Hoto Fudo Higashi-Koiji

Fudo serves one hoto. Thick, chewy house-made noodles simmer in a miso broth with pumpkin, mountain vegetables and whatever the season brings, and the pot arrives still bubbling. The Higashi-Koiji branch sits at the junction where Route 138 meets the road across the Kawaguchi-ko bridge, and architect Takeshi Hosaka designed its rounded white shell to look like a cloud settling at the foot of Fuji. A Retty reviewer in August 2026 waited close to thirty minutes, so arrive at the 11:00 opening on a winter weekend.

Hoto is a cold-weather dish, and a January lunch here after a morning on the lake shore makes the most sense of it. Order the black-sugar inari on the side if you want something sweet against the miso. On weekdays the shop asks anyone arriving after 16:00 to phone first, because it can close before the posted 20:00 when the day is quiet.