The man sitting in the storefront wore a cap called a Songkok

A man was sitting in the storefront of a store near the market. He was wearing a cap, just like many other men. But he wasn't wearing a baseball cap, a Taqiyah, or a cowboy hat like the one worn by the becak driver I had seen earlier. What the man was wearing was a cap called a Songkok.

Songkok is widely worn in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines, and southern Thailand, and are mainly worn by Muslim men. It is not familiar in Japan, but it may remind you of the hat worn by the late President Sukarno, who was Dewi Sukarno's husband.

During my travels in Malaysia, I often came across people wearing Songkok caps. Children wore them and adults wore them too. In Indonesia, however, I did not come across many people wearing a Songkok. I think I only saw one man wearing Songkok in Jakarta. In Jakarta and Cirebon, there are not many people who wear it. Maybe there is an image that it is something that old people wear like the polar tie in Japan.

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