Teuchisoba Gen serves two different types of buckwheat noodles: the regular seiro noodles that you’ll find on the menus of all soba restaurant’s and the specialty, gen noodles, which are made with less finely ground soba grains so you can see and taste the graininess. The added texture of the gen noodles makes them absolutely delicious, especially if you are a soba-fanatic, like myself, and love the taste of buckwheat. Open six days a week (closed Mondays) at 11 a.m., the restaurant serves only 30 portions of the gen noodles daily (which run out relatively quickly) and closes when the regular seiro soba runs out. Going to Teuchisoba Gen for lunch whenever I visit the hot springs in Hakone is the perfect way to start and complete the trip.