Soba Near Kurokawa Onsen: Kamo Nanban at Kiyoka
The short answer
If you want lunch near Kurokawa Onsen and you like noodles, drive out along Route 212 to Teuchi Soba Kiyoka (手打ちそば 季四華) in Minamioguni. Order the kamo nanban: hot soba with duck and grilled leeks. They make a limited number each day.
Bring cash, and do not be in a hurry. It is a small place, mostly run by one person, and the food is worth the wait.
We run a lodge in Minamioguni, about twenty minutes’ drive away. We went on a cold, rainy day in late September, and it was exactly what the weather called for.
Kamo nanban, served on a tray with tempura crumbs on the side.
Soba country
Soba is noodles made from buckwheat. They are thinner and darker than udon, with a nutty, slightly earthy taste. You eat them cold with a dipping sauce, or hot in a bowl of broth.
The road that runs through Minamioguni and on to Oguni, Route 212, is lined with soba restaurants. If you are staying nearby and wondering where to eat in the middle of the day, this road is a good place to start.
Kiyoka is one of the newest restaurants on it. It opened in autumn 2024, in a building that used to be a ramen shop. The noodles are made by hand from stone-ground Kumamoto buckwheat.
The restaurant from the car park. The red banner reads “open today”.
Finding it
Look for a low black timber building with a red “open today” banner and a white roadside sign for soba. It sits right on Route 212 in the Akababa district of Minamioguni.
The easiest landmark is Drugstore Mori (Oguni branch), a large drugstore just nearby. It stays open late, which is handy if you are self-catering and have forgotten something.
Kamo nanban on a rainy day
It was raining and cool the day we went, so we skipped the cold soba and ordered the kamo nanban, which comes in limited numbers each day.
Kamo means duck. In this dish, nanban refers to the leeks. Put together, it is a bowl of hot soba in a broth rich with duck, topped with duck and leeks. It is a cold-weather classic all over Japan.
Seared duck, charred leeks and thin soba. Photographed in September.
The broth is clear and full of flavour from the duck. The noodles are on the thin side, so they carry the broth well. Three slices of duck breast sit on top, seared and peppered, next to leeks that have been grilled until they are browned and sweet. There is a small dish of tenkasu (crunchy tempura crumbs) on the side to add as you like.
It is a quiet, warming bowl. We finished every noodle without really noticing.
How to eat it
Slurping is fine. It is expected, in fact, and it helps cool the noodles on the way in. Use the chopsticks for the noodles and duck and the spoon for the broth. Drinking the last of the broth from the bowl is not rude.
The rest of the menu
The tempura on the tenzaru (cold soba with tempura) and the tendon (tempura on rice) looked very good, and we will order one of them next time.
The menu also includes tempura soba, and a miso-buta tsuke-soba, cold soba dipped in a miso-and-pork sauce, which the restaurant kept from the ramen shop that was here before. In summer there is a lemon soba. Menus at small places change with the season, so treat this as a guide, not a promise.
Practical details
| Name | Teuchi Soba Kiyoka (手打ちそば 季四華) |
| Area | Akababa, Minamioguni Town, Aso District, Kumamoto, on Route 212 |
| Landmark | Drugstore Mori, Oguni branch |
| Service | Mainly lunch; evenings on some days only |
| Closed | Irregular days |
| Payment | Cash only |
| Parking | Yes, at the restaurant |
Three things worth knowing before you go.
Bring cash. It is cash only. Cards and QR payments are not accepted.
Allow time. The restaurant is mostly run by one person, so your food may take a while, especially if a few tables arrive at once. It is not a place for a rushed lunch between sights. Order, sit back and look at the rain.
Check the hours on the day. Kiyoka closes on irregular days, and the published hours have changed since it opened. Look at the restaurant’s Instagram or Google Maps before you set off, or ask us.
Payment, parking and opening details were checked in September 2026. Small restaurants in rural Japan do change them.
Getting there
Kiyoka is on Route 212 in Minamioguni, the town that Kurokawa Onsen belongs to. As with most good food in this valley, you will need a car to reach it. If you are still deciding whether to rent one, read Do You Need a Car in Aso?.
It fits well into a morning. Pick up supplies at the drugstore, have soba for lunch, and head back to the lodge or on to the onsen for the afternoon.
Where we come into it
We run Echoes of Forest, a four-bedroom lodge about ten minutes’ drive from Kurokawa Onsen. It sleeps up to ten and it is self-catering: there is a full kitchen, and we do not serve meals.
So guests ask us about lunch as often as they ask about dinner. On a cold or wet day, this is where we would send them.
- The lodge, the rooms and availability: Echoes of Forest
- For dinner out: Charcoal Yakiniku Near Kurokawa Onsen
- Mornings in the valley: Breakfast in Kurokawa Onsen
Where we are
We rent the whole lodge to one group per day — four bedrooms, up to ten guests, about ten minutes by car from Kurokawa Onsen. Everything on this page is the advice we give our own guests before they arrive.