金曜日のカナダのPodcast用にいただいた事前質問

2021.1.19

本日も、今年行く予定のウルトラマンのポッドキャストの担当の方からメールをいただいた。自分の英語力はものすごく適当なもので、事前に質問をいただけたらありがたいです！と言って送っていただいた質問。そしてそれに対する回答。太字が質問、通常の文字が自分の回答。

英語でこのようなことを聞かれたことはないので、しっかり話せるかわからないけれど、これを軸にアドリブでしっかり話を膨らませられるかな？

What are the 7 highest mountains and where are they?

The highest peaks of the world’s seven continents are located in Russia, Alaska, Tanzania, Antarctica, Nepal (Tibet), Papua New Guinea (Australia), and Argentina.

I will ask a question about Mr . Kuraoka and what your relationship was and what you learned.

Mr. Kuraoka is a really nice person. He talks with people from all over the world without barriers, and I learned that if you are really good, language and race do not matter at all. Also,The more dangerous the situation, the more calm he becomes. where life and death are at stake, the more powerful he is, and he never gets upset at all.He is always flexible, I learned that strength is flexibility.

What was the first mountain?

the highest mountain in Eurasia, the 5642m Elbrus in Russia.

How long have you been training?

About three years. I never went to the mountains for training, but lived on the ground with a 20kg weight on my back. Every day, I climbed up and down 30 flights of stairs with a 20kg weight on my back. When I started, I didn’t have any mountaineering experience at all, so even now I have only been to about 10 mountains in my life.

You are packing for your first trip. H0w did you feel? Thinking about what is ahead.

I had already told everyone that I was going to summit Everest!So I knew I couldn’t do anything halfway. It would be uncool if I ended up being just a big mouth, since I had thrown away my job to take on the challenge. That’s how I felt.

2016. — 2 climbs Which one’s are they?

The highest peak in South America, Aconcagua (6942m) in Argentina, and the world sixth highest mountain in the world, Cho Oyu (8201m) in Tibet.

IN your climbs, what sort of scary experiences or near misses?Were there any big falls?

Anyway, climbing at high altitudes is a battle against altitude sickness, and altitude sickness is so painful that everything else becomes unimportant. If I had to choose between altitude sickness and sheer cliffs, I would say altitude sickness. That’s how hard altitude sickness is. I’ve always had a weakness for altitude, and my blood oxygen level dropped to 14. That was really painful. It was like having a fever of 40 degrees Celsius, or being so drunk that you wanted to fall asleep in the middle of the highway.

2017 IN Jan and Feb you do back to back climbs. This is quite the schedule.What are they?

I was in the mountains for more than half of the year, prioritizing the mountains over my children, my family, my work, and everything else. I was in the mountains for more than half of the year. I had nothing else on my mind but to summit every mountain in one shot.

Do you get new gear every climb? Does it wear out?

No, I was aiming for the 7 Summits from the beginning, so I got the best one from the beginning so that I wouldn’t have to replace it. So, I didn’t need to replace anything at all. I only went to 8 summits (2 in Australia), so in my case, I used them extremely infrequently compared to other mountaineers.

The following will be particularly about climbing Everest:
Was there ever chance that you would not be able to summit. weather?? other concerns.

The possibility of not making the summit was everywhere. We made preparations three times for the summit, but each time the weather did not cooperate and we had to cancel. The weather on the last day was also very close, and we were blown away on the way back, but if we had been one step slower, it would have been dangerous and we would not have been able to summit.

At the time of my summit, I had met Killian Jornet, who had set the Everest speed record and climbed without oxygen twice in less than a week, twice. I met him twice during the record, and he even signed my autograph once, which helped me more than anything. Mr. Killian had climbed without oxygen twice in one week, while I was on oxygen and had Sherpas, so I knew that I had to summit under such lax conditions.

Other than the summit itself, IS there one story to tell us from EVEREST –what is it?

The summit is not important at all. In fact, even if you reach the summit, there is no sense of accomplishment at all. Climbing usually kills you on the way down, so when you reach the summit, you feel like you’ve reached the 30% point. When I got back to the base camp, I felt a sense of relief slowly spreading over me. It’s not a sense of accomplishment, but a sense of relief. Normally, races where death is a constant threat are rare, but Everest is a constant threat. Challenging something with your whole body and life is an experience that cannot be replaced by anything else. I would recommend the Everest experience to anyone who wants to face themselves and train their spirit.

Were there ever any times that you broke down on a mountain? . Mentally things got tough. (any mountain)

My heart was breaking every time. Once I was so trapped that I felt like I was going to go crazy all night. At times like that, songs with positive lyrics don’t work. In fact, when I hear a positive song, it makes me feel worse. Hang in there! or something like that, I’m already working harder than you! I feel like losing my temper.
However, my true goal was not to climb the summit, but to train myself for my predicament goal, so by immersing myself in such negative emotions until I reached the bottom, I was able to recover every time.

Total of six in one year! I saw in your various summits that you take a picture with a banner with a heart. I thought I heard the word wife in english one time. What is that banner?

That was my way of saying I love you to my wife. Because most people who climb mountains are divorced, I took the advice of a senior woman and started shouting my love for my wife at the top of the world every time I climbed to avoid divorce. However, the first time I did it, she was impressed, but after that she was not impressed at all. However, the advice is that it is good to shout it out persistently, so I will continue to shout out my love for my wife all over the world!

What is it like when a big event is over for you?
How is your mental state ? Is there a let down?

Immediately after it is over, I feel relieved and happy, but soon I feel empty.There is too much of a gap between the heat and the reality of challenging something, and I fall into burnout. Even if I want to go somewhere, I often don’t act before I go, thinking that it’s not important anyway. I feel like it’s getting harder and harder to feel happy about the little things every day.

You don’t go through a three year journey without learning a thing or two about yourself or life. What do you think you gained from this experience?

At first I thought I had something, but then I lost it again. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that one can’t live without constantly challenging oneself.

Completing the 7 Summits and additionally reaching the north and south poles has been referred to as the Explorers Grand Slam. I know those are on your list.You have a bigger challenge set for the future. Which you are calling the Super GLand Slam.What is the plan there?PLease share the Mars goal here.

Super Grand Slam is a term I made up on my own. It is the addition of Mars’ Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the solar system, to the Grand Slam. However, I have not yet been to the North and South Poles, and I would like to do so before I go to Mars.

2008 July 30 years old, Makoto Co., Ltd. founded representative

Is this the first eyeglasses store that you opened?
Did this. shut down for a while? When I read another interview, it seemed to me that you left this business for a while.

2014 May Makoto Hong Kong first store opened
Is this your second store but first in Hong kong?

Makoto Optician is the first optician store that I opened when I was 30 years old. We now have two stores in Tokyo. While I was in Hong Kong and Indonesia, building my own company and going to the mountains, the two stores in Tokyo were always open for business.

The Hong Kong store is Makoto’s Eyeglasses, which has moved three times and is now closed, with only the company for purchasing remaining. In Indonesia, I ran a web company as a hired president, but that company is now closed.

For the second part I want to do a timeline of your various jobs and entrepreneurial endeavours.

Also discuss your “philosophy” of life. It seems to me that you are a “just do it ” kind of person. Jump right in. Figure it out as you go.

I would like to give you the chance to talk about your eyeglasses shops and Galaxy Hitchhiker.

ALso, briefly touch on your family life.

I don’t really have set questions for this part. I hope to bring up certain items and see how you respond. MOre conversational.

But the above will be the main topics.

I will finish by asking :
What do you think ULtraman can offer you that you have not already accomplished or experienced?

My first company, Hitchhiker’s Galaxy, took its name from the famous Douglas Adams science fiction book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The idea behind the founding of the company was to make it easier for people to go to space. That’s what I wanted to do. This company, which I first created in my twenties, went dormant after a few years, but I revived it after climbing Mount Everest, so I hope to do something tangible related to space in the next ten years.

As for the optician, I genuinely like glasses. That’s why I started it. I suddenly started this store without any experience, but luckily, it is still going on and is my main business now.

It’s not easy in my day-to-day life, but I believe that in life, you can go from having no experience at all to aiming for Everest or even space. Come on, let’s do it! I know it’s going to be painful, but let’s be cheerful! It’s okay if what you say in the morning turns out to be the opposite at night. What you say in the morning may be the opposite at night. That’s my policy in life.

At the end of the day, I have no idea what I will feel when I see Ultraman, but it may remind me of the importance of making plans.