In the morning of Friday July 4, participants gathered in front of the Shinjuku Center Building, having braved through the dungeon of construction sites around Shinjuku Station. This year, thanks to the nice weather, we began the workshop amidst the summer sunlight and temperature. After travelling through the traffic for 3 hours on the bus, we first visited the Mitake Shosenkyo. At the lunch venue, a beautiful lunch of prepared for us. Each tables were greeting and chatting while enjoying summer delicacies such as some amazing ayu sweetfish. Even if it was the first time we met, being seated around the same food naturally gave us a common topic for conversation, and I felt myself loosening up. After the meal, we took a stroll in Shosenkyo, said to be "the most beautiful gorge in Japan," and enjoyed artpieces in the cave-like space of the Museum of Shadowgraph. Some observed bugs in the gorge while others feasted on cold icecream at the museum. After taking in the nature, art, and food, we left the gorge for our next destination.

Arriving at CHÂTERAISÉ Hotel Nirasaki no Mori, we were greeted by Associate Director Imanishi's warm smile and CHÂTERAISÉ's sweet confectionery. This place, located on a high altitude and surrounded by forests, had a pleasant atmosphere, different from that of the city center. After a short break, Sim Choon Kiat, a 2006 fellow, and Sim Woo-hyang, a 2017 fellow—the Sim-Sim duo—led an ice-breaking activity. We were given a prompt and were instructed to collect the answers of every other participants to the prompt. The interaction was designed so that we inevitably had to talk to everyone here. My prompt was "if you would make your life into a movie, what would the title be?" While everyone struggled with their answers, they all came up with a whole host of different titles. I was impressed that people gathered here were those who live and treasure the times in their lives. We had dinner afterwards, and while mixing in a dose of alcohol, we finished each of our introduction. After dinner, to get to know Mori Takato, a 2022 fellow who is the main facilitator of this workshop, we listened to every answers Mori-san gave to all the prompts during the ice-breaking. After that, there was a light introduction to the questions: "What is emergence? What is information?," and the first day concluded. In the extra round, some went out for a night stroll around the hotel, some drank until late. It was a first day that loosened up everyone.

On the morning of the second day, both the people who got up early for the morning radio exercise and those who did not were able to enjoy the sight of Mount Fuji equally, and started the day with a pleasant breakfast. With Chen-san, a 2019 fellow, Umemoto-san, a 2025 fellow, and Kawasaki-san, an Atsumi staff, joining us, every participants were present.

Session 1: "Emergence x Information" (Mori-san, 2022 Raccoon)
Mori-san started with a lecture, defining emergence as a concept that appears by capturing the target from a macroscopic view (coarse graining, for example: apple → red), and quantum information as a result of adding every system and possibility. Mori-san then explained how it is used in practice, and how it relates to his research. In the interactive session, we broke into groups for an experiment, gathering the personal information of members, extracting commonalities, doing some addition and subtraction, and discovering what kind of network structure emerges as a result. This natural science theme was quite an unfamilitar topic for Atsumi fellows, and it was certainly not an easily comprehensible concept. However, with a close example and some experiments, we could input a new thinking concept into our minds.

Session 2: "Words and Identity" (Sonja Dale, 2012 Raccoon)
The session began with an interactive experience of expressing the image we have of a specific person by likening them to an animal or a plant, to find out how the words one have is similar to or different from others. The word "dove" would generate various perception and impression, from symbol of peace, doves flocking in the city or a dove trotting along. Building on that, we also shared the impression we have if gender (male, female, X) was assigned. On male and female bathroom system, some pointed out that male bathroom lacks privacy and so on, leading to passionate discussion as a result of a gathering of people who grew up in different genders and countries. The exchange of opinion even continued into lunch break.

Session 3: "From Chaos to Computation" (Sudeera-san, 2024 Raccoon)
In relation to topics such as can we distinguish between something made by AI and a human, or do AI understand concepts and structures, Sudeera-san introduced the information processing concept of AI. Based on that, we shared the information we deal with in our research and the method we use to process it, renewing our understanding of the information processing we usually do in our head. I felt that the logical thought structure of a PhD emerged as a result, as despite our research field being varied across the arts and sciences, all followed the line of information gathering, organizing, comparing, and presenting.

Session 4: "Placing Oneself with 'Information x Emergence'" (Chen-san, 2019 Raccoon)
In Chen-san's session, we attempted to discover an emergence in our lives by reflecting on each of our lived experience as information source. I shared some notable experience on interpersonal relationship in the group. As we were discussing some personal topics, groups spread out, with some discussing while taking a stroll outside. While I didn't go out of my way to exchange opinions, it was a meaningful time that allowed me to macroscopically looke back at my past interpersonal relationship from the "emergence" perspective and ascertain my own way of interacting with others.

After the end of the second day's sessions, we had an outdoor barbeque. Imanishi-san and the staffs prepared some drinks and snacks, and each tables did a kampai as they finished setting up. There was a mouthful of meat and vegetables, even some yakisoba set as a closing meal, and Yang-san, a 2025 fellow, opened "Yang-san's Yakisoba Shop." Each tables had a relaxed summer evening, chatting on various topics from worries in research to wholesome stories of raising a child. There was an extra round on this night as well, and while I excused myself at around 23:30 PM, some apparently got close enough to talk about their love lives until 2 AM.

On the last day, after finishing breakfast, we packed our luggage and gathered at the seminar room for the final session. We were instructed to freely draw up a summary of the past 2 days on a sheet of A1 paper—a task requiring some creativity. For the fellows who usually use textual or numerical information, expressing things through drawing felt somewhat discomforting, but as we found drawing faces and coloring with a cray-pas satisfying, the sheet of paper soon became full of color. Every group wrapped up with an optimistic expression, which made me feel once again that gaining new knowledge and sharing one's thoughts with others really makes a human positive. Finally, we wrote a letter to ourselves in a year from now, and departed from CHÂTERAISÉ Hotel Nirasaki no Mori.

By participating in Nirasaki Workshop 2025, I feel that I have become more open-minded. This is not only because I acquired a new thinking framework of "emergence," but because I was able to increase the range of diversity within my mind by having a dialogue with members from different nationality and culture. I was also able to deepen my bond with my fellow batchmates, senior Raccoons and the Atsumi staff. My sincere gratitude to everyone at the Atsumi International Foundation for creating the space for this wonderful three days.

Written by: Nishimoto Kazuki (2025 Fellow)

Pictures from the day