The yellowest mountain ever!

Yellow because you chicken out when you see the stairs. On the cable car ride up (yes, my lazy behind took the cable car up half way - but that was a group decision, honestly!) I looked out the window and saw these horribly steep, almost straight-up vertical stairs. I looked at those poor wretched souls climbing the stairs and thought - good for you. Then the cable car ride ended and I realized that the stairs only got worse. Five hours of hiking, not much stopping - I didn't think I could make it, but I did!

The view, as you can see, is gorgeous, and the hike itself is the most demanding man-made trail I've ever seen. But what's really amazing is the people that work there every day, carrying tired hikers up or down the mountain on chairs, and ferrying supplies in and garbage out. After a certain point (maybe 4 hours up) there are no more roads, and the workers do not use cable cars. They walk. And there isn't much of a difference between "down" and "up" - the stairs go up and down and up and down...... Today I got a 2-hour massage for my sore muscles. I know that if you work there, you get used to climbing those stairs every day, but it still looks like a tough job. So hats off to them :)
Who doesn't like a little torture in the morning?! These steps were wet, too, because there's a tiny spring on the top that runs down them.




What a job. And they're fast, too.









This is a garbage bin. I know what it looks like, but it's a bin. This is a great way to keep the trails clean without unsightly garbage cans.



I know I mentioned this before, but I didn't post a pic. Now you know you've accepted the culture when you start calling American toilets "Western", as in "Have you been to the bathroom? Is it Western or is it a hole? Is it a unisex hole? Is it a clean hole? Ok, thanks" and it didn't really matter to you what the answers to those questions were. It takes some getting used to, and some finesse to use it, but some of us have come to believe that this version is more sanitary, provided you don't touch anything or fall in. haha. Anyway, this is one of the cleanest I've seen, Western or Eastern :D Between this and chopsticks, I'm perfecting my motor skills over here. Heheh.