As summer marches into autumn, the only thing that cant’s be stopped other than the rolling of time is the parade of international festivals held in Yoyogi Park. The next one coming up is the Japan Indonesia Friends Festival.<\/p>\n
![\"ayung-teras\"](\"http:\/\/japaninfoswap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ayung-teras-150x150.jpg\")
Officially named the \u201cJapan Indonesia Citizens Friendship Festival”, this event is to celebrate the connection between the two Asian countries, and what better way to do that than get together, eat some great food and have something of a party.<\/p>\n
The first thing you notice as you head over to Yoyogi Park is the undeniably mouthwatering scent of the food:\u00a0nasi-goreng (stir-fried rice), skewered meat, mango, rich spices and coconut wafting everywhere. A word of warning though, some dishes can be a touch on the spicy side, so keep an eye out for\u00a0chili pepper illustrations on the menus. Mind you, if things get a little too hot for your liking, why not sate the spice with some Indonesian Bintang beer.<\/p>\n
As well as food there are of course handicraft stalls with jewelry and boho-indo-chic clothing. On top of that there are musical instruments, artwork and incense stalls selling the scent of the islands.<\/p>\n
To keep you entertained once you have had your fill and shopped around, there is\u00a0also\u00a0a full lineup of performances in Indonesian costumes dancing\u00a0to traditional music, as well as\u00a0plenty of other acts.<\/p>\n
If that all takes your fancy, head down to Yoyogi Park, and make some friends.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian flavor need not stop there. Why not check out these Indonesian restaurants in the capital city?<\/p>\n
Meaning \u2018chili pepper\u2019 in Indonesian,\u00a0Cabe (pronounced \u2018cha-be\u2019) more than lives up to its name. They serve up a variety\u00a0of dishes from not just Indonesia\u2019s main islands of Java and Bali, but also the rest of the country\u2019s diverse cuisine culture. It has recently relocated close to the Indonesian Embassy, which should speak for itself, and authentic dishes include \u201cRendang\u201d, a beef stew cooked with coconut milk and spices, and \u201cSate Ayam\u201d, a type of Indonesian yakitori.<\/p>\n
Jembatan Merah is an Indonesian restaurant with very much an eye on Bali, something that is apparent from the moment you open the door. The decor is very much reminiscent of the paradise island, and the food is no different. Prepared by Indonesian chefs, the spicy fish comes recommended, as does the fried banana and ice cream. There are musical performances once a month, and for those wanting a little Indonesian\u00a0isolation, there are two private rooms that can be reserved.<\/p>\n
Another restaurant with Bali on its mind, Ayung Teras is heavily decorated on the ‘local flavor’ front, but as it stays just on the right side of “ethnic”, don’t let that distract you from the great food.\u00a0A good place to start is with the Sate Ayam\u00a0which\u00a0is\u00a0smothered in a mildly spiced peanut sauce. Also recommended is the Gado Gado, one of Indonesia’s most popular dishes, a salad of both raw and blanched vegetables with a superb peanut cream dressing and freshly fried shrimp crackers. If you want a change from the Bintang beer, they have Bali Hai.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mark Guthrie<\/p>\n
Image: http:\/\/www.ayungteras.com\/<\/a> Screengrab - Modified<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As summer marches into autumn, the only thing that cant’s be stopped other than the rolling of time is the parade of international festivals held in Yoyogi Park. The next one coming up is the Japan Indonesia Friends Festival. Japan-Indonesia Friends Festival Officially named the \u201cJapan Indonesia Citizens Friendship Festival”, this event is to celebrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,68,94,37],"tags":[69,201,47,48,158,45],"class_list":["post-2257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-festivals","category-food-and-dining","category-tokyo-2","tag-event","tag-indonesia","tag-tokyo-city-2","tag-tokyo-dining-2","tag-tokyo-festivals","tag-tokyo-metropolis-2"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51031,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257\/revisions\/51031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}