The steps up the mountain¹⁶

This morning in Okinawa I went out running while it was still dark. At one point I saw a series of steps going up a mountain, and I decided to climb them. After I had walked up hundreds of steps, I found a shrine at the top of the mountain. It was not a good place to go in the dark. Even the trees seemed to talk to you, telling you not to visit their mountain. But it was a very nice shrine.