Dreams of a man called Nobukazo

Development and technological advancements have snaggled the lifestyle of the younger generation of Japanese: they have stopped dreaming.
"They have no dreams," said Nobukazu Kuriki, himself a 26-year old Japanese. To make them start dreaming, he has started a new campaign to reach heights -- climbing mountains. Kuriki has challenged the seven-summit solo as the first phase of his campaign that started in 2004.
"This campaign of scaling summits might give them some food for thought that life is challenging and it is necessary to dream," added he.
Kuriki has already climbed six of the seven heighest summits of each continent and wants to scale Mount Everest next summer. He thinks that climbing mountains is a noble way to make today's Japanese youths realise the reality of life. "The conquest of summits is a reality of life's hardship and human beings' untiring efforts to conquer nature," he philosophised. "Climbing mountains is also like living a life full of dreams -- achieving something."
"Not only that, the difficulties poses by the snow-capped peaks while climbing are like the difficulties in our lives when we are pursuing our dreams," he said adding that it also teaches one how to live life on a daily basis while fighting adverse conditions and at the same time straining to scale the peak.
"Today's Japanese youth are busy with computer games and other electrical gadgets. They have no imagination," he said adding that his campaign that was telecast live in Japan about the various peaks he conquered will send a message to his country's youth that life is beautiful and worth dreaming about.
Kuriki has already climbed six -- Mt Mckinley, Mt Aconcagua, Mt Elbrus, Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Vinson Massif and Mt Carstensz Pyramid -- of the seven-summit solo and is planning to climb Mount Everest coming summer. Over and above that, he plans to scale 14 summits to attract the new generation of Japanese towards mounteering.
He has also climbed Mount Manaslu and Dhaulagiri -- this season -- apart from the familiarisation climbing of Mount Everest upto 7,000 metres as his preparation for next summer.
Once, Japanese youths used to love adventure and dream of climbing Mount Manaslu if not Mount Everest as Mount Manaslu was first scaled by a Japanese. "My campaign might re-ignite that age-old love of climbing in today's Japanese youth giving a little boost to Nepal's mountering and trekking sector," Kuriki hoped.