Summary
IT HAD to be time for lunch. We had travelled by bus, train, bus, pirate ship and cable car to get here, and we were feeling a little peckish. All around us hot steam was venting out of the rocky mountainside, and an expectant crowd had gathered to eat. While we waited, we settled down to take in the view across the lake and out into the distance. Even under a bank of cloud, the distinctive outline of the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, the sacred Japanese mountain and the most perfect of perfectly formed volcanic cones, was both unmistakable and awe-inspiring.
A Japanese proverb says that he who does not climb Mount Fuji is a fool - and that he who climbs Mount Fuji twice is also a fool. This hints at the arduous nature of the ascent to Japan's highest peak, which rises to 3,776m. We could have added that he who does not partake of at least one black egg while peering at Mount Fuji is also a fool, and that he who attempts to eat three is risking a coronary.See the full content of this document
Extract
Letting Off Steam
On the volcanic hills of Hakone, the national park that surrounds the mountain, black eggs are the culinary delicacy of choice. Thousands of eggs are placed in huge metal baskets and then plunged into the hot steam vents that give the hillsides an ethereal quality. Moments later, the cages are lifted...
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