A Warm Day with A Warm-Hearted Japanese Couple

Geospatial Coast Laboratory

This is my first meeting with Tomi. She is the wife of Junichi, our colleague from Japan. Both are activist of community radio in Kobe, Japan. 

Joyo and I picked them at their hotel in the mid of the city. After doing some tricky plans of choosing the way (it was traffic jam in the long holiday periode of students in Indonesia), then we found the way to Depok Beach for almost 1,5 hours driving. On our way, we saw the Geospatial Coastal Laboratory with a giant pottery pot in front of the lab.

We first stopped at a beach, I don't remember the name, but it was close to Depok Beach, but not as crowded as Depok. Tomi was very happy, "This is the first beach for me in Indonesia, well, except in Bali," she said.

We parked the car in front of a house (it is IDR 5.000 for a car), managed by the villagers. We went down to the beach, to know how it feels playing with the sand. Unfortunately, the wind blows so strong while the weather is so hot, so we decided to move to the main destination: lunch.

It was almost 2 in the afternoon when we arrived at the fish market. Took some kilograms of fish, shrimp and two kind of scallops, than bought it to a restaurant with beach view. This is the restaurant that's always chosen by my family. We choose the menu than give all of the seafood to be processed by them.

It was too much for us, we could't 'finish' them all since our stomachs was too much full. We went to the last destination: Kampung Batik Imogiri. It is a kampong in southern Yogyakarta, about one hour drive from the city.

We had a nice conversation with Mas Nur, the leader of this batik business. Mas Nur told us the history of these batik which was developed after the big earthquake in 2006. Joyo did some heritage work with this community.

Mas Nur tells us the story.

The disaster destroyed not only the houses (especially the traditional), but also the life of the people, including their economic income. Some NGO and academic groups helped the locals to build their houses and try to make some workshops about batik making.

Making process, a must show for visitors.

Today, Batik Imogiri is famous as one of the biggest batik industry in Yogyakarta. The biggest product is painting (tulis) batik with natural coloring (called indigo). In this village, you can also try to learn how to make batik with your own design (they have workshop where you can buy some tourism package). Or you can just see the making process and act like you are painting the batik, just like we did :)

It's me & Tomi, acting :)

Look at these beautiful paintings!

My fave is the blue leaves on the left.

Then we went back to the hotel, left this couple there. What a very warm (read it with "hot shiny") day with a warm-hearted Japanese couple. Love to meet another day...

Those are two of many more tourism sites that will be visited by some students of Tomi's collage. Tomi is a professor in Osaka University, going to run a field school about disaster in Yogyakarta. The topic will be multi-discipliner, from economic to architect. It is not only the disaster of earthquake, but also the eruption of Merapi Volcano. They day will be in the end of this September. Can't wait to meet them all!

Mlekom,
AZ