Black Eggs in Hell Valley
Some food journeys are very different to others.
On a visit to Hakone in Japan, I ended up catching a train to Owakudani to check out the black egg phenomenon. Owakudani means the Great Boiling Valley, and it’s located in the mountain town of Hakone.
It’s an alien kind of place filled with barren, rocky cliffs that are constantly shrouded in an eerie sulfuric mist that causes the whole area to smell like rotten eggs. The key area to get to is the hot springs. To get there you can either take a cable car, or walk up the 1 km path. On clear days - which are pretty rare - either route delivers spectacular views of the ominous Mt. Fuji.
To see Mt. Fuji in real life is nothing short of breathtaking. It’s scale is truly monumental.
Once the springs are reached, kuro-tamago, or black eggs, can be purchased five at a time. The eggs are ordinary chicken eggs but the shell turns black due to being boiled in the hot sulfur spring. Local tradition holds that for each black egg eaten, seven years is added to one’s life. However, some say that eating more than two is not recommended so who knows!
The valley is sometimes referred to as “Hell Valley” by locals and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a really bizarre place and when it’s overcast it’s dark and eerie and kinda hellish. 3000 years ago Mount Hakone erupted leaving the hot spring filled crater. All along the path to the egg vendor - which is a tiny hut, there’s active sulfuric geysers belching out a smelly mist, which can be hazardous at times because the whole area is prone to landslides due to the constant volcanic activity.
Basically, it’s an active volcano that you’re walking on. Sometimes it gets so bad that the place gets shutdown for tourists.
Kuro-tamago, literally means “black eggs,” and you can only buy them in five not six packs…..for ¥500. This might help explain why Japanese people live longer than everyone else. For the same price as a pint of beer you can possibly add 35 extra years of life…it’s a strange world we live in.
Anyway, the eggs are boiled for an hour in the 80-degree hot springs (roughly 175 degrees Fahrenheit), and then steamed for an additional 15 minutes and taste regular boiled eggs and when you get there you’ll see a stream of people shelling these things like mad.
And that’s Hell Valley.