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View all search resultsWeekly 5: Unique communities in Jakarta
Having hobbies or doing leisure activities is a must for Jakartans who tend to have busy and stressful lives
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H
aving hobbies or doing leisure activities is a must for Jakartans who tend to have busy and stressful lives. Besides helping to refresh the body and mind, it can also be a way to meet new friends and build networks. Those who are bored with regular pastimes or communities may want to try something unique or even bizarre. Here are five unique communities in the capital city.
Kopaja
Hearing the word Kopaja, people usually think of Jakarta's public buses. However, it is also the name of the Jakarta Anime Lovers Community (Kopaja).
According to its Facebook page, the community was initially formed as a place for lovers of Japanese anime or manga to discuss their favorite animations and comic books as well as meet people with the same interests.
Kopaja members routinely hold gatherings to share their collections, play games and hold otaku (anime fan) quizzes to strengthen bonds between members.
The community is rarely absent from events related to Japanese pop culture, particularly festivals and exhibitions in Greater Jakarta.
Kopaja is also the umbrella community for groups like the pop-rock collective Ren-Ai Project, flashdance group Doki-Doki Morning and band Skyfall.
Kompi Zombie
JP/Seto Wardhana
The Zombie Movie Lovers Community, known as Kompi Zombie, was created by Eric Kairupan in 2009 on a Facebook page.
The goal was simply to interact with fellow netizens who liked zombie movies.
After a month, Eric and his wife Yonna Kairupan had found that many netizens shared their hobby.
'We got more than 1,000 members in a month, and one of the most unexpected things was that 48 percent of them were women,' said Yonna.
Kompi Zombie became more popular after the 2011 Urban Fest held in Ancol, North Jakarta.
'From that moment on, we've been getting opportunities to join more events. One of the most amazing things was being chosen as the official partner of Fox International Channel to promote The Walking Dead series.'
Six years into its existence, Kompi Zombie now also has 10,000 offline members.
Beta-Ufo
The Unidentified Flying Object community, known as Beta-Ufo, is a community that observes UFOs, especially in Indonesia.
Most of the members interact through social media. As of Thursday, Beta-Ufo's Twitter account
@betaufo had 5,129 followers.
Founded in 1997, the community's activities include investigating reports of flying saucer sightings, holding discussions, seminars and exhibitions regarding UFOs as well as publishing magazines.
Beta-Ufo was also involved in an investigation into the appearance crop circles in Sleman, Yogyakarta, in 2011. It turned out that the crop circle were man-made.
Indonesian Reenactors
Indonesian Reenactors (IDR) is a group for military history enthusiasts who like to gather and hold war reenactments.
Founded in 2003, IDR has 1,321 members recorded on its Facebook page. They have various backgrounds, such as history book collectors, historians, history bloggers, uniform and air-soft gun enthusiasts and many others.
The members actively hold war reenactments. One such event was conducted in historic Kota Tua, West Jakarta, in April, where hundreds of people tried to revive the memory of a battle between German and American soldiers.
HAAJ
Established 31 years ago, the Jakarta Amateur Astronomy Community (HAAJ) is a group for astronomy enthusiasts.
HAAJ chairman Indra Firdaus said recently that the community had around 50 members who were actively involved in activities ranging from discussions to sky gazing.
Indra said that in order to familiarize members of the public with astronomy, the community also held an annual sky-gazing event called Star Party.
At a recent Star Party in October, around 200 people of various ages gathered at the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lapan) in Rumpin, Bogor, West Java.
'We want people have the opportunity to see the universe from a different perspective apart from using only the naked eye,' Indra said.
He added that people interested in joining HAAJ did not need to have a telescope. 'Just come to our regular activities every two weeks at the Jakarta Planetarium [at the Taman Ismail Marzuki art center in Central Jakarta],' he said.
