Stairway to heaven

You'd think that walking up 3333 steps (THREE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE steps) would lead you straight to heaven. It doesn't.

I spent the weekend in Kumamoto, where we visited a famous spot in the Izumi area called "Nihon ichi no ishidan"(Japan's number one stone steps).

At the start of our climbing, we were all really gung-ho.

Once we got to the 200th stair, we were panting pretty bad. At one point, I was sure we must have been at least at the 2000th stairs, if not more. The sign said we had reached the 600th step. Still had a long way to go!

We were all huffing, puffing and weazing the whole way up. We stopped a few times to catch our breath. I'm surprised we made it to the top at all!

After about 1 hour 40 minutes, we finally reached the top! (the stone reads 3333rd step)

Once at the top, we were all delirious with joy and took random pictures.

Although it doesn't lead to heaven, you do get a gorgeous view from the top!


Something that foreigners usually comment on when they come to Japan is the fact that vending machines can be found EVERYWHERE you go. Along a road, you cannot drive 200 meters without running across a vending machine. Somebody once jokingly said that they double up as street lamps (cos they're so bright and can be seen regularly along the street). One would think that there would be several vending machines at the top of the stairs. There wasn't!!

It took only about 40 minutes to run down (which was a really bad idea...i'm in so much pain.)

Here we are, having succeeded in climbing up and back down 3333 stone steps.

We ended the day by visiting a much needed onsen.