sarashina

If you’re in Nakano, Sarashina is worth a visit. They serve handmade soba and udon noodles. You can have a taste of Japanese cuisine without having to spend too much money.
Turn into the small street next to the bank and walk about 400 feet, past the huge pachinko place and past some other random stores. Its on the right side.
Apparently their second floor is non-​smoking, which puzzles me because the person next to me was smoking, and doesn’t smoke climb up? What’s the point of having a nonsmoking room upstairs???
Anyhoo. The food is GREAT. I can’t stress enough how much homemade noodles taste so much better than store-​sold ones.
Try:
ZARU SOBA: «Zaru» means a bamboo woven bowl, kinda like those flat bamboo hats that people in the Edo period wore. Except it’s to drain water from food. You can eat Zaru soba with tempura, and those are just divine. Crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside.
KAKISOBA: This soba is a little bit different from the rest of the noodles. This kaki soba is not a fish of noodles, but rather chunks of boiled soba dough. The idea of this dish is that «kaki» meaning to scoop out, and scoop out the dough and toss it in boiling water. Its like cous cous, except the chunks are about your average eraser sizes.
KAMOJIRU UDON: Is it too cold outside? Look for the warm udons as they are perfect to warm you up :)
SOBA OHAGI: A ball of short soba noodles rolled up, covered in red bean paste. The rest bean paste is not too sweet and is thick. This dessert will surely leave your stomach happy.
Try the SOBA CASTELLA too. Its a sponge cake with soba noodle powder mixed in.