Is This an Egg Which I See Before Me?

The black shell toward my face? Come, let me eat thee. I have thee not and yet I taste thee still. Clouds of sulfuric gas billowed up from the slopes of the Owakudani Valley, a remnant of the volcanic activity troubling the Hakone Mountains for the last 400,000 years. Signs warned that inhaling the gas can be fatal. Toooooooo late.

The famous Kuro Tamago, or black eggs, change color as the iron in the eggshells reacts to the hydrogen sulfide in the 80 degree C hot springs. Eating the cooked eggs (normal beneath the shell) adds a healthy seven years (per egg) to your lifespan. I had two. Chris had three. So tasty you don’t even need salt!

And what a nice view of Mt. Fuji…when it wasn’t obscured by clouds of noxious gas.