JOGYA: JAVANESE CULTURE ENCOUNTER

Sipping on a sweet and delicate caramel macchiato as I'm writing this post......one word - YUMMYLICIOUS!!! Really premium taste experience. I bought this coffee packs in Sushi Kiosk just infront of Pizza Hut in Citraland Mall, where lots of Japanese snacks to choose from. It's the only instant caffe latte that I'd enjoy most so far.

It was out of the blue when I decided to go to Jogya and spent the Idul Fitri holiday to my friend, Tyas' place. Yay!!! Since it was the peak season that time, taxi reservation gives me headache. Who would have guessed that reserving taxi early in the morning on that day gonna be chaos? The waiting time is FOREVER so in short I missed my flight and booked a new one :(

Skip the unpleasant booking experience........ Up and bright, we head off to paid a visit to their grandfather, Pak Harto, who lives in Karangdowo, Klaten. We bought some snacks along the way since the traffic condition towards was absolutely terrible. Most people from the city like in Jakarta, migrated back to their provinces to spend the holiday with their families.

My friend's grandfather was a member and the coordinator of "Wisma Karawitan Jawi", playing rich and distinctive Javanese music. So no wonder I was welcomed with lots of Javanese "gamelan" instruments. "Gamelan" is their traditional ensemble music of Java which was also used in Bali.

Set of Javanese Gamelan

Holding the "mallet" to strike the "Kempul Gongs"

"Kenong/Kethuk"

"Kendang"

This gamelan was played using a "kepatihan notation" where the pitch are numbered and are read across the dots below or above the numbers indicating the register.

"Kepatihan Notation"

The core of my Javanese culture encounter was their unique way of celebrating the fasting month. It is a tradition to them to have a large family gatherings usually known as "Sungkeman". It was a Javanese tradition where there is a mutual forgiveness between relatives. Here, it is done in order from the eldest to the youngest in the family. Blessings was given in the end. It was usually done among close relatives only and I feels so great honor to witness such kind of traditions that they had.

"Sungkeman"

With flat and empty tummy, we went ahead to a nearby fishing "pancingan" restaurant for our lunch. Greatly rewarded with this views of school of fish while waiting for our orders =D

Chayote in Spicy Coconut Milk or commonly known as "Sayur Sambel Goreng Jipang"