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. They have just about everything: rice grown in Japan, most seasonings like soy sauce, cooking sake, and mirin; instant noodles, udon, and soba; curry roux and miso; tofu; natto; fish paste products; frozen fish and shellfish; seaweeds; Japanese sweets and snacks; table sake, and shochu (Japanese spirits). They have so many things that it would be quicker to list what they don’t have. It’s not as though there are a huge number of Japanese grocery stores on the Gold Coast, so the supermarket I go to is about 30 minutes' drive away. I usually go once or twice a month and buy a lot of stuff all together. People living in suburbs further off from the Gold Coast spend about two hours by car to get to a Japanese supermarket. I try to buy only the things I can't make and make as much as I can myself because the prices are relatively high. Even though the prices are high, I’m glad just to be able to get and eat these Japanese foods. Australia is extremely strict about bringing foods in from overseas and if you bring something in without declaring it, you’ll get a fine. The authorities set conditions for the foods you can bring in with you in fine detail, so you need to get a proper understanding of the conditions and make your declaration properly. If you are planning a long-term stay on the Gold Coast, you might not need to bring many Japanese foods with you because there are so many foods available even here on the Gold Coast.



Some items available at Fuji Mart, the supermarket I often go to. They have just about everything, like a supermarket in Japan.




The tofu is made in Australia, so you can get it fresh. They have momen (cotton) and kinu (silken) tofu, as well as okara (soybean pulp). And they also have frozen fish.




The meat is also Australian. They don’t have pork belly at regular supermarkets, so I buy a whole lot of frozen pork belly packs. Apart from that, they also sell sliced wagyu beef, tongue, and tripe.




Apart from food items, they also sell shaved ice machines and rice cookers. You can use this rice cooker with Australian voltage. The price is an amazing $759 (about 59,000 yen).




They also have Japanese tableware. And you can get drugstore products like shampoos, conditioners, bath agents, and disposable hand warmer packs. The drugstore products are a little more expensive than the food products.




They have candies, and even a 100-yen ($2.50) corner.




I make pickles using rice bran, so I occasionally buy rice bran for top ups. They don’t have canned white peaches in Australia, so I sometimes feel like some, but at $13.30, or about 1,000 yen, per can, I have to think about it a little first.

With this many different kinds of Japanese foods available, I can have just about as much of them on my dining table as if I were living in Japan, so I don't often miss any Japanese foods living overseas. Although there are some things you can only eat in Japan, like fresh fuki (butterbur), tara-no-me (fatsia sprouts), white peaches, loquats, Japanese cherries, and other seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as fresh shellfish like sazae (horned turban shellfish) and shijimi (basket clams), so one of the joys of my visits back to Japan is eating foods that I can't get in Australia. I want COVID-19 to end as soon as possible, so we come and go freely between Japan and Australia again.