In Japan, people eat soba noodles (thin noodles made with buckwheat) at midnight with their loved ones, as they bid farewell to the old year and welcome the next year. The noodles, thin and long, are believed to represent long life. The noodles are, therefore, slurped whole instead of being bitten. The Japanese also follow another tradition known as the mochitsuki, where families gather to pound mocha (Japanese rice cakes). The cakes are then eaten as a desert after the meal.
The most basic soba dish is mori soba in which boiled, cold soba noodles are eaten with a soya based dipping sauce (tsuyu). Many soba dishes are eaten throughout the year, while others are only available seasonally.
Like pasta, soba noodles are available in dried form in supermarkets, but they taste best if freshly made by hand from flour and water. Soba making has long been a popular hands-on activity for domestic and international travelers. The activity is offered by many craft villages and travel tour companies.
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