• Goals
• Participation,Venue, and Workshop Organisation
• Technical Contents
• The detailed Schedule
• Thanks from the Organiser

• to boost a long term partnership between the Romanian and Japanese algebraic specification traditions and communities,
• to present in some detail the CafeOBJ project to the Romanian scientists, and, on the other hand, to get some feedback for it, and
• to show Romania (at least some part) and her people to the Japanese friends.

These goals were actually met very succesfully, even better than expected before. A friendship relationship has been established between the participants at RJ'97, which together with the professional relationship constitutes a solid platform for long term partnership and collaboration between the two groups. The CafeOBJ project was discussed in detail and neatly presented to the Romanian side. Also the CafeOBJ project got substantilal feedback in the area of semantics, design, examples, and main documents. Finally, the Japanese friends were able to get a taste of Romanian food and wines, of the style of Romanian people and its Latin character (open and sometimes very expansive...), of its natural beauties (such as the Carpathians mountains and its rather fancy resorts and places), its old and not so old castles, its medieval cities and forttresses, etc.

Participation,Venue, and Workshop Organisation
The participation to RJ'97 was established to a close circle of people representing the top scientists of the algebraic specification community in Romania and Japan (the later representing the core of the CafeOBJ project). The organiser, Razvan Diaconescu, belongs in some sense to both sides, since he has been spending most of the last 19 month in Japan working for CafeOBJ. He was greatly helped in organising the workshop by Professor Cazanescu.

From the very beginning RJ'97 was planned to have a flexible schedule combining technical work with sightseeing and relaxation in the mountain park surrounding the site of the workshop. For example, there was no pre-established schedule (we had just a collection of tentative talks and an intention for discussing some important issues, such as the basic documents of CafeOBJ). The concrete schedule was determined on the spot,and there was no time limitation for talks. This unique workshop style was largely possible due to the reduced number of participants, most of them with already close relationship between them. Altough there was a sense of time flowing too quickly, this style proved to be very productive and all participants greatly appreciated it.

The venue of RJ'97 was in the famous mountain resort of Sinaia (nicknamed the "Pearl of the Carpathians" ) about 110km NW from Otopeni International Airport and 125km from the capital city of Bucharest. We all lived in "Vila Cavalerilor", an 120 old fancy vila (with modern facitlities but classically arranged and furnished) on the domain of the world famous Peles Castle. The workshop meetings were held in one of the living rooms of Vila Cavalerilor, and the meals (Romanian-style food) were served at the Economat Restaurant (5 minutes walk from Vila Cavalerilor).

The participants at RJ'97 came from several places in Romania and Japan, such as the University of Bucharest, the University of Iasi, the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy (IMAR), Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (JAIST), and Software Research Associates Inc., Tokyo (SRA). They were (in alphabetic order):

• Virgil Emil Cazanescu, University of Bucharest
• Razvan Diaconescu, JAIST, on leave from IMAR
• Kokichi Futatsugi, JAIST
• Makoto Ishisone, SRA Inc.
• Dorel Lucanu, University of Iasi
• Ataru Nakagawa, SRA Inc.
• Toshimi Sawada, SRA Inc.
• Gheorghe Stefanescu, University of Bucharest

Besides presentations Razvan Diaconescu lead a technical discussion on the CafeOBJ Report and Ataru Nakagawa on the CafeOBJ Manual in which they collected useful feedback for the main CafeOBJ documents.

The presentations and organised discussions were accompanied by informal discussions on various topics ranging from concrete CafeOBJ design and implementation issues to pure semantic or educational issues. Toshimi Sawada even applied several corrections to the CafeOBJ implementation on the spot, and several examples were actually run on the spot too.

• 24th-the arrival day- After a smooth drive from Otopeni Airport to Sinaia, RJ'97 was started by an welcoming address and by introducing the Japanese participants (by Kokichi Futatsugi and by themselves) and the Romanian participants (by Razvan Diaconescu and by themselves).



• 25th-working day- This day was dedicated to presentations by Kokichi Futatsugi, Razvan Diaconescu, Ataru Nakagawa, Toshimi Sawada, and Makoto Ishisone.



• 26th-sighseeing day-After breakfast we drove through Prahova Valley, passed into Transylvania at Paraul Rece and stopped in Bran where we visited the world famous 13th century military fortress Bran Castle. Then we took a spectacular mountain road directly from Rasnov to the skiing resort of Poiana Brasov, where we had lunch at Coliba Haiducilor, a famous old Romanian-style traditional restaurant. Then we got to the medieval city of Brasov , where we visited the old central square surrounded by medieval architecture, we admired some of the more recent baroque buildings from the Habsburg period. Next to the central square we also visited the famous gothic Black Church,where we had the chance to listen to an organ concert. The dinner was held in the Brasov Fortress, a spectacular 14th century military fortress on top of a hill next to the city center, now converted into restaurants and cafes. After dinner we drove back to Sinaia, this time on a different route on Timis Valley.



• 27th-working day-In the morning we visited the Peles Castle, which was followed by a visit to the nearby Pelisor Castle and the Foisor Park, all of them on the domain of the Peles Castle. Then we had the presentation by Dorel Lucanu, followed by the discussion on the CafeOBJ Report and on the CafeOBJ Manual. In the evening we had the RJ'97 banquet in a hunting traditional restaurant in the sound of Romanian folk music performed live.



• 28th-departure day-After breakfast there was the presentation by Gheorghe Stefanescu followed by the closing meeting in which the participants expressed their impression of RJ'97 and plans for future collaboration were discussed. Then we drove back to Otopeni Airport with one stop at the Romanesti forest restaurant for having a light lunch.

Thanks from the organiser
The organiser wishes to thank

All of them contributed greatly to the success of RJ'97!