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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • REPORTERChieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）

She moved to Australia in 2000. She worked for a Japanese-affiliated travel agency, and then started her current position at a construction company in 2014.On her days off, she enjoys making soy candles that is a hobby of mine and walking on the beach.She hope to share rare lifestyle information from the local area with you.

  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2022.10.13
  • Do People Get Hay Fever in Australia Too?
  • The seasons in Australia are exactly the opposite to Japan’s, and the Gold Coast, with its warm weather, mostly has a short spring and goes right away into summer during that period from winter’s end through spring and early summer.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2022.08.17
  • EOFY in Australia
  • Have you ever heard the word “EOFY?” It’s the acronym for “End Of Financial Year.” While the financial year in Japan starts April 1st and ends March 31st, in Australia it starts July 1st and ends June 30th the following year.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2022.07.04
  • Surfers Paradise Is Starting to Feel More Like a Tourist Spot Again!
  • Most people would say “Surfers Paradise” if they had to think of a Gold Coast tourist spot. While the title of this blog post says, “starting to feel more like a tourist spot!” some of the people who haven’t been to the Gold Coast in a long time might be surprised and wonder “Did it ever not feel like a tourist spot?”
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2022.06.06
  • Making Some Extra Cash by Selling Your Old Clothes!
  • What do you do with the clothes, shoes, and accessories you no longer wear? I guess you have some clothes and things that are too good to get rid of, like that purchase you made a mistake with online, or something you just bought but doesn’t look good on you.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2022.05.09
  • A Birthday Party on a Charter Boat
  • We recently chartered a boat as a surprise for a friend’s 50th birthday. In Australia people consider birthdays that have a round number as big birthdays and celebrate them with big parties.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2022.04.04
  • Australian Post Offices
  • Post offices in Australia offer a variety of services apart from sending letters and parcels. For example, you can pay your utility bills and even take care of your car, home, or travel insurance at a post office. The post offices also handle Australian passport applications and renewals as an agent for the passport office.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.11.10
  • The Wide Variety of Natural Beauty Products in Australia
  • You can easily get chemical-free and organic beauty products at drug stores in Japan now, but in Australia, a variety of brands have been putting out skincare products without ingredients that could harm your skin, like synthetic surfactants, artificial fragrances, colorings, and parabens, since about 10 years ago.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.10.08
  • Burleigh Hill – A Relaxing, Naturally Attractive Place
  • Have you heard of Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast? It’s a well-known beach for surfing with rocks on the right (facing the sea), and when the waves are good, you get the best regular break (waves that break towards the right). It has long been, and still is, a popular break among surfers and is always crowded.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.09.09
  • Lotteries in Australia
  • In this article, I would like to tell you about lotteries in Australia. I’m not familiar with the latest about the lotteries in Japan (LOTO), so the lotteries here in Australia might be very similar to the Japanese system and not particularly worth mentioning, but one of the differences to the lotteries in Japan would be the size of the winnings.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.08.24
  • Lockdown on The Gold Coast
  • With fewer than two or three cases of COVID-19 this year, the situation has been good on the Gold Coast, which has been experiencing fewer cases and less strict restrictions to prevent the spread than other states, but the spread of the Delta variant has now triggered a lockdown.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.08.10
  • Some Common Australian Habits and Practices
  • In a previous article I wrote about some things like foods, animals, shops, and trucks that you can readily find in Australia but are not so common in Japan. In this article, I am writing about some habits and practices that are common in Australia but rare in Japan. Some of you might already know about them, but I have written here about them from a fresh angle.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.07.26
  • Nice Loungewear and Fitness Wear! – Cotton On Body
  • Cotton On is a well-known Australian apparel brand, something like Japan’s UNIQLO, and offers basic as well as fashion apparel items at affordable prices. In a previous article, I wrote about Cotton On Kids, a shop specializing in children's clothing, but this time I would like to tell you about Cotton On Body, which sells underwear, loungewear, and fitness wear for women.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.06.24
  • Cars in Australia – Car Models
  • Australia is a car-oriented country. The most popular car models probably differ slightly depending on the city or region, but in this article, I’d like to tell you about the car models that are popular on the Gold Coast, where I live.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.06.08
  • Public Hospitals on the Gold Coast
  • There are five public hospitals on the Gold Coast. I've talked before about how medical care works in Australia, but if you go to a public hospital to see a doctor, you'll need a referral letter from your General Practitioner (GP), unless it’s an emergency.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.04.21
  • An Oyster Bar Run by Oyster Farmers
  • Seeing as international travel isn’t possible at the moment, the focus in Australia is on domestic travel, and the airlines Jetstar and Qantas are putting their effort into sales promotions with sales on domestic flights.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.04.08
  • Teeth
  • In Australia, you can’t use your ordinary health insurance for dental care, so you have to pay the full amount yourself.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.03.23
  • Accounting Software in Australia
  • I work in administration at an Australian construction company. Although it is called a construction company, it is a small subcontracting company, and I had been working from home even before the spread of COVID-19. Nowadays we use email and phone to do our job, and I use special cloud-based accounting software to calculate the employees' salaries and manage invoices from business partners, so, as long as I have a Wi-Fi connection, I can work anywhere without going to the office.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.03.12
  • The Gold Coast’s Housing Shortage
  • Lately on the Gold Coast, it has been quite difficult to find a place to live: There is a serious housing shortage. The rental property vacancy rate is 0.6% to 0.3%, so competition is intense, and landlords are bullishly increasing rents.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.02.12
  • Walking Your Dog
  • A lot of people in Australia have dogs. You see all sorts of dogs, everything from small dogs like toy poodles to medium-sized English Staffordshire bull terriers, commonly given the nickname “Staffy”, and large dogs like the popular retrievers.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2021.01.28
  • Responses to COVID-19 in 2020 - Summary
  • How was 2020 for you? 2021 is the Year of the Ox. Having been born in the Year of the Ox, I want to make this a year in which I can be as strong as an ox, so I can take any difficulties in my stride, remain unmoved, and overcome them with a big heart.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.12.16
  • Bleach Festival
  • Many music, sport, and culture events in Australia have been cancelled because of COVID-19. The Gold Coast has been able to reduce the numbers of people infected relatively early on and achieved zero infections at an early stage, while in Queensland state, restrictions on the numbers of people in gatherings have been eased one step ahead of other states, and gradually events with large gatherings have started to be held.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.12.02
  • Recycling
  • In Australia, bottles, cans, plastic bottles, and similar waste that can be reused are separated as recycling, with the recycle bin separate from the combustible garbage.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.11.05
  • Property Rental on the Gold Coast – Prices
  • There’s a lot of land in Australia, but did you know that, not like in the old days, house and land purchase and rental prices in the major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra are so high that they’re not much different to Tokyo?
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.10.22
  • Quite a Variety of Japanese Foods Available
  • A lot of Japanese people live on the Gold Coast and there are a number of supermarkets that sell quite an assortment of Japanese groceries, so I don’t have to buy a bunch of things when I go back to Japan for a visit anymore.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.10.05
  • Australian Craft Beer
  • All sorts of different craft beer brands have become available in Australia over the past few years. They have even opened a craft beer brewery in my neighborhood, and it looks as though the popularity of craft beer will keep on growing.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.09.18
  • Australian Ethical Goods
  • Have you ever heard the word “ethical”? “Ethical” is the English word meaning “rinriteki” in Japanese, but these days it’s a word that implies environmental conservation and social contribution.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.07.02
  • A Holiday Mountain Walk
  • If you drive for about 50-minutes inland from the Gold Coast you’ll find Springbrook National Park, which is listed as a World Heritage site.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.06.19
  • Enjoying Fresh Seafood
  • When you think of Australian seafood the first thing that comes to mind is salmon from Tasmania, but you can also get other fresh seafood like raw oysters, shrimps, tuna, trevally, and skipjack, as well as salmon.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.05.13
  • Farmers’ Markets
  • I buy as much as possible of my fruit, vegetables, and other food, at a farmer’s market. Farmers’ markets are like Japan’s asaichi (morning markets) and are held only on weekends with tents pitched on the grounds of schools, parks, and racing courses.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.04.17
  • An Election in Australia
  • In Australia, an election is held to select local governments (mayors and councillors) once every four years. An election was held in my home state of Queensland this year to decide on councillors for a total of 77 councils, plus the mayor of the City of Gold Coast.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.04.06
  • Saving Water
  • There is a growing awareness in Australia around saving water, partly due to the big wildfires here. Water-saving restrictions were brought in at the end of last year in some areas.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.02.10
  • Food & Wine Expo
  • I recently went to the Food & Wine Expo held each year on the Gold Coast. As the name suggests, it’s an exhibition of foods and wines.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.01.27
  • Nippers: Adorable Lifesavers
  • Australia’s beaches are subject to some powerful tides, and as I mentioned in an earlier article, there are a lot of drowning accidents. Because of its many beaches, a special effort to train lifesavers is made in the Gold Coast—of course so that they can protect themselves as well as others.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2020.01.09
  • 2020 Calendars in Australia
  • Recently I came across a pop-up shop in a shopping center selling 2020 calendars and ended up having a quick look at them. There were calendars with beautiful photography, calendars for children, calendars with animals, and others that were kind of joke calendars.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.12.24
  • Beautiful Beaches but Lots of Dangers
  • The beaches in Australia are really beautiful. When you walk on the white sandy beaches, the sand makes a squeaking sound. Now once again it’s the season that makes you feel like diving into the clear blue sea.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.11.13
  • Correspondence Education in Australia: Part 1
  • I recently obtained a qualification in accounting and bookkeeping in Australia. In English, there are four levels of A qualifications in accounting, from 1, the lowest, up to 4. I obtained a “Certificate 4,” which, however, is not the highest level.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.11.05
  • Open Air Fitness
  • The Gold Coast enjoys good weather every day. It doesn’t rain very much, which means water shortages are a bit of a worry. People do all sorts of activities in the open spaces along the beach where I walk.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.10.15
  • Australian Work Clothes
  • The work clothes of the people on construction sites in Japan are relatively sober colors, like navy blue, gray, and beige, but the people who work on construction and works sites in Australia wear very bright work clothes in colors like fluorescent yellow, orange, and pink.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.10.01
  • Irresistible Miniature Giveaways
  • From time to time Australia's leading supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, run campaigns where you get stickers, kids’ toys, or other giveaways when you spend more than a certain amount on your shopping.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.09.04
  • Cigarettes in Australia
  • My Japanese friends are really surprised when I tell them about the price of cigarettes available in Australia. That’s because cigarettes really are expensive.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.08.19
  • Eco-friendly Grocery Stores
  • In a previous blog I wrote about supermarkets not giving out plastic bags for free anymore. Now, a year later, I no longer forget to bring my shopping bags when I go shopping, and I carry a folded up environmentally friendly shopping bag in my bag when I’m out and about, ready for the occasional time when I have to buy something even though I hadn’t intended to.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.08.01
  • Miso-making workshop
  • Many Japanese people live along the Gold Coast. I’ve lived here around 18 years myself, and there are plenty of other Japanese I haven’t met yet. Now that I work from home, I have even fewer opportunities to meet them. The community is steadily growing, too.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.05.22
  • Dry-Aged Aussie Beef
  • Perhaps there aren't few who, when thinking of Australia, think of Aussie beef. I also enjoy Australian beef, and even though there are more Aussies going vegetarian than there used to be, steak remains a favorite.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.05.09
  • Non-alcoholic Beer Has Arrived in Australia!
  • In Australia, you often see people with a beer in one hand at a barbeque, having a beer or two with work mates at a pub in their work clothes before going home (by the way, in Japan you eat snacks or some edamame [green soybeans] with your drink, but in Australia plenty of people just drink their beers without eating anything), or carrying a carton (a case of 24 cans or bottles of beer) on their shoulder.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2019.01.28
  • Aussie chips are really delicious!
  • There are all kinds of different potato chip varieties in Australia, and they’re actually really good. You can get ones that are thin-cut, ruffled, or even thick ones that deliver a big, satisfying crunch.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2018.12.11
  • Your Choice of Safe Products
  • Demand has been growing in Japan for organically grown vegetables and foods that are safer for your health, such as products without added chemical seasonings or preservatives.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2018.11.29
  • Eating Seafood in Australia
  • Surrounded by ocean, Australia has the second largest fishing zone in the world after the US, but the country rankings for fish catch show it is surprisingly low, at 56th.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2018.08.24
  • The Australian Version of Sasuke
  • It’s been quite a while since I last wrote about an Australian TV program. Currently on TV here is the Australian version of the Japanese sports entertainment program Sasuke, which has been showing on American TV since 2006 as American Ninja Warrior.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2018.06.20
  • Japanese food in Australia: Part 1
  • After the United States and China, Australia is said to have the third largest Japanese population outside Japan. There are many Japanese people living in Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, and the Gold Coast. There are also grocery stores selling Japanese foods and you can get almost anything that is not an import ban from seasonings to natto (fermented soy beans), frozen seafood, and dried foods.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2018.05.29
  • Father’s Day and Mother’s Day
  • In Australia, Mother’s Day is on the second Sunday of May, the same as Japan. Father’s Day is on the third Sunday of June in Japan, but in Australia it’s on a different day, the first Sunday of September. But both are held on the same day of the week, Sunday, and they are both days intended for expressing our feelings of gratitude to our mothers and fathers, which is the same throughout the world.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2018.05.07
  • An Aussie Style Long Distance Road Trip
  • It’s about 850 km from the Gold Coast to Sydney, which is 1-hour and 20-minutes by air, or 9 and a half hours by car. Going further south to Melbourne is 1,700 km, or 18 hours by car, which is an astounding distance, but lots of people in Australia like going on long road trips in their cars, even if takes a lot of time.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2018.01.17
  • Thrift shops called OP Shops
  • In Japan, we’re always struggling with how to dispose of furniture, electronics, kids’ clothes, and other household items that we no longer need. Even throwing them away costs money.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2017.12.07
  • Leisurely rural living in the hinterland
  • About an hour’s drive from the Gold Coast, there is a small rural town 60 km inland called Canungra. People think there is nothing on the inland part of the Gold Coast that is called the hinterland, but there are actually many sightseeing spots.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2017.07.20
  • Ugg Boot Season
  • Australia has moved into winter, the season for the pleasant warm feeling of wearing Ugg Boots. Ugg Boots are made from sheep hide,
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2017.04.07
  • Australian Aroma Oils
  • I’ve written in this blog before about eucalyptus oil, one of the well-known oils extracted from Australia’s native plants, but there are other commonly known oils, for example tea tree oil from the tea tree, and the oil from a plant called lemon myrtle.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.10.11
  • TV Program Talk
  • Let me tell you about an Australian TV program.It’s The Bachelor Australia 2016, a program centering on a bachelor who is seeking a partner and a number of beautiful women who apply and are selected to compete with each other,
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.06.07
  • Discount Drug Stores
  • In Japan, I think that yakkyoku are well known to everyone in English as “drug stores,” but in Australia they’re called “chemists” or “pharmacies” after the British custom. Here in Australia, there are several stores similar to the discount drug stores in Japan. Just like in Japanese stores, fliers touting advertised products and bargains are prominently displayed.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.05.20
  • Byron Bay Market and its wafting hippie scent
  • Come the Australian weekend and markets will open up in each and every town. In today’s blog, I’ll write a bit about Byron Bay Market, which opens on the first Sunday of every month in Australia’s easternmost town. It’s a large-scale market by local standards and attracts considerable numbers of both locals and tourists alike.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.05.02
  • A fun day-off: Gold Coast watersports
  • Even in the so-called “autumn gloom,” the fine weather still continues in Gold Coast, with the days still beaming with warm sunshine. In addition to the ocean (of course!), Gold Coast is surrounded by several lakes and canals. Water is thus ever-present in people’s lives, and the locals feel intimately connected to it.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.04.19
  • Supermarket Self-checkout Service
  • Australia introduced self-service gas stations even before my home country, Japan. And as for supermarkets, whereas the German ones have staff sitting behind cash registers, it seems Australians – who are not so insistent on receiving polite customer service – have readily accepted self-service checkouts too. 
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.03.29
  • How to spend your holidays on the Gold Coast: The Mountain Climbing Chapter
  • While you may think that the beach is an integral part of Gold Coast lifestyle, in actual fact, if you go a little further inland, you can find many forests and mountains designated as national parks. Australians can certainly enjoy their leisure time in this hinterland too! You only need to travel 30 or 40 minutes by car to get some of them, and it’s this sheer accessibility which is another of the Gold Coast’s charms.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.03.01
  • The handy Eucalyptus oil
  • Australia is known for the cute koalas, and these koalas’ main diet is the Eucalyptus leaf. The oil taken from these leaves, called Eucalyptus oil, is sold here at supermarkets and pharmacies for a reasonable price roughly equivalent to 500 to 600 JPY, with Australia being its country of origin.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2016.01.29
  • Convenience Stores in Australia
  • Australia’s convenience stores are located throughout town and also attached to gas stations. Here, I’d like to introduce their differences compared to ones in Japan. First of all, the prices can be shockingly high. They’re more expensive than at supermarkets, and the price setting differs by store and sometimes by city. For instance, a soft drink that sells for $3 a bottle at a convenience store in Queensland may sell for $4.50 at stores in Sydney. 
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2015.12.24
  • Christmas Light Competition
  • Australia, a country whose seasons are opposite from Japan, welcomes Christmas in the middle of summer, but winter has a more Christmassy mood, as illustrated by the fact that when we think of Christmas we think of a “white Christmas.” In Australia, somehow it just doesn’t feel like Christmas. But, even so there is something that gets you into the Christmas spirit—the Christmas Light Competition run by the city of Gold Coast. In this contest held every year, homes and yards are decorated with Christmas decorations and winners are chosen by votes submitted by residents. 
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2015.11.27
  • Melbourne Cup – GI Racing Holiday
  • In Japan, we tend to link horse racing with gambling, and imagine a bunch of older men glued to the racetracks, holding a racing paper in one hand.In Australia, however, big races like the Emperor’s Cup of Japan are enjoyed as a kind of carnival by the entire nation. As difficult as it might be to imagine in Japan, Australia’s biggest of the horse races, the Melbourne Cup (now officially called Emirates Melbourne Cup after 2004 when Emirates Airline became the sponsor), is observed as a holiday in Melbourne, the city where the race is held. This race is held every year in November on the first Tuesday at Flemington Racecourse. This year, the day of the race fell on November 3 (Tuesday).
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2015.10.30
  • Organic Farmers Market
  • In Australia, markets are held in various places on the weekends. Some markets even use schoolyards, open areas in parks, and parking lots at horse racing tracks and shopping centers. There is a growing number of markets in different areas that include markets that primarily sell goods such as plants, and fresh fruits and vegetables; markets that mostly sell Australian souvenirs to tourists; and markets that started appearing around 5 to 6 years ago selling stylish, fashionable goods, such as clothing, bags, accessories, antique furniture, and art. Shoppers can relax while listening to entertainment such as bands and guitar performances while sitting at makeshift cafés and food stalls. I, too, enjoy making the rounds and visiting markets on days off when the weather is nice.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2015.09.25
  • Australia’s Home Improvement Stores
  • Australia has several stores that are similar to Japan’s “home centers”  and Bunnings Warehouse is most likely the largest chain of such home improvement stores. It’s a large-scale store where you can find everything you need for renovating your home including tools, paint, cement, lumber, tiles, piping, outdoor goods, gardening goods, plants and storage goods.
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  • Australia Gold Coast
  • Chieko Suganuma （maiden name : Nagura）
  • 2015.08.28
  • Gold Coast Walking Course
  • The Gold Coast is in Queensland that is located in northeast Australia. It has a population of about 500,000, which is the second highest in the state after Brisbane with 1.6 million people and sixth largest in Australia.
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