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2009年01月28日
Japanese Mountains: Condor Sakata's 50th Climb
On January 26, 2009 the Christian Street Muscician Condor Sakata made his 50th climb of Mt. Kongo.Condor Sakata is an ocarina player of great talent who is also into outdoor activities. One of his jobs is to guide walking tours around the largest lake in Japan-Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. I did not know that he also was climbing Mt. Kongo but over a year ago he added that to his schedule of things to do.
A few days before his 50th climb he found out that I was also a Mt. Kongo climber and as a fellow Christian he wanted to share his 50th climb with me. I had first met him in November of 2008 when we invited him to do an ocarina concert at our church. At any rate, he called me up and asked if we could do this climb together as two Christian brothers. I told him that I would be very glad and honored to do so but that I was worried about my physical condition. If I was not in good shape that day we might have to use the ropeway. He told me that was ok so we set up our plans for the 26th.
The morning of the 26th greeted us with a nice blue sky though the temperature was way down there-in other words a perfect mountain day. The climb went perfectly with us enjoying great conversation the whole time. I think it was about 90% conversation and 10% climbing! At any rate we arrived at the peak ok and I took photos of him having his card stamped for the 50th time and also a picture of him in front of the snow igloo and also standing by his new name plate that announced to the world that he had climbed 50 times.
I remember how excited I was when I did my 50th climb-I was more excited then than when I did my 100th climb or my 1000th climb or my 1500th climb. Your 50th climb proves that you can do it. If you can climb 50 times you can climb 100 or 1000 or 2000 times or whatever!
On the way down, when the snow had thinned out, we found a comfortable place and he played several hymns on his ocarina. The beautiful sound of hymns being played on an ocarna in the middle of a mountian valley is just wonderful. I think the valley sides served to send the sound all over the mountain.
I am so happy to have yet another fellow Christian climber on Mt. Kongo. In Condor Sakata's case this means that the sound of Christian hymns will also be heard more and more. Wonderful! PTL
投稿者 bethany : 2009年01月28日 07:21
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