Source: Peatix

✈️ Can a trip be a turning point in your life?! We'll share the secrets of "Question Travel"!
Results presentation in Shibuya QWS

"Going to India will change your outlook on life" -- can we turn this coincidental rumor into a "blueprint" that can be replicated?
We will hold a presentation to culminate the three-month adventure that began with that question, the "Question Journey" project.
　
Views on life, the world, work, family, love...
These are not absolute "answers," but rather "hypothesis = questions" that are constantly being updated.
We have been exploring how travel, a "border-crossing experience" that transcends the boundaries between the known and the unknown, can be re-implemented as a powerful tool for deepening questions about ourselves and the world.

India and Japan have many connections, such as Buddhism, yoga, spices and curry.
At the same time, there is a striking difference.
　
Carrying questions between the known and the unknown, encountering questions, and deepening the questions.
I began to vaguely see a concrete methodology for turning a simple trip into a turning point.
　
Why not enjoy the results and explore further together?

📌Event Overview
Date and time: October 30th (Wednesday) 18:00-20:00
Location: Shibuya QWS (Shibuya Station Scramble Square 15th floor)
Participation fee: Free
What to bring: Notebook and pen, drinks and snacks (you are welcome to bring your own food and drinks)
Capacity: 20 people (Aiming for in-depth discussion in small groups)
 
✅ Highly recommended for these people!
I am interested in using travel as a tool for self-exploration.
People who are busy with their daily lives but continue to question "how to live life in a way that suits me"
I want to use the ``shock'' I felt when visiting India in my daily life.
People involved in the travel/tourism industry who are interested in designing "cross-border experiences"
Those who want to utilize the perspective of "question travel" in regional revitalization and tourism development
Those who feel a special attraction to the place called "India"

🖋 Program for the day
This presentation is not just a report session, but is intended to be a time for all participants to co-create the "future of inquiry travel."

18:00-18:10 What is Inquiry Travel? ~History and Origin~
18:10-18:15 Video screening of the India Inquiry Journey
18:15-18:40 Live Talk: The Possibilities of "Questions" and "Travel" (Speakers: Nozomi Ichikawa, Keisuke Shimada, Naoto Sakamoto)
18:40-19:10 Workshop: How do the differences you encounter in India connect to your everyday life?
19:10-19:40 Discussion & Q&A: Let's think together about the future of "Question Journey."
19:40-20:00 Exchange meeting

🔥 Talk live guest
Nozomi Ichikawa | Co-CEO of Death Fest General Incorporated Association | Founder of the non-profit company Polaris

After graduating from junior college, she joined an IT company. After leaving work to raise children and participating in a childcare support NPO, she founded Polaris in late 2010, which was selected in a business plan competition held by the Cabinet Office, with the aim of increasing options for work and lifestyles. She won the Regional Grand Prize in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Women's Empowerment Promotion Awards in 2019. In 2023, she established Maeve LLC as a vehicle for experimental projects rooted in more personal interests. She is currently working hard to host her third annual Death Fest, themed on "well-being in life and death." She plans to hold a Death Fest x India Retreat in Varanasi in January 2025, and a second India Retreat in Puri in November.
 
Keisuke Shimada | Mindfulness Pioneer | Translator | Advisor to the non-profit Saniwa Corporation

Born in Gunma Prefecture in 1958. A mental health social worker (PSW), counselor, translator, writer, university lecturer, owner of the workshop house "Yutori-ya," a full member of Plum Village OI, and mayor of Mindfulness Village. He is committed to providing a self-sufficient lifestyle based on agriculture and healing for the body and mind. He was one of the organizers of Thich Nhat Hanh's tour to Japan in 1995. He currently holds regular meditation sessions, mainly online. He also gives lectures, training sessions, and courses on the theme of mindfulness.

His books include "Mindfulness Journey: 20 Lessons to Unlock Miracles and Live a Richer Life" (Sangha). His translations include Thich Nhat Hanh's "Thich Nhat Hanh's Meditations of Happiness: Plum Village's Practice of Living Mindfully" (co-translated), "Fear: How to Overcome the Storms of the Mind" (both Tokuma Shoten), "Buddha's Meditations of Awareness" (co-translated), "Buddha's Meditations on Breathing," "Buddha's Meditations on Living in the Present," "Tich Nhat Hanh's Poetry: Call Me by My True Name," and "Now, This Wonderful Moment: Words of Mindfulness to Chant in Everyday Life" (all Nososha). His other translations include "Heartfulness: The Stanford Psychology Class" (by Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Yamato Shobo) and "Mindfulness in Partnership" (by John Wellwood, Sangha). In November 2024, he will be teaching his first mindfulness retreat in India, followed by a retreat themed on "resilience in adversity" in September this year and "adventure and exploration" in February next year.
　

　
🧭 Question Travel Members
　
Naoto Sakamoto | CEO and CIO (Chief India Officer) of a non-profit company / Director of Death Fest General Incorporated Association / Representative Director of Fuchu India Association

With a mother who teaches classical yoga, she studied cultural anthropology as a student. She lived in Puri, India for 14 years from 2006. After working as a Japanese language teacher, she founded the local travel agency "Santana Travel." She runs Ayurveda programs, coordinates Mother Teresa volunteers, and manages projects to enjoy Indian festivals. After that, she developed her core business of studying yoga abroad in India, promoting the "India x Yoga x Coaching" method and awarding international certification to over 300 people.
After returning to Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic, he founded the local community "Fuchu India Association" and the non-profit Saniwa Corporation. With the mission of "providing fun cross-border experiences that make everyday life wonderful," he is dedicated to planning and cooperating with retreats, holding workshops, and creating planners. He has been involved with Death Fest since its first year and became a director in 2025. He is also involved in the Death Fest India Retreat.

Yukako Okamoto | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo (PhD course completed) / Hindi language instructor / Field worker

He fell in love with India at first sight while in high school, and entered the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies to major in Hindi in 2007. He left the doctoral program at the University of Tokyo Graduate School in 2025 after completing his coursework. He currently continues his research in cultural anthropology in India while also working as a Hindi instructor.
Through interactions with people she met during fieldwork, she learned the joy of "looking at oneself through a different culture" and deepened her search for self-understanding and ways of life. Based on academic knowledge, she aims to create a space that values physical experiences such as excitement and thrills.

Sonomi Gupta | Japanese Language Teacher / Communication Facilitator / Yoga & NVC Practitioner

She married an Indian man in 2014 and lived with a large family in North India for seven years from 2015. Her experiences of facing differences in religious ceremonies and everyday values and searching for ways to understand each other led her to deepen her interest in different cultures and self-exploration. She encountered yoga philosophy in India and completed her RYT500 certification with the Yoga Alliance. She also studied Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and values creating spaces where people can communicate with each other in an empathetic manner.
He has over 15 years of experience teaching Japanese. He has taught students from various countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Japan, and currently provides online lessons to a diverse range of students, including UN staff and entrepreneurs. He hopes to share what he has learned through his experiences with his peers and explore them together.

Honoka Kogure | Director and Chief Life Officer of the non-profit Saniwa Corporation | 414 Card Facilitator

He has had some unique experiences, such as dropping out of high school, living a self-sufficient life on the island of Malta, and joining his first full-time job. In 2019, while traveling on the island of Hawaii, he was involved in a traffic accident with an unlicensed drunk driver, but his life was saved by an off-duty firefighter who happened to be passing by the scene. This experience made him realize that "everyone will die someday," and he lives his life cherishing warm connections filled with love and gratitude.

Kyoko Niimi | Travel Nurse | Holistic Care Guide

A single mother of two, Arafeaturanger worked as an ER nurse at a general hospital, working hard in the secondary emergency department. However, after seeing the current situation of the patients and their families who came to the emergency room, the sudden death of her own family member, and traveling to India, she was inspired to think about how to use the mind to make the most of the body, and how to use the body to make the most of the mind, and so she decided to resign from the hospital this year and start her own business.

Venue