Did a real Domino's delivery rider in Japan carry a pepperoni pizza in an insulated backpack to the top of Mount Fuji? No, that's not true: An AI-generated photo and story circulating on social media are not real, but they are based on something that did happen and went viral with real photos. Umanami Futoshi is a Japanese office worker who dresses as a delivery person from various companies and poses for photos on mountain summits. The delivery bags he carries just hold his hiking gear and no pizza.
The mashed-up version of this story surfaced in a post (archived here) published on the Facebook group, "neil degrasse tyson", by the page Deep Facts on Nov. 30, 2025. It was captioned:
-- in New York, NY.
This is the AI-generated image included in the post:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DfQZysa7e.)
This image is AI-generated. The text caption on the image does not tell the true account of what happened.
On Aug. 26, 2022 an article in NextShark (archived here) reported on a viral photo. The article was titled, "Climbers shocked to see dedicated delivery worker carrying pizza boxes up Mount Fuji". It opened:
Hikers were shocked to see a pizza delivery worker during their climb up Mount Fuji.
A Twitter user shared a photo on Saturday of a supposed Domino's Pizza delivery person carrying a thermal bag on his back as he casually explored Mount Fuji in Japan.
Embedded in the article was an Aug. 20, 2022 tweet from @fatmanairsoft (archived here) which featured this real image:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/fatmanairsoft/status/1561170010416238593.)
The article went on to explain:
The supposed delivery man, however, turned out to be an office worker who enjoys hiking while dressed in various delivery uniforms. The man, Umanami Futoshi, regularly dresses up in delivery uniforms while carrying delivery bags filled with various equipment and necessities for his hike.
Futoshi has an account on the Japanese trekking app YAMAP where his bio declares:
Umanami Futoshi I deliver surprises and smiles to the top of the mountain. I'm going to become the delivery king!
His cover photo shows a police vehicle that has an insulated Uber Eats cooler strapped to the back. Thumbnail images of his postings (pictured below) show him dressed in a variety of uniforms posed on mountain summits "delivering" not just pizza, but items such as tofu and steak, cheesecake, draft beer, sushi, ice cream and fried chicken.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from yamap.com/users/2658436.)
