It's about 15 minutes uphill, and well worth the effort. At the top, you will get the opportunity to feast on freshly boiled black eggs! Black eggs, you say!? Don’t worry, they are regular chicken eggs. The albumen and other parts of the egg still look the same as a traditional boiled egg, but it’s the manner in which they are boiled that makes them a little bit special (80 degrees C. for 60 minutes in natural spring water. Then steamed at 100 degrees for 15 minutes in steel baskets.) The water that they are boiled in contains sulfur and iron. The black eggs, or commonly called "Kuro-Tamago" by the locals are perfectly safe, although they may smell like sulfur. In fact they are believed to add a few years to your life span -- five to seven years depending on who you talk to. I don’t really recommend anyone finishing up to five eggs by themselves though!

When I visited Owakudani, five eggs were selling for 500 yen. Some people will hike up the mountain to eat the eggs at around 1050 meters above sea level. But you can also buy them from one of the stores in Owakudani Station.