Yoshida Udon Is a Lunch: See Chureito in the Morning, Then Come Down for Noodles

Yoshida udon is a lunch, and Fujiyoshida means it. Most of the town’s udon shops close in the early afternoon, and the city’s own English page names the one downside of the dish: it is usually eaten only at lunch, and only a few shops open in the evening. So if you are going up to Chureito Pagoda, go in the morning and come down to Shimoyoshida hungry, instead of saving the noodles for dinner.

The reason I would plan a morning around a bowl of noodles is the story of why they are so hard. The town’s tourism association tells it this way: in the early Showa era, weaving was Fujiyoshida’s main trade, and in Shimoyoshida more than half the households worked in it. So that the women running the looms did not have to stop to cook, and so their hands, which handled the cloth, were spared, the men are said to have taken over lunch. They kneaded the dough with all their strength, to make a noodle that would keep everyone full.

What comes in the bowl

Expect to chew: the association calls these the firmest noodles in Japan. Your broth will usually be a blend of soy sauce and miso, and on top you will often find boiled cabbage and horse meat simmered sweet and salty in soy sauce, sugar, sake and mirin. Horse meat is part of what Fujiyoshida eats, and the association notes it is a rare topping for udon.

Look for a pot of suridane on the table, a seasoning made with sesame, sansho pepper, chili and more; the shops below each describe theirs differently. Leave it out at first and stir it in a little at a time as you go; that is what the association suggests, so the bowl tastes different by the time you reach the bottom.

Order the way the city’s English page describes. Most shops have no menu to hand you: you read the list hanging on the wall or in front of the kitchen and order before you sit down, and you pour your own water and green tea, which are free. All six shops below list a tatami room among their seats, so picture yourself ordering from the wall, then taking off your shoes to eat.

Six shops, and the one question each answers

You can walk to each of these six from a station on the Fujikyu Line, several of them from Shimoyoshida, the station for the pagoda. Pick by what you want from the bowl.

If you want the classic bowl: Miura Udon

For the bowl the town is known for, Miura Udon is a short walk from Shimoyoshida Station. It calls itself the original, with sister shops at Lake Kawaguchi and in Tsuru, and makes its broth from soy sauce and Fujiyoshida miso, with water from the foot of Fuji. Horse meat, cabbage and fried tofu are all on the bowl, and the suridane is, in the shop’s own word, a secret. Order the meat udon; it is the one the shop marks as its own pick.

If you want the simplest one: Sakurai Udon

Sakurai Udon, near Gekkoji Station, is said to have shaped what Yoshida udon became, and it calls itself the original cabbage udon. The menu is hot or cold, and the toppings are cabbage and fried tofu, nothing more. A shop with celebrity autographs lined up inside that still offers you only that much strikes me as very sure of its noodles. Ask for cold and the noodles come chilled with the broth warm on the side, and if you want to take the taste home, it sells its suridane by the cup.

If you want the bowl that breaks the rules: Kagari Udon

Kagari Udon, near Shimoyoshida Station, is where the association points anyone who wants to stray from the classic bowl. The broth is soy-based instead of soy and miso, the noodles are firm without being the hardest, and the meat is pork instead of horse. The suridane starts from green chili, and my favorite small detail among the six is here too: pickled green chilies that come with a rule against large helpings. The bowl to order is pork with kinpira, sweet-glazed meat and toasty burdock on the same noodles.

If you want to be first through the door: Genji

I love the picture of regulars racing each other through the door for an egg, and at Genji, near Yoshiike-Onsen-Mae Station, the association says that is what happens: the first customers get an onsen egg. The noodles are still firm but unusually smooth going down. Genji serves udon at lunch and turns into an izakaya at night, and its lunch is the shortest of the six, so come as it opens.

If you want the big tempura: Tsuruya Shokudo

Tsuruya Shokudo is an old local favorite, a longer walk from Shimoyoshida Station than the other Shimoyoshida shops. Its broth is lighter, soy with a seafood stock, and besides horse meat its popular topping is a large kakiage, vegetable tempura you can eat crisp or let soften in the soup. It closes when the noodles run out, so do not leave it late.

If the morning ran long: Benkei

Keep Benkei, near Gekkoji Station, in your pocket. It is small, with a counter and a tatami room, and it is the one shop here still serving in the late afternoon. Its signature bowl puts everything on at once: carrot, cabbage, wakame, pork and kakiage. The sansho in its suridane is grown by the shop itself, and you can add inari sushi or dango on the side. With no fixed day off and an early close whenever the noodles are gone, it is somewhere to fall back on rather than to count on.

Which day you come changes the list

Sunday and Monday each take two shops off the list, and Wednesday takes Miura; public holidays can shift this, so check the table.

If you are here on a Sunday, go to Miura, Genji or Tsuruya. If it is a Monday, go to Miura, Sakurai or Kagari.

Before you go

Checked 8 October 2026. Small shops change their hours, and several close early when the noodles are gone; if one shop matters to you, check its page before you go.

What I would do

I would see the pagoda first thing and walk down to Shimoyoshida with lunch as the reason to leave. At Miura I would order the meat udon, the bowl the shop itself points to, and keep the suridane for the second half.