Famous Local Food
While LOTTE ARAI RESORT is a mountain resort, it is only 24km from the sea.
The fertile land and sea of the area is a treasure trove of high-quality ingredients such as mountain vegetables, fresh seafood, and high-quality rice cultivated from fresh mountain water.
From famous local food to the high quality cuisine of a traditional restaurant, you can enjoy a taste unique to Joetsu-Myoko throughout the four seasons.
Local Sake (Japanese Sake)
Rice breweries in Niigata, especially those within the Joetsu-Myoko area, are famous for their sake.
The abundant snowfall supplies the spring rice fields with fresh crisp water creating high quality rice and thus, high-quality sake. Many masterpieces are created using traditional techniques unique to the Echigo area.
Local dishes
Joetsu-Myoko still maintains a lot of its culinary history and is a treasure trove of dishes. Here you can enjoy many traditional local cuisines unique to the area.
One such dish is "Sasa sushi", which is said to have been carried by Kenshin Uesugi to Kawanakajima, and is one of the ancient fermented foods.
The area is also home to ingredients that you will want to taste at least once, such as vegetables that have been grown under the snow that enhances the original taste and sweetness, as well as the popular “Tonjiru” pork soup that is a winter staple.
Joetsu’s bounty from the Sea
Roadside stations are great rest stops where you can buy local products, souvenirs and food.
South of Joetsu you will reach Marine Dream Nou of Itoigawa. Here you can enjoy fresh seafood caught every morning. Their crab is particularly popular and can be purchased all year round.
Soba
Kitashinetsu is a gold mine of delicious soba.
Surrounded by areas where you can enjoy soba noodles with different flavors, such as the neighboring Shinshu soba and as well as Echigo soba, there are many famous restaurants around the resort that will make a soba lover’s stomach growl.
Rice
The beautiful rice terraces around LOTTE ARAI RESORT produce the most delicious Koshihikari rice in all of Niigata. This is known as the Yashiro area.
Not only is the rice used in our resort restaurants, but you can also purchase it within our faculty or from shops in surrounding area.
Famous Local Food
The Joetsu-Myoko is an area full of gourmet ramen restaurants, where you can easily enjoy the rich taste of pork based soups unique to ramen shops.
There is also a rich variety to each ramen shops’ menu.
Please enjoy many delicious food you can while you are here.
Summer Highland Vegetables
Freshly picked highland vegetables from Kita-Shinshu have a sweet taste and are very satisfying.