On June 10 (Sat.) and 11 (Sun.), a workshop entitled "The School of Friendship for Forests and Paper" was held at Sugenuma Forest, owned by the Nippon Paper Industries and located in Katashina Village in Tone-gun, Gunma Prefecture. The workshop used facilities such as Chalet Malnuma and Nikko Shirane-san Ropeway of MARUNUMA KOGEN RESORT CO., LTD..
The School of Friendship for Forests and Paper is the Nippon Paper Group's workshop on the natural environment and aims to offer opportunities to enjoy nature and experience the relationship between forests and paper, a material familiar to our daily lives. All programs at the workshop were created by members of the Group. A public advertisement was placed to call for participants, while members of the Group were in charge of all preparations and operations on the day of the workshop. The textbooks that were handed out to the participants on the day were all hand-made and original.

A total of 41 participants took part in the workshop, including the 24 parents and chidlren who had met at Tokyo Station first and taken a bus, locals from Katashina Village and students of Gunma Prefectural Oze High School.
The enthusiasm of the staff and participants seemed to dispel the overcast skies normally associated with the rainy season, and the workshop was blessed with good weather and patches of sunlight. In the afternoon of Day 1, the participants took a walk for about an hour and a half from Nikko Shirane-san Ropeway Mountaintop Station. The staff had visited Sugenuma Forest several times prior to the workshop to study the natural environment within the forest. They were a little nervous, but offered the knowledge they had previously acquired to the participants while enjoying the walk with them as forest guides.
After descending the mountain, the participants passed the time until dinner shaving the twigs they had picked up in the mountain to make woodchips to prepare to make paper the following day. All participants, from children to adults were immersed in the shaving to produce high-quality pulp.
Dinner was a delicious barbecue prepared in a square in front of Chalet Malnuma. Unfortunately, the sky was overcast that night and the stars were not visible. The participants enjoyed a slide show and made a star chart, which concluded Day 1.

In the morning of Day 2, Group members serving as experts on paper gave a lecture in a quiz format. The lecture helped the participants to learn the process through which woodchips made from the twigs they had picked up the day before were turned into pulp. Everybody, including the high school students, showed great interest. Later, the completed pulp was mixed with pulp that had been previously prepared by the staff, and then was given to all participants so they could try making a piece of paper the size of a postcard. Some made thick pieces of paper by adjusting the amount of pulp while others preferred to use leaves. Everyone enjoyed the program in their own way.

At the completion ceremony, each participant was given a certificate of completion of the workshop, along with a commemorative photo that was printed on the spot. The participants were also given souvenirs from MARUNUMA KOGEN, concluding the two-day program, which seemed to be over in a flash.
The activities of the workshop were featured in the Jomo's morning edition dated June 11. The next workshop is scheduled for September 30 and October 1.

The workshop participants		A mountain walk
Making a star chart		Learning how to make paper