On April 4th, 2025, the April gathering, the first event for the Atsumi International Foundation 2025 fellows, was held. This year, the Atsumi Foundation Hall, where we have been to for the interview and the Spring Presentation Session in March, was unavailable. As such the gathering was held at the "KX-LAB", a research facility owned by Kajima Corporation, located in Toyoshima Ward, Higashi-Nagasaki. For me, the venue was quite nearby (15 minutes walk), so I strolled to the venue while enjoying the full-bloom Sakura along the way.

As I have arrived at the venue, received the name tag at the entrance, drew the lottery for seating, and finally sat at the designated seat, I realized that the Executive Director was seated diagonal to me, and became suddenly stressed. My stress was unfound however, as the Executive Director spoke to me in a friendly manner, and I was able to feel relaxed while waiting for the event to start.

With Sonja, a Foundation staff, as the facilitator, the event began with a greeting from the Executive Director, followed by Office Chief Harada's explanation about the Foundation. We then moved on to the key event of the April gathering, "Time for self-introduction while having lunch".

Our self-introduction was to include our name (and a nickname we prefer), university, hometown, and 1 of the 3 themes we were given on the day. The person who has introduced themselves was to randomly pass the microphone to the next person. I was able to hear the stories of all participants - not just the fellows, but the Executive Director and other people related to the Foundation as well.

The themes were: "the city or town you like", "something about yourself that cannot be told first glance (I am actually this kind of person)", and "an unforgettable food or something that tasted good". However, whichever theme was chosen, everyone also spoke of their research topic or usual interests, and I was able to learn so much about every participants. Also, although I did learn about everyone's preferred nicknames, recently my memories have been failing me, so I will have to rely on the name tags when calling everyone for a while (please call me "Kan-chan").

After the self-introductions, we took a group photo, and had a tour of displays at the KX-LAB, while also having some time to freely talk with each other. In the free-talk session, I also got to hear more from my batchmates about their research topic, the status of their doctoral dissertation, and their enthusiasm for their life in Japan from now. Usually, I only talked with specific people in my lab, so interacting with researchers from completely different fields was a very fresh experience.

Finally we moved to a nearby park to have a mini-ohanami, took another group photo under a full-bloom Sakura tree, and the gathering came to a close. Although I had a great time during the gathering, when looking back, the Associate Director Imanishi was absent because of a work in Bangkok, and 3 hours went by very quickly, barely enough time to talk. I plan to make up for this missed opportunity (getting closer to Associate Director Imanishi and many others I could not speak fully this time) in the future gatherings.

I would like to conclude by saying that my goal for this one year is to make the best of this valuable opportunity of joining the Raccoon-Kai, to complete my doctoral degree, and enjoy the friendship here at Raccoon-Kai.

Written by: Kang Suk-Jung (2025 fellow)

Translated by: Motoki Luxmiwattana