We stopped by Dangozaka Service Area in Yamanashi Prefecture on a recent weekend camping trip to Lake Motosu. We had just sat through a brutal two hours of traffic and were looking to take a break.

The Service Are was really big. There were a ton of car parking spots, a separate row for trucks, and a special section for buses. It was pretty busy with a near constant stream of vehicles coming and going. The SA was very modern and had a number of convenient amenities including clean restrooms, a gas station, a food court, several omiyage shops, and more.

Dangozaka Service Area Food Court

The food court had a number of options to choose from. One nice thing was that there was plenty of seating available. The omiyage shops were quite robust and featured a good selection of local goods and products. We picked up some Mt. Fuji shaped cookies.

We looked around at the food options and decided to try Sutadon-ya. The menu consisted primarily of their karrage (fried chicken) and grilled pork. We decided to split a suta-don and karrage set. We ordered at the counter and got a buzzer. While we were waiting we decided to find a table. We also got some complimentary water and hot tea at a self service vending machine. A little while later we got buzzed and picked up our food.

Dangozaka Service Area Food Review

The grilled pork was super flavorful. It had a soy garlic sauce that was delicious. We cracked the egg over our grilled pork bowl and mixed it into the steaming rice. The sauce combined with the egg made the rice very tasty. The karrage was delicious as well. It almost seemed as though it had been double fried, as the inner layer of batter had its own second layer of batter. The salty flavor was just right. If it had been any saltier, it would have been to much. Overall it was a great meal that we wouldn’t mind getting again.

We stopped by this bakery to try some of their massive melon pan. It was pretty good. The outside was sweet and it had a flaky crust. The inside was very soft and fluffy.

While we were walking around we saw this advertisement for a super mango smoothie. We’re pretty big fans of anything mango, so we knew we had to give it a try. We made our way over to H’s Cream. Their menu consisted primarily of shaved ice, crepes, ice cream, and smoothies. We ordered one of their super mango smoothies. The super mango smoothie did not disappoint. It was probably the single best mango related food we’ve had since coming to Japan. The mango flavor was pretty dense, but it wasn’t very sweet, just pure mango flavor. Best of all, were the mango chunks on top which we ate at the end. Would definitely get again.

Mt. Fuji Pokemon Pins

We passed by some gatcha vending machines and noticed that they had Pokémon pins. We’ve tried our best recently to only get things that are either region specific or unique to the area. Since these pins were Mt. Fuji specific, we decided to get some. There were 10 different designs in total. We were pretty happy with our haul. We definitely want to get more when we come back.

Note: The Pokémon pins were only at the Outbound SA. We were a little bummed when we went to the Inbound SA and they were not there.

We ended up going to Dangozaka SA Inbound on our way back home. The parking lot was definitely bigger. It was almost twice the size of the outbound parking lot. Thinking about it now. We think that the inbound side used to have both the inbound and outbound sides of the SA. The outbound SA did look a lot newer and was probably built fairly recently to alleviate congestion.

Final Thoughts

We definitely prefer the Outbound SA if we had to compare the two. The facilities seemed more modern and up to date. Although the Inbound was larger and did appear to have more food options and a greater selection of omiyage. Both would have been a good place to take a break from driving. We could easily see ourselves spending the night at either.

More to Come…