The first trip to Jakarta #3 Heavy traffic

It goes without saying that heavy traffic in Jakarta is legendary.

I was secretly thinking it must not be that bad ... but actually it was worse than I thought! 
I am used to public transportation, trains and buses, because almost everyone here in Japan uses them.
No trains run in the city of Jakarta so many people drive cars or motorcycles.

Sometimes it takes us more than an hour to get to a place which is in our sight.

Like other tropical countries, they often have a sudden shower in the evening.
Motorcycle drivers go to the side of the road and change their clothes.
When the sky gets grey and the thunder groans, it makes sense.
It is too hot to wear a rain coat all the time while driving in Jakarta.

The first trip to Jakarta #2 Workshop

Masako and I had never been to Indonesia.
Dessy and Yos, a married couple, visited our booth at the Tokyo Dome Show at the end of January and decided to arrange a workshop for the beginning of April! 
There wasn't much time but we were able to schedule two wonderful workshops.

The workshops were held on the 5th and 6th of April and we taught different techniques each day.
On the first day we did trapunto. 
Most of the students had never done it before, but they seemed to understand.
Using cotton cord is much easier than the traditional method of stuffing from the wrong side of the quilt.

First Dessy introduced Masako.

On the second day we taught punch needle.
Punch needle is always very popular wherever we go.

The students were more experienced than we expected.

Some finished the flip of the project during the workshop! 

At the end of the workshop we gave each student a certificate.
We had one male student! 
He told us that, since he was a child, he liked drawing and doing collage.
This was his first time quilting but he had done embroidery, beading and painting before.
He did a wonderful job on his punch needle project!

Day One

We didn't know where we should look with too many cameras!

Day Two

Yos, Masako, Dessy and me.

We hope to see them there again!


Emi

The first trip to Jakarta #1 Kopi Luwak

In one of my favorite Japanese movies, "Kamome Syokudo", the owner of a cafe gives a charm to make good coffee, saying "Kopi Luwak".
I am not a coffee drinker so didn't pay much attention to it.
But I found the special one in Jakarta.

Have you ever heard of it?
Kopi means coffee and Luwak is an animal who eats coffee beans.
Once coffee berries go into their stomachs, they are fermented and only beans are evacuated.
Then farmers pick and roast the beans!  That's why it is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world!

How could we ruin this opportunity? We tried a cup of 100% Kopi Luwak!

Believe it or not, a cup of coffee costs about 1000 JPY (Almost 10 USD!)
In order to see the difference, we had another cup of coffee which only included 5% of Kopi Luwak coffee.
It was so plain to see the difference between the two tastes!

A little luwak on the cup.

If you have a chance to go to Indonesia, please give it a try!


Emi