Probably most known food which you can eat at your home is nagashi somen, flowing somen noodles. Somen is a very thin noodle made from wheat, salt and water. The thickness must be less than 1.3 mm. If it is thicker between 1.3 and 1.69, it is called hiyamugi. Then, thicker than 1.7 mm is called udon.
Somen is a typical noodle eaten in summer. If it is generally called somen, it is served as cold. On the other hand, warm somen is called nyumen and eaten throughout the year but consumption is less than the cold one.
Nagashi somen is one way to enjoy and eat somen. Somen is placed in a long flume of bamboo and floating down the flume in cold water. The customer has to pick up the somen by using chopsticks and dip into the sauce before eating. Somen itself almost has no taste. The somen is dispatched by the staff of the restaurant and it is not all you can eat as like wanko soba eaten in Hanamaki region in Iwate prefecture. Then, it can happen that several persons are going to pick up the floating somen which means the person who is standing or sitting close to the staff or at upper stream has much more opportunity to catch the somen than the one sitting in the other end of the flume. Nagashi somen is believed to be first appeared in tea house near Takachiho gorge.
Nagashi somen can be tried at home when you can make a flume and able to flow substantial amount of water.
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