Shoya: Pork Hoto by Lake Yamanaka, in the Shadow of Mt Fuji

Yamanashi · Lake Yamanaka

By Nobu · Updated June 2026 · Verified against the shop’s site and the Lake Yamanaka tourism office

Hoto is what people in Yamanashi cook when it turns cold: flat, hand-cut wheat noodles dropped raw into a miso broth with pumpkin and root vegetables, so the starch off the noodles thickens the whole pot into something between a soup and a stew. At Shoya, a hoto specialist on the south shore of Lake Yamanaka with Mt Fuji across the water, the pork version comes to the table still bubbling in a cast-iron pot.

What hoto actually is

It’s easy to read “noodles in miso soup” and picture udon, but hoto is its own thing. The noodles go into the pot uncooked, so instead of staying springy they soften and shed starch, and that starch is what gives the broth its thick, clinging body. Pumpkin is almost always in there, going sweet and half-dissolved at the edges. It comes from the old wheat-and-millet food culture of mountainous Kai — today’s Yamanashi — where the land was too steep and cold for much rice. People will tell you it was the field food of the warlord Takeda Shingen; that’s a nice old story rather than documented history, but it tells you how deep the dish runs here.

Shoya does hoto as its specialty — more than a dozen versions — and I went straight for the pork hoto, with slices of local pork through the miso and the broth thick enough to stand a spoon in. I paid about ¥1,600 for it on my visit; the shop’s current menu lists it a little higher, around ¥1,700, so take the price as a guide and check when you go. There’s a set that adds pumpkin hoto, fried smelt, rice and pickles if you want the full spread.

By the lake

Shoya is right on the south shore of Lake Yamanaka, near the sightseeing-boat pier, about five minutes from the Yamanakako interchange — so it folds easily into a loop around the Fuji Five Lakes. On a clear day you get the lake and the mountain; in the colder months, when the smelt (wakasagi) fishing is on, the shop will even cook up the fish you catch. It closes on Thursdays and keeps longer hours on weekends and holidays.

On the map

Good to know

Sources: Shoya official site; Lake Yamanaka Tourism Association. Prices, hours and menus change with the season — I’ve noted what I paid on my own visit; confirm the current details with the shop.