Eating soba is one of the highlights of living in or visiting Japan. At one store in Nagano, however, you better suck in your stomach before you dig in.
Shiojiri Station’s tight soba spot
The spot in question came back into Japanese public awareness this week thanks to X (formerly Twitter) user @makoushi. The user visited Kikyou, a Shinshuu (信州) soba spot in Shiojiri Station on the Shinonoi Line in Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture. Shinshuu is a Nagano-specific soba noodle that’s lauded for its flavor and is regarded as one of Nagano’s intangible folk culture assets.
But what makes this place of interest isn’t its noodles but its size. makoushi writes, “I went to ‘Japan’s narrowest train station soba place’ in Shiojiri, and was like, ‘Where…?’ But as I got closer – “
If you’re not looking at your feet, you might even miss where the shop is. All that marks it is a sign saying “soba shop” resting on the floor. As makoushi notes, the entrance – virtually invisible from the front as it’s tucked next to an elevator – is also incredibly narrow. Others who have measured it say the door is a mere 50cm wide.
Inside is space for a grand total of two people to stand and eat. Once there, however, the dish appears to be worth the trip. makoushi ordered the green onion soba, which came loaded with onions.
Bigger on the inside
This isn’t Kikyou’s first time making headlines. The site Traffic News covered it back in 2016. What’s interesting is that, even though the actual shop area for customers is tiny, the kitchen space is large and voluminous. In addition, there’s a large seating area for customers that appears to seat a dozen or more people.
In other words, Kikyou Soba is a veritable House of Leaves location. It’s bigger on the inside than on the outside.
Kikyou has been at the station since 2002. A representative for the East JR Railway Company says that the entrance is so narrow because the station installed an elevator next door to accommodate disabled and elderly passengers.
Kikyou also appears to be quite affordable. Back in 2016, none of the prices exceeded 500 yen ($3.48). Today, it appears soba dishes there average around 800 yen ($5.57). You can even get kakesoba for a rock-bottom 360 yen ($2.51).
But is it good soba?
This raises the question: is the soba worth the trip to Nagano?
Kikyou Soba has a 3.49 rating on the Japanese food rating site Tabelog. That’s not too bad for Tabelog. Some reviewers say the noodles are thicker than ones they’ve had elsewhere and have a good mouthfeel.
Is this soba enough reason to go all the way out to Shiojiri if you don’t already have one? Probably not. But if you’re in the area and want to snap your own pictures of one of Japan’s smallest soba shops, it’s worth a short trip out on the Shiojiri Line.
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Sources
～日本一狭い蕎麦屋の限界を探る～. Wanko Soba Blog
日本一狭い？ 2人で満員、入口極小の駅そば店、なぜ誕生？Traffic News
