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Asanoya, a soba shop in Kanda-Sarugakucho near Suidobashi, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025. “A hundred years is nothing unusual around here,” laughs third-generation owner Nobuyuki Kobayashi, while his son Yoshinori, the fourth generation, makes the soba every morning. Photographer ELLI visited this neighborhood soba shop that has long fed the area’s printers and publishing staff. (Hon no Machi, March 2026 issue, “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” #10)
“A hundred years is nothing unusual around here.”
— Nobuyuki Kobayashi, third-generation owner of Asanoya
Photographer ELLI’s Jimbocho walks have reached their tenth installment. This time she visited Asanoya, a soba shop in Kanda-Sarugakucho near Suidobashi, from which TV Tokyo broadcast part of its New Year’s Eve music special live on December 31, 2025.
Keeping office workers well fed
The shop: a neighborhood soba shop, 100 years on
It used to be packed day and night with craftsmen from the nearby printing companies and staff from the publishers. Once, at 8 p.m., they got a delivery order: “Make us 100 servings, right now.”
Signature menu: burdock tempura soba and a deluxe tempura bowl
The owners: soba learned from the association’s elders
Third-generation owner Nobuyuki Kobayashi also heads the Kanda branch of the Tokyo Noodle Cooperative Association.
“More than from my father, it was the senior members of the association who kindly taught me everything, starting with how to make dashi.” Much of what he knows about soba, he says, he learned over drinks at the after-parties of association meetings. That respect for the people of the neighborhood is surely the root of his modest, conscientious character.
Today his eldest son, Yoshinori, the fourth generation, has taken over from his 70-year-old father, starting with making the soba every morning, and supports the shop in the back together with his mother.
Asanoya is also a member of the “Kibachi-kai,” an association limited to soba shops that have lasted three generations or more, and Yoshinori was doted on by the senior members of those shops from childhood. Taking over the soba shop, he says, came naturally.
Shop information
▶Shop page (map and related articles)
Soba-dokoro Asanoya
Address: 2-7-6 Kanda-Sarugakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-3291-4327
Closed: Sundays and national holidays
Founded: 1925
Nearest station: Suidobashi Station
▶View on Google Maps
*Address, phone and closing days are from the Hon no Machi member shop list (September 2026 issue). Hours and other details may change; please check with the shop before you visit.
Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks: all installments
▶See every installment and a map of the shops ELLI has visited on the series page
◀Previous: #9 Banuken
▶Next: #11 Yamagataya Paper Shop
#1 Luncheon
#2 The Adirondack Café
#3 Hasebe
#4 Toyodaen & Daisen
#5 @Wonder
#6 Book House Cafe
#7 Kissa Hotaka
#8 Mamekobo
#9 Banuken
#10 Asanoya (this article)
#11 Yamagataya Paper Shop
#12 Kissa Poupée
#13 Ochanomizu Hotel Shoryukan
#14 Kanda Awahei
#15 Daiki Shoe Store
#16 Sakaiya Sports
#17 Fuji Record Sha
Eri Ito (ELLI)
Photographer. In Hon no Machi she writes the series “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks,” visiting a shop in Kanda, Ochanomizu or Jimbocho every month.
This article introduces installment 10 of “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” (photos and text by Eri Ito), published in the March 2026 issue (Vol. 11) of Hon no Machi, the community salon magazine of Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho.
▶Read the March 2026 issue of Hon no Machi (PDF, in Japanese)
Founded in 1980, Hon no Machi brings you the latest from Book Town every month, together with Jimbocho’s bookstores, publishers, cafés and galleries.
▶Back issues of our series are being published on our note page (in Japanese)
日本語で読む — Read this article in Japanese