One of the coolest things about looking at thousands of wirephotos every day is learning new things about other cultures. I wonder how many trainees they lose this way.

Everett Kennedy Brown/EPA
Japanese yamabushi, mountain ascetics, hang from cliffs to overcome fear, during their spring austerity training in the Kumano mountain range of western Japan, April 28, 2007. Yamabushi are practitioners of Shugendo, an ancient Japanese nature religion which incorporates original mountain worship of Japan with Tantric Buddhism and Taoism.