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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Shizuoka
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At the 1939 New York World's Fair, Japan displayed a 33 m-wide Fuji photo mural shot near the Daruma highland resthouse—not from Mount Daruma's summit. The view became part of Japan's national showcase.
Daruma erupted repeatedly about 1 million–500,000 years ago, after Izu became a peninsula. Its broad old volcanic slopes still support citrus groves; on the Suruga Bay side, erosion has carved deep valleys.
The viewpoint resthouse serves black-rice soft-serve made with a local crop that began in 1989 as a former Shuzenji Town revitalization project. Black rice yields only about half as much as ordinary rice.
The resthouse's deer pizza and deer-miso rice balls feature Izu's “Izushika” venison. The city treats it as a local specialty, and a processing program turns trimmings, organs and bones into pet food instead of waste.
On the 982 m summit stands a stone marker erected by residents of former Heda Village in tribute to the view—a small, lasting local salute to Daruma's panorama.
Around 1955, photographer Ueda Hikojiro captured the Fuji view near the resthouse on a glass plate just 118 × 164 mm. Nihon University preserves the digitized image alongside a modern view.
The ridge is a sea of sasa grass, tough enough for strong Suruga Bay winds. In spring, flowering asebi (Japanese andromeda) and inutsuge (Japanese holly) punctuate the green.
