We left Buenos Aires this morning – early. Too bloody early. Our flight wasn’t until 0920 and even though it was a domestic flight, we have been advised to get to the airport two hours beforehand – like you would for an international flight, on top of which it was going to take up to an hour to get to the airport… So our transfer was booked for 0630 with Jorge… Jorge was recommended to us by Ceri as a reliable driver with a vehicle large enough to take the four of us and our four largish suitcases. So yeah, we were up stupid early after being up drinking until 0130 or so. Clever, huh?
We made it to the airport in plenty of time – Jorge sped us safely through the early morning traffic while we watched the most startling pink sunrise come up over the shanty town areas of Buenos Aires. Again with the speed landscape photography, only the blurred mess I shot out the window of Jorge’s flying Mercedes minivan matched my foggy mental state perfectly on this occasion.
Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike ‘slum tourism’? By that I mean tours that take obviously financially comfortable/wealthy tourists into the favelas or shanty towns (which our tour yesterday did briefly) so they can gawk at how the people are living in poverty? I hate that shit. I can’t imagine how it would feel to be living in a run-down shack with a piece of corrugated tin for a roof and watch a $300,000+ bus roll through your neighbourhood with 50 or more wide-eyed, Sketcher wearing, fanny-pack wielding, (largely white) tourists staring at you from behind UV tinted windows. Fuck that. These people are living their lives and doing their best to get by – it’s not a spectacle, it’s survival. 🙁
But I’m off topic – we flew from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia with Aerolingus Argentina, a local airline who, unbeknownst to us had a 15kg luggage limit. Great, my bag with all its bulky warm stuff in it was nearly 20kg when we left home – the heaviest my suitcase has ever been when leaving the country (it’s routinely over 20kgs on the way home but never over about 16kgs when I leave). I got it down to 18.5kg but I still got slugged with a 590ARS (about $40) excess luggage fee anyway. (*Ed: I just met a woman named Shirley at dinner who flew with the same provider and her baggage was 6kgs over but her husband’s was right on 15kgs and she didn’t get charged. I was the only one of the four of us who was over, but I got charged. Bastards!). Any-hoo… in for a penny in for a pound, I say. So if I’m going to get slugged on the way home, I may as well go the full hog and head home with 25kgs – they’re just going to hit me with the fee anyway!
We also had a ‘hidden stopover’ on our flight – which meant we made a scheduled stop somewhere to refuel and to dump some passengers and pick up a few extras, only 95% of us just stayed in our seat during this roughly 45min process. I still have no idea where we were stopped, as most of the in-cabin announcements were in Spanish and English versions were so thickly accented I couldn’t understand them anyway. So a hidden stop-over and then onto Ushuaia.
Ed: I did find out from Jorge where this ‘hidden stop’ was – a place called, El Calafate in Patagonia which is famous for its Peiro Moreno Glacier which, just a week after we were there, had an enormous ice bridge calving…
Anyway, we arrived in Ushuaia and the first thing that happened was Aunty Mary left her backpack on the plane thinking one of us had grabbed it for her – which of course we didn’t as we had our hands full with overweight hand luggage that was supposedly keeping our checked bag weight down. So she had to go back to try on to the plane to try to find it – the staff had apparently moved it on her, but thankfully she managed to reclaim it. I was so relieved the missing backpack didn’t become a ‘thing’.
On the drive from the airport into town… I’m back in Ushuaia! Unbelievable.
We exited the airport (funky building it is too) where we were greeted by Quark Expedition staff, they helped us with our luggage and transferred us to our hotel… only it turned out they were transferring us to our hotels – plural.
For some reason, Aunty Mary and Lyn were staying at a different hotel, we had no idea why because neither of them had brought paper copies of their booking with them, and they were (initially) none too pleased. Then Aunty Mary went around the back of the van to get her suitcase and it just wasn’t there either – whereupon a small panic ensued before it turned out they had already offloaded her bag while she was trying to ascertain why she was at a different hotel… A misplaced backpack and now a misplaced suitcase = not fun. Did I mention that we were all really rather tired?! :/
The view at their hotel apparently ameliorated the inconvenience of being in a hotel somewhat out of town it seems… and we received this pic fron them shortly after they checked in.
Trish and I were ferried to a different hotel, the Canal Beagle, right in downtown Ushuaia which was decidedly older and less flash and had a view much more like this – complete with construction, smashed windows, stray dogs and all good things.
Didn’t matter we were only going to be there for one night.
At 1830 we had a Quark Expeditions briefing where we found out that we wouldn’t actually be embarking until 1600 the following day. So this pick up day in Ushuaia was officially Day 1 of our trip, and we thought we were embarking first thing the following morning, but not so – we just had to have all our luggage at reception by 1000 so it could be transferred to the ship but we wouldn’t actually be embarking until 1600.
Which meant we had zero plans for an unexpected day in Ushuaia. Lyn and Aunty Mary decided they would book a helicopter tour over the area, and Trish and I decided to go to the Tierra del Fuego National Park – I went there on my last trip and it was positively spectacular, so I was happy to journey into the park again. I figured I would decide in the morning if I wanted to do the prisoner train again, but at least we roughly had a plan.
Next things next. Dinner. I found us a choice of two restaurants after a bit of Googling – the Restaurant Villaggio for seafood and Italian style dishes, or the Estancia Parilla for Argentinian BBQ. Well, we thought nothing was going to top our Desnivel steaks from the night before so we opted to go to Villaggio. Chosen for the enormous king crab options on the menu – not disappointed!
It was a lovely restaurant with delicious foods – we had a beautiful meal and then headed back to our hotel/s. King Crab Casserole with Roquefort cheese, Grilled Atlantic Salmon and fries, Tenderloin Steak (fillet) with Potatoes au Gratin and that whole crab platter photo was snapped at a nearby table. 🙂
After dinner, we went for a quick wander through town back towards our hotel, but of course, most places were closed for the evening so we will have to double back and explore more tomorrow.
Gifts made from Rhodocrosite also known as Rosa del Inca or Inca Rose stone. It is the national stone of Argentina and is particualrly stunning for it’s beautfiul red and pink hues.
And thus endeth our uneventful transit day… all things being relative.
Back out on the street, even your regular little corner agift store is packed to the gills with merchadise in every nook and cranny. Everyone is a bull on the china here, there’s no avoiding it. They have so much merchandise all crammed into such tiny little stores that you can’t help but knock half the products… which is why they are all secured to shelves using clips and hooks and everything swings and moves as you walk through the store.
And of course, EVERY store has its adults-only upstairs areas (which are sometimes as many as three or more floors bigger than the floor of Dragonball Z toys and Pokemon plush that attracts people into the place! So much porn! When I wondered out loud, ‘Who actually pays for porn in this day and age?’, the Teenager replied, ‘Well, if you want something specific, you have to pay for it.’ 😮 
Gaming and vending machines are everywhere… throw in your yen, and manouvre the dodgy gaming controls for a chance to win an enticing soft yellow squishy thing! 🙂 
Or throw in slightly more yen and get a chance to win this off license Pikachu. 🙂 
Racks and racks of toy dispensing machines line the streets. They usually take between Y200 and Y500 and dispense a random little plastic toy-in-a-ball. They must be profitable, but I can’t help but wonder who is buying all these toy-in-a-balls? They’re obviously designed to be collectable but still…
This one is a corker – there are five plastic wearable badges in this machine, with one of five cute anime girls on each button which you will get at random…
…and on the bottom of the machine are pictures of a man having a sad/tired rough time. We used the Google Translate over the text and basically, it was saying that if you buy this badge, you can escape the drudgery of your everyday life and be happy! Happiness! This little machine is selling escapism and happiness… that’s one helluva badge!
Manga stores everywhere.
Even more floors of porn…
Mr K lost in the back of the porn floors… I didn’t go up, but he said, the higher up the floor the more ‘extreme’ the content gets.
Phew after all that searching through figurines and anime and dodging the porn, we stumbled onto the Mocha Cat Cafe. Now I am not a cat person as many of you will know, but the whole concept intrigues me somewhat.. why would you pay to go hang out in a cafe full of cats?
A lovely lady helped us with some hand sanitiser, slippers and of course, the Rules (rules? for being around cats?!?) and explained the cost – Y200 for every ten minutes you stay, and you must buy a refillable drink for Y350, so a minimum of Y550 per person to go in and ‘relax with cats’.
Inside was a space with a lovely decor, delighfully Japanese’d Christmas Carols playing quietly in the background and a huge anime library where you could sit down and watch some tv while you cuddle some kitties.
The anime library – with a huge selection, no doubt designed to keep you in the kitty cafe as long as possible.
Cats chillin in their weird little hanging birdcage things… very well fed cats btw. You can feed the cats for an additional Y500.
For 1pm on a Wednesday, it was amazing well patronised. There were quite a few people there, even one lady on her laptop who had obviously settled in for quite a while to get some work done.
After, oh I’d say about eight and a half minutes of quality looking-at-cats time (Nope – didn’t pet any, me and cats, meh), we went looking for somewhere for some cheap and cheerful brlunch. It was pretty cold today so we went looking for some small Japanese curry bowls which we thought would fill the bill given we were planning a very late dinner tonight. 
We came across this place down the road from the cat cafe that looked perfect – nothing on the menu but curry. So in we went. From the pictures on the menu, portions looked perfect for lunch and it was chicken, pork or prawn curry… order your curry and biru from the little machine and go take a seat.
We were right about this being a great curry restaurant but not so much on the polite portion sizes. We got huge plates of curry, which I have to admit did not look so appetitisng… but once you tried it, absolutely delicious. Probably the best katsu curry I have ever had. 
The Teenager was very happy with his wash, probably the first meal we’ve had that filled him up!
After I was waiting outside and found out from the signs that this place has prize winning curry in 2015 for some big curry conference/competition – so no wonder it was good. I have no idea what the place was called though. Couldn’t fathom it for love or money.
After lunch, we went for a wander into Shibuya, just because we could – to do a bit of shopping and have a look around.
Oddly, this slick black store is a Disney Store… and no, I didn’t go in. The retail pain of working the Disney Store over Christmas is still altogether too raw.
Then it was back to Shinjuku for our booking at the Robot Restaurant. When we were in Tokyo two years ago, we had booked tickets to take the then, Small Child, to go see the Robot Restaurant as we thought it would be quite the spectacle for a kid. Unhappily at the time, it was closed for renovations the week we were here. Now, we come back and I thought he’d be over it, but unhappily he still wanted to go. So we duly went and bought tickets.
Right from the front door you get an inkling of what you are in for – more glitter, sequins, neon and mosaic mirror tiles per square inch than you would have thought humanly possible.
We were then welcomed into the Guest Waiting Room whereupon it took my eyes a full ten minutes to recover from the visual assault on the senses. It’s like Versace and Las-Vegas-Fat-Elvis had a litter of tattooed, vajazzled love children, and they vomited all over the place in here.
This is his, ‘somewhat overwhelmed but trying to be blase about it look’. 😉 
Neon ceilings floors and walls, golden seashell glass-topped tables, gilded rose embossed chairs, massive tv screens and oh, so so many mirrors just on every surface.
Even the bathroom was a sight to sore the eyes.
Then the bell went and it was time to descend into the basement of the building for the show itself. We were treated to quite a few Christmas Carols in the waiting area while we sipped on our freebie sake (which tasted nothing like sake…?) and I was getting concerned that we may actually have been stuck with an entire Christmas themed show… I definitely would NOT have signed up to sit through that.
Upon being shown to our seats – the first thing wheeled in front of us? The souvenir cart swiftly followed by a drinks cart. Then it was a few safety rules (keep your hands in, don’t touch the robots, no flash photography) and it would soon be on with the show. 
We then had a fifteen-minute interval where, you guessed it, they tried to sell us more souvenirs and drinks. 🙂 The next vignette appeared to have some sort of post-apocalyptic theme running through it – robots had taken over the earth but the humans were fighting back or some such. It was all a bit obscure, to be honest, and passed in a blur of lights and loud noises.
You may think these photos are out of focus or dodgy, but I like ’em!
And yet, through all this noise and lights and pyrotechnics and craziness… these two beside us slept through the lot!
By the way, if anyone is interested in going to this overpriced tourist trap, err, I mean unique Japanese cultural experience – there is a Tourist Information centre at Shinjuku bus station that has tickets for about Y2,000pp cheaper than you can buy online or at the RR. It’s well worth a couple of bucks on the subway to head down there to pick up discount tickets.
We were headed to the Kachi-kachi Ropeway to go up to view Mt Fuji. 🙂
The Kawagauchiko Ropeway takes travellers up Kachi-kachi Yama, which translates roughly as ‘Fire-crackle Mountain. The ‘kachi-kachi’ bit being an onomatopoetic word for the sound a fire makes, and ‘yama’ meaning mountain. The cute little hiking rabbit and his tanuki (Japanese racoon) companion are a cutesy little theme that run through the complex. 
Lake Kawaguchiko and the town of Fuji-Kawaguchiko.
Mt Fuji. On our last trip, Aunty Mary, Mr K and the Teenager all hiked to the top of Mt Fuji, but this is the first time they have actually seen it! The weather was so poor they climbed the entire mountain in raid and clouds and fog, so they never actually saw the peak of the mountain after their arduous journey.
The Usagi shrine dedicated to the rabbit from the Kachi-kachi Yama myths… must have been one special rabbit!
It is said that if you ring the Bell of Tenjo while watching Mt Fuji and make a wish, your wish will come true.
The rabbit helping the poor, crying tanaki.
No idea what is going on in this one…
The two friends looking off the mountain, farewelling guests.
I couldn’t tell you what they are exactly, but apparently, there are a smattering of references to this myth in Super Mario Sunshine.
At the base of Kachi-kachi Yama is the world famous Fujiyama Cookie shop! Where, you can buy all manner of Fuji styled cookies and candies.
Camembert cheesecake… sounds amazing. Amazingly suspicious!
Also – the widest variety of weird KitKat flavours known to man… Wasabi flavour, Strawberry Cheesecake flavour, Sake flavour, Apple flavour. 
Nearby was the Ide Sake Brewery, unfortunately, we spent too much time up Kachi-kachi and missed the last brewery tours, but we made a mental note to make up for it this evening.
After this, it was back into town for a little shopping and then the bus trip back to Shinjuku bus station, whereupon we did a little more shopping 😉 and then went hunting for dinner.
Saw this on the menu. Obviously, we had to order it to find out what it was… turned out to be a tasty tasty Martian alien octopus thing.
And the most delicious and affordable sushi platter ever, Y990, which at the moment is around AUD$11. Fabulous food in a busy little restaurant – I would highly recommend hunting this place out if you are in Shinjuku.
Another wonderful day in Japan over it was back to our shoebox hotel room for… another soak in the tub. 🙂 This time with extra sake!
Ikebukuro Main Street.
And then we found the place – basically a Disney Store but for Pokémon, and at this time of year – packed to the gills with people, lots of loud annoying music, kids running amok and more plush toys than you can poke a stick at.
Unfotunately not a lot of merchandise that was designed for adults… I was hoping to find something I could buy in bulk to take home for our local raid teams, but seriously? Golf balls, stationery or phone cases was about the extent of useful stuff that adults might like. I don’t think they are catering for their PGO market here – which from what I have seen is largely being played by 25-45 year olds. Oh well. Marketing opportunity missed there, Nintendo.
While we were there a legendary raid popped on the Pokemon Mega Centre gym, so of course we had to raid the Groudon. I managed to catch it, but Mr K had to try again on the other Pikachu gym right beside it.
Just as we were leaving, things got really out of control – a Santa Pikachu turned up with the staff and the kids went crazy! So much noise and excitement and absolutely none of it decipherable by non-Japanese speaking tourists like us.
And of course the ubiquitous vending machines full of Pokemon crap. Mostly Ditto for some reason…
For lunch, we found this restaurant which had some amazing looking okonomyaki in the display window… well, amazing for over glossy plastic representations of food, but we thought it looked like a potentially delicious cabbagey omelette spot for lunch.
However, we got inside and rapidly discovered that it was teppanyaki okonomiyaki? Cook your own damn cabbagey omelette restaurant? The Teenager looked somewhat unimpressed at having to cook his own lunch, but when in Rome, right? 
There was a pile of useful instructions, not in English of course, but it gave comfort knowing that locals don’t necessarily know how to cook their own okonomyaki either. 😉 
Our lunches arrived – raw. And looked full of possible deliciousness… so long as I didn’t fuck up the cooking bit. 😀 
Thankfully, our server was kind enough to show us how it’s done – for the first one. Preparing the plate, cooking the meat/seafood, mixing the cabbagey mixture and then forming it into a 14cm pancake. Cook covered on one side for 4 mins on a lowish temperature, then use the spatulas to flip it over and cook for another 4 mins on the other side. Handy hourglass timers were provided to make sure your okonomyaki was cooked through. 
Et voila! Tasty tasty okonomyaki lunch!
Lunch was delicious and went down lovely with a cold glass of umeshu and biru.
He was pretty excited to be there… but only pulled this face for me after I prompted him to not look so blasé. 
Now I am not an anime fan, and have no idea who all the characters are but this amusement centre/theme park was pretty full on. Rides, interactive experiences, virtual reality stuff, Segway clouds (?), a restaurant full of themed food, and of course the inevitable gift shop. I had no idea this One Piece thing was so huge… it’s about a pirate named Monkey.D Luffy on his quest to claim the treasure, the One Piece. From what I can understand it involves a lot of high drama and screaming alarmingly in Japanese at other adventuring characters. 
This of course is the token female character… Nami. And this is how she is attired while her cohorts are wearing shirts and shorts or even suits or a long pirate coat. Poor thing, can’t afford clothes. 
Kinto-un from Dragonball Z apparently.
Sake fuelled, Mr K soldiers on through his biru while we wait for some dinner. 
Ooh.. maybe there is fugu / blowfish on the menu? Do we risk it? Ah, not so much. 
Drinking on an empty stomach is never advisable but dinner was well worth waiting for… fresh sashimi – the tuna is so much better here, I swear all the tuna we have in Australia at sushi restaurants is frozen, or frozen poorly or something. In comparison, I can honestly say I have never had good tuna back home, excepting maybe Sono at Hamilton. The texture is entirely different.
Grilled chicken and pork pot stickers.
Gyoza – of course, no meal seems to be complete without some.
Some weird bean sprout omelette yumminess the name of which I can’t remember.
Sake! All the sake!
Then it was back to the trains – have I mentioned how awesome Tokyo trains are? Cheap, clean, efficient… kinda easy to navigate once you get the hang of them, super easy to navigate if you travel with your own transport industry professional! 😉 They’re great, and people are polite and mind their space, I love them – to go to Tokyo Tower.
Several stops and what seemed only a few minutes later, and up we pop in a new part of town, and the Tokyo Tower in front of us. Tokyo Tower is a communications with public observation decks in the Shiba-koen district of Minato. At 332.9 metres (1,092 ft), it is the second-tallest structure in Japan. Apparently it is inspired by the Eiffel Tower, and it is not difficult to see how. Allegedly, its distinctive orange and white colours come from a necessity to comply international air safety regulations…which then begs the question why isn’t the Eiffel Tower orange and white? Hmmm. #showerthoughts
I came here on our last trip to Tokyo and it was pretty cool to get a chance to go up the tower at night as well as having been up during the day. At the moment it is all Christmassy – lights, themed photos, projected snowflakes everywhere, and live performers on the observation deck. 
Oddly, but completely in keeping with our visit to J-World on Anime Day, we stumbled onto a One Piece 20th Anniversary exhibit and store at the Tower. There is Nami again in her signature green bikini, and loads of cool merchandise – cooler stuff than they had at the offical store in the city.
More One Piece – the little guy above with the ‘X’ on his hat is called Chopper, and he is supposed to be a reindeer that area a Hito Hito No Mi devil fruit which makes him anthropomorphic (or as the Teenager would say – makes him into a human hybrid or allows him to have human characteristics at will).
Anyway, back to the Tower… it was covered in projected snowflakes and sparkly Christmassy stuff. It was lovely. 
The views were great and my little handheld camera either totally didn’t cope or I was completely inept, because my photos from up the Tower are not great.
We stopped for a bit and had a blindingly sweet coke spider (yes, it’s freezing cold outside but there is still ice cream and frozen treats everywhere) and then after that sugar rush my photos got way better. 😉 
Thus endeth out second day in Tokyo! 🙂
Mediterranean Style Spiny Lobster Cake…
Black Tiger Prawn and Papaya Salpicon…
The Grill Salad with Grape Balamic Dressing…
Black and Blue Onion Soup…
14oz Rib Eye…
Filet Mignon…
The Crown Dependence Dessert Selection…
Lemon Meringue Pudding Tart…
Burrata alla Panna con Carpaccio de Pomodori…
Vitello Tonnato…
Spaghetti allo Scoglio…
Penne con Brascato de Manzo…
Tris d’Aragosta…
Lombata di Vitello al Forno…
Zabaglione…
Torta Profumata ai Limoni di Sorrento…
Made to order – Hawaiian with shrimp and anchovies! 😛 
Carving displays.
Working hard hustling out up 1200 meals at a time!
Sesame Marinated Big Eye Tuna Carpaccio, Yuzu Dressing…
Lobster Tail on Buckwheat Blini with Caviar Citrus Vinaigrette…
Beef Tartar with Horseradish…
Panko Coated Black Tiger Prawns…
Fortina Cheese and White Truffle Mini Quiche…
Creamy Italian Carnaroli Rice Rissotto with Wild Porcini Mushrooms…
Roasted Orange & Crystallized Ginger Sorbet
Double Impact Surf & Turf
Baked Cambert with Pinenuts…
Chocolate Raspberry Mousse and Hazelnut Brownie, and French Macaroon…
And this? Well I have no idea what this is. The Maitre D’ was speaking to some people about dietary requirements (we had one vegetarian and two no seafood and two no lactose on the table), he turned to me and asked if I had any dietary requirements, and I said to him, “No allergies at all, sir. Though I have a particular dislike for all things chocolate!” Which 1) raised some looks of incredulity from my fellow diners, “How can you not like chocolate?”, and 2) was information that was obviously filed by the Maitre D’ and they made me a special non-chocolate dessert! I have no idea what it was, but it was fabulous, something vanilla mousse-like in layers of soft caramel biscuit thing. Delicious, and so very thoughtful. 
And of course, Chef Giovannis’ Homemade Gourmandises…
Lovely custom napery…
Personalized menus…
Tian of Seafood…
Butter Poached Lobster Tail…
Norman Love Fantasy Delight…