Shinshu soba

Nagano grows buckwheat in cool, high fields where rice and wheat struggle. The agriculture ministry's regional food page says the morning mist over fields at about 700 metres shields the frost-shy crop, and it calls the prefecture a birthplace of soba-kiri, buckwheat cut into thin noodles. Nagano has more soba shops than any other prefecture. Buckwheat comes in twice a year, and the autumn crop, aki-shin, beats the summer one for aroma and colour.

Togakushi soba, known locally as 霜下そば, comes in small bundles called bocchi-mori, and Uzuraya at the middle shrine stone-grinds local buckwheat in the coldest weeks of winter. In Ina, Takato soba goes into a dip of grated daikon juice with grilled miso. Nagawa's toji soba is swished through a hot pot of chicken and vegetables in a little bamboo basket.

The wasabi on the side most likely comes from Azumino, which grows more than 90 percent of Nagano's crop in Northern Alps snowmelt and leads Japan in production, according to the ministry. Daio Wasabi Farm in Hotaka lets you see the beds before lunch.