Day 1 (9/13):We bought bento for our lunch on the way to the Narita airport. There are a lot of bentos in the basement of Shinjuku Odakyu department store. I decided to get our's at Miyabi!
We left Narita at 20:30 and arrived in Perth (via Sydney) at 13:20 on 9/14. There is an hour time difference, thus it means it took us 18 hours to get there!
Day 2 (9/14):As soon as we arrived in Perth, we headed to our hotel in Fremantle (Esplanade Hotel). It was surprisingly cold and stormy outside, so we decided to enjoy cappuccino at Dôme located on the cappuccino strip. Then we had a stroll through Fremantle Markets. We had a dinner at Little Creatures Brewery near our hotel because it was still stormy cold outside.
Day 3 (9/15):The weather was fine on this day but it was still cold. We had a breakfast at Il Cibo. Their food was amazing. My dad rented a car and we enjoyed a beautiful drive way along the coast towards Scarborough Beach. We made a brief stop at Caversham Wildlife Park. Luckily, all the shows have just started when we arrived there, so we could meet and touch Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombat, Birds, etc… In the evening, we went to see black swans on the Lake Monger. We were lucky enough that we could spot them right away! After we joined a meeting for the wedding, we had a dinner at Cicerello's back in Fremantle. Their Fish and Chips were good but I liked their Seafood Chowder more!
The weather was nice in the morning! My sister decided to have a wedding at St John’s Anglican Church Fremantle (not in Japan) because she wanted to get a nice and quiet wedding. Unfortunately, it started to rain after noon when they were having a photo session, but thanks God it didn't rain during the ceremony. The wedding reception was held at Villa D'Este Restaurant (a fine Italian restaurant) in Perth. All their dishes were very good. Their wedding cake was a shortcake based on a Japanese recipe but it was funny that it had a foreign taste. She should have ordered an Italian cake. hehe I'm not gonna write a lot about her wedding to protect her privacy but it was an amazing day ;)
We joined a wine tour upstream on the Swan river with Captain Cook Cruises. Unfortunately, I am a cheap date, so I couldn't complete all of the wines (maybe 2 glasses in total) but I think we were being served with more than 10 glasses of wine!!! Also, we had an amazing lunch at Sandalford Estate before a dessert buffet and afternoon tea served back on board the vessel. The weather was nice on this day, so I had a romantic cruise with my darling and my parents. LOL
After the tour, we took Red CAT (a free bus) and had a walk at Kings Park and Botanic Garden.
On this day, we moved to a different hotel in Perth: The Sebel Residence overlooking the Claisebrook Cove. We had a dinner at Royal Siam (Thai Restaurant) near the hotel. Their food was pretty sweet overall but was tasty and good.
We had a day trip to Wave Rock! Crossed vast dry farming plains before reaching the historic town of York. Traveled through the Wheatbelt town of Corrigin - noted for the "dog in the ute" national record. Headed to the town of Hyden, the town centre for Wave Rock. Visited Hippos yawn and had lunch at Wave Rock Wildflower shop. I am not sure what the dish was but the sweet simmered chicken was pretty good. After 5 hours, we finally arrived at Wave Rock! We enjoyed rock surfing ;) The views from the top were great and there were more than just Wave Rock to see: Humps and Mulkas Cave. On the way back to the city, we had a last stop for toilet break. There we had some sweets ($7 all-you-can-eat) made by local people. They were surprisingly pretty good! My darling accidentally ate a sandwich so we had to pay but they were worth to try. We couldn't have a dinner on this day because we went back to the city late and restaurants were all closed…
We had a breakfast at Toast Bistro. Their savory crepes were amazing! We also tried Toast and Vegemite with avocado. I think I've got an idea how to use Vegemite for my recipe!
On this day, my dad rented a car again and went to The Round House and joined the Time Tour at Fremantle Prison. Then headed to Rockingham beach to meet the dolphins but it was obviously too cold to see them because of the unusual weather. We had an early dinner at Emma's on the Boardwalk. The restaurant offered fantastic food and the sunset was beautiful.
We had a breakfast again at Toast Bistro. Then we headed to Sydney at noon and arrived at Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney at night. My darling and I finally went our separate ways with my parents. We enjoyed cocktails at Blu Bar on 36 and had dinner at Altitude Restaurant. Their food was outstanding! We enjoyed beautiful night views of Darling Harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was a dreamlike night :)
Our return flight to Japan was at night (21:30) so we enjoyed walking around the city until evening. We first had a stroll through Rocks Market. There we bought an amazing 3D stamps (Paper Tole) for our souvenir. We had brunch at Pancakes on the Rocks suggested by my viewers. We had their Beef Ribs and HOT 'N' TROPPO (buttermilk pancakes with grilled banana, walnuts, cream, chocolate ice cream and home made chocolate sauce) Yummy!!! Then we took MyZone bus to Paddington Markets. We didn't have enough time to shop around but we had a great time in Sydney. One thing I regret is that I couldn't find Aesop at DFS Galleria or in the city where we walked around…
I think we went to the country other than the U.S. for the first time in 7 years?!
People in Australia were very nice with warm hospitality. I think we didn't see any rude people there. So, I was pretty shocked when I saw an unkind person at Narita… Some Japanese people are not nice to people with the same nationality… this happens pretty often. They make nice with foreigners though! X(
I heard food in Australia is not that good but every meal we had was amazing XD Thanks to my mom and my darling, they are good at choosing restaurants. Me and my dad are not. LOL
The thing we found inconvenient was many stores and restaurants close pretty early. So, we couldn't shop or eat out late but went to bed earlier than usual. Good for our health maybe?! Also, we found things are pretty expensive in Australia!
We didn't have enough time to find our souvenirs but thanks to my viewers, I followed my viewers' advice to get some in the last minutes. I will make a separate post about souvenirs later!!!
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