Shoya
About
Shoya (庄や), Yajima-cho 117-8 (on the ground level on the left side of the plaza at the West Exit of JR Takasaki station), tel. 027-328-8833, [2]. Open daily 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, Sundays and holidays 1:00 to 5:00 pm. If you can tolerate occasional smokers, this is a pleasant place to sample a wide variety of specialty snacks and sake from around Japan while you wait for train connections. Its catch phrase is kutsurogi no sato 'a place to relax' and the happi coats of the staff say yorokonde 'enjoy'. Not much English spoken, but there are picture menus [3] for both food and sake. Snacks range in price from ¥300 for edamame (soybeans) or kimchee to ¥1300 for a serving of shabushabu, with most in the ¥500 to ¥700 range. Overflowing glasses of sake in masu (square boxes) run about ¥700-800.
