconveniently far for my current running level and some of their cakes are pretty small.

Running was okay. Just on the 9 km/h side going and slightly less, so on the 8 km/h side, coming back: 8+ km total distance.

Gaien Walk

Decided to do the Gaien Walk, for the hills, rather than the track, although it crosses through the middle of the track on it's southern most segment. This involved about 5 km total, most of it on the Gaien Walk itself, averaging closest to 9 km/h, even with some steep slopes here and there. The reward at home was finishing off the mini canele supply.

Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery in Meijijingu Gaien.

Opposite view from in front of Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery.

Walking to Frédéric Cassel, macarons

Walked to Frédéric Cassel, again in on again off again typhoon rain (tail end, or maybe the next typhoon). My goal was their vanilla mille feuille just mentioned on the website (not the seasonal "inspiration" finger version), or macarons if not. I was so focused on that, that I missed that they actually had another cake I could have gotten until after ordering one each of Macaron Vanille and Macaron Chocolat for 260 yen each. Now, I'm too used to my chewy homemade ones (probably I should bake them less, but I'm still working on other problems to spend time experimenting with that), so while these soft ones were good, I'd rather get chocolates there next, if I don't get cake.

On the walking side, I did 10 km, with the first at 6 km/h and then the rest at my target 5 km/h (distance over speed).

The cake I didn't get was over 1000 yen though, for a single-serving-sized "ruby" chestnut tartlet, which requires mental preparation. I think I'm there now, but I wouldn't have wanted to carry it home walking in the rain, and I'd rather share it.