2016-08-22 04:45 All we need is at supermarkets
Y (Kuma's owner)
The busy and fun week has passed. My husband and I had two guests from Japan, my husband's mum and brother from last week to this week. This was the first visit to Australia for them. My husband's mum wanted to see her son, and the brother was just an attendant because he is an English teacher at a high school and can understand English.
At the beginning, we took them to one of the famous zoos in Queensland and they cuddled a koala there. There was a long queue at the place where there is koala cuddling. It was so crowded. I felt sorry for koalas. They spend about 17 hours for sleeping and spend rest of the time for eating. I don't know how much time they spend taking picture with tourists, I'm just anxious that they may have stress. Anyway, our two guests had a good time there and got pictures with koala.
My brother in law wanted to see and buy something that can be seen and bought only in Australia. This was a bit difficult. Well, he saw Kangaroos and Koalas, and my husband and I wondered where else we could take them to?
The next day, we took them to Tamborine Mountain which is near Gold Coast. There are lots of souvenir shops and cafes. He wanted to buy something with aboriginal art but it was hard to find. We barely found T-shirts with aboriginal art but the size of T-shirts were all too big and we couldn't buy it. In general, most clothes are too big for ordinary Japanese. I know my friend who is short always wears children's wear. Unfortunately, we found really good aboriginal design T-shirts but couldn't buy it.
I wanted to find a place where he would be able to enjoy Australia. How about national parks? No, no my mother in law was old and she was not able to walk long distance. Well, how about a shopping centre?
Then, we took them to a big shopping centre. It was a very fashionable area but not peculiar to Australia. He found an opal accessories shop there and bought some for his wife and his daughter. A shop assistant showed us a booklet with an Australia map. The map showed the area where opal can be mined. I asked a shop assistant that if I could dig in my backyard and get opals. He laughed and said "I'm sorry, the area you live has no opal."
I love a little chat like I had at the opal shop. It improves my English and is also fun. Australians are friendly and most shop attendants enjoy chatting with a sense of humor. I love it.
Oh, no, no. I had to entertain our guests, not me.
Then, we went to the local supermarket to buy food for dinner. What happened was our guests became excited to see products there. They bought lots of Tim Tams and cheese. One of the surprising things was that my brother in law said that he loved Vegemite and he bought it as his souvenir. I know that most foreigners don't like Vegemite due to that unique taste. I asked him "Are you sure that you like Vegemite?" He said he was sure. He was given a bin of vegemite as a souvenir before and he became a vegemite lover. This was the first time I met a foreigner who loves vegemite.
After that, we went to the local supermarket "Coles" two times and bought chocolate, ice cream, and sausages for BBQ. I didn't expect that my guests would love the local supermarket so much. They bought lots of souvenirs at the local supermarket, not at souvenir shops. Supermarkets have everything.