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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Kanagawa
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A 2023 analysis suggested Owakudani’s black eggs get their color from a thin, mostly protein-like organic film—not the iron sulfide often blamed. The GeoMuseum has also hosted an exhibition on how the eggs are made.
Lake Ashi’s “upside-down cedars” are trees believed to have slid into the lake upright during earthquake-triggered landslides. They no longer rise above the water, but the GeoMuseum displays a specimen.
Before black eggs became Owakudani’s signature, vendors steamed eggs in bamboo baskets inside clay pipes set over volcanic vents. A later GeoMuseum exhibition put the egg-makers’ tools on display.
After 2015, GeoMuseum staff tracked plant recovery around Owakudani. Their field study found terrain mattered more than species: tall plants on exposed ridges suffered most, while some seemingly leafless trees later sprouted again.
Owakudani’s tiny 2015 steam-driven eruption was the first there to enter written history; geology suggests about 5 earlier steam blasts. The GeoMuseum itself closed for about 15 months before reopening in 2016.
When the GeoMuseum opened in 2014, its exhibits included tools used by hot-spring supply workers and video interviews with Hakone residents who had experienced landslides—a human story alongside the rocks.
The Hakone Geopark mascot Hakojiro debuted at the GeoMuseum’s 2014 opening. His name was chosen from 380 suggestions, and the winning idea came from a second-grader at an Odawara elementary school.
