Kintaro Soba: Mountain-Yam Noodles at the Foot of Mt Fuji (Gotemba)

Shizuoka · Gotemba

By Nobu · Updated June 2026 · Verified against the shop’s menu, Tabelog and Gotemba tourism

Gotemba sits right at the foot of Mt Fuji on the Shizuoka side, and its local soba has a quirk most visitors never hear about: it’s bound with grated mountain yam instead of water. At Kintaro, an old-farmhouse soba house a couple of minutes from the Gotemba interchange, that gives the noodles a smooth, almost slippery pull — the area’s old mikuriya soba, named for the days when this land supplied grain to the Ise Shrine.

Soba bound with mountain yam

Most soba you eat in Japan is nihachi — eight parts buckwheat to two parts wheat flour, the wheat there to hold the noodle together. Gotemba’s old style does it differently. The name of the area, mikuriya, comes from a time when it sent grain to the great shrine at Ise, and the local soba that grew out of that — once a dish you served to guests at celebrations — uses grated mountain yam instead of wheat as the binder. Kintaro calls its method “Suruga-style hand-cut soba” and you can taste it: the noodles are smooth and have a soft, clean slide rather than the firmer chew of wheat-bound soba.

I ordered the Tenju Kintoki, a lacquer box of rice buried under shrimp and vegetable tempura, with a basket of the cold house soba on the side — the best of both, fried and plain, in one tray. I paid about ¥2,400 for it on my visit; I’d treat that as a guide rather than a fixed price, because some listings have the in-shop tempura box closer to ¥2,000 and a takeout version lower again, so check the current menu. The other thing I’d come back for is the nameko-oroshi soba — cold soba with slippery little nameko mushrooms and grated daikon, which I had at about ¥1,190; light, cold and exactly right after a morning on the mountain.

Getting there

This is an easy stop on a Mt Fuji day. It’s about two minutes from the Gotemba interchange on the Tomei Expressway, with its own car park — handy if you’re already driving between the lakes, Hakone and the Gotemba Premium Outlets. From Gotemba Station it’s roughly a 20–25 minute walk toward the Hakone side. The shop runs lunch and dinner services, closes on Tuesdays, and like any honest soba house it stops when the day’s noodles run out, so it pays to go earlier rather than later.

On the map

Good to know

Sources: Kintaro shop menu; Tabelog; Gotemba-area tourism. Prices and hours change — I’ve noted what I paid on my own visit; confirm the current menu and opening times with the shop.