The 23rd “Wankosoba” National Tournament was held in Morioka City on Sunday. Roughly 10 bowls of wankosoba, a famous dish in Iwate, make up one standard bowl of kakesoba, and the contestants had 15 minutes to eat as much as possible. Twenty-seven people from across Japan participated in the event.
Hatsuyo Sugawara, a 44 year-old woman from Morioka City, won for the second year running. As she was the winner last year, her time was reduced to 10 minutes, but this did not stop her from finishing 383 bowls, which was over 130 more than the second place winner.
© Japan Today
39 Comments
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Altria
A bowl every 1.5 seconds...legend!
timeon
how horribly disgusting. and imagine the sweet slurping sounds
haytkayokomiya
Itai!
Disillusioned
best sobaist! It's a shame these people have nothing better to do with their time.
Zuleyka
what? they are just eating..
magpie
I onl;y see guys downing the soba in the photo...so who's the woman who won?
Samuraiiki
Soba ni ite kureru..sore de ii. She put the Pacman lady to shame. Yes, the bottomless pit lady they show un TV all the time. I suppose her zodiac sign is Cancer because she eats more than a cancer. Let's name her Super Pacman.
jerseyboy
timeon...agree. I believe the sound of slurping was audible for miles. Just like any weekday lunch at Yoshinoya.
nutsagain
More hard-hitting news from JT..
seesaw
wow...a J Woman could eat that much of soba...I thought they like 'micro-diet' milk shakes better better....
cow76
This is frigging disgusting and it's an indictment on society that this kind of thing passes for entertainment. Millions of people live in hunger. Yes, I realise that sending then a few thousand bowls on noodles won't make a difference but this kind of competition just shouts loud and proud "we don't care".
greensatindress
I have to agree with cow76. Whatta waste of time :( She probably threw up after eating it, or the digestion system is in shock. I love soba though.
Altria
All yall player haterz just jealous yall can't swallow like Ms. Sugawara.
Peace.
xample1
I doubt the news. 383 bowls? How big is 1 bowl? How much does it weigh? The smallest possible bowl will have weighed 200grams. 383 of them will mean that she downed 76kgs in 10 of soba in ten minutes. It is impossible. Check the news and clarify me
romulus3
well there is no point doing it drunk
2020hindsight
xample1
200 grams per bowl? You have to be kidding. The news article suggests that each bowl is a mouthful.
But I reckon that it is disgusting that they are eating dog meat.
Altria
Best wankoist by far.
cleo
The article says roughly 10 bowls of wanko soba is equivalent to one standard bowl of soba. So Bessie ate the equivalent of around 38 bowls. Not quite 76 kilos, but still a ridiculous amount.
According to Wiki, an adult male will normally consume around 60 bowls of wanko.
Bessie and her friends pigged their way through far more food than is good for them and, as cow notes, shouted loud and proud "we don't care".
chardk1
Yeah, that's terrible that people should pig out occasionally for fun, in civilized societies people understand they should grossly overeat every meal.
chill
I once tried Wanko Soba (104 bowls), but these days, anytime I even taste those kinds of noodles, my stomach almost violently screams at me "NO! not again!"
Nessie
Altria, lol.
escape_artist
I wonder if the people of Darfur, Congo or the Gaza have their eating contests too? Sheesh. I don't care how "traditional" some in Japan might think this is, it's still a rather sad commentary on the priorities here. Right down there with diamond-encrusted iPhones, yup.
greencardfan
Would like to see participants in these contests and all those disgusting TV programmes with the same theme taken to a feeding station in the Third World somewhere........
Elbuda Mexicano
I argee 100% with greencardfan! These stupid contests in riche countries like Japan, US etc..eating too much soba, hot dogs etc..while their are millions upon millions of poor, starving children all around the world are a disgrace! Feed the poor lots of soba, not some idiot with an eating disorder in a rich country!
isthistheend
If one bowl of soba contains about 150 g, one wanko soba contains 15 g. So the woman ate an equivalent of 5.7 kg of soba. Any way you look at it, its alot. But it pales in comparison to the N.Y. Hot Dog eating contest etc.
Betting
In this day and age, downing that much food is nothing to proud of, I don't care what country they are in either. And then for people to surround them and howl how great they are, it's thoroughly disgusting.
We pretend we care about the starving masses and yet we have people doing stupid things like this.
McC72
'I wonder if the people of Darfur, Congo or the Gaza have their eating contests too? Sheesh. I don't care how "traditional" some in Japan might think this is, it's still a rather sad commentary on the priorities here. Right down there with diamond-encrusted iPhones, yup'
Not only in those country. Right here in super rich J Land, a lot of people go hungry.
Just waste
yasukuni
To me a competition like this is more ridiculous than the "lets bury people up to their necks" game. Plus as many said, its offensive. Humans are strange.
bcbrownboy
Yes, I too agree with the previous threads. I've avoided J-TV for many years now - just too sick of hearing, "Oiiishiii!" And here with the eating contests, it's multiplied 383 times! No conscience to speak of here. How disgusting can we get. Now, if it were 383 cans of Super Dry, maybe I could understand....
nath
Stupid.
Potsu
Really poor taste.Why is this even news ?
Betting
"How disgusting can we get. Now, if it were 383 cans of Super Dry, maybe I could understand....".
I think we better find bcbrownboy some help here on JT ...
76waystofly
You know your country's joined the league of other gluttonous superpowers when it stages exhibitions like this.
But seriously: does this woman share a bathroom at home with someone?
Youdontknow
This is news?
Molenir
Boo hoo. Some people are starving in some 3rd world country. We should starve ourselves because of it.
Seriously, quit your whining. If you have time to complain, get off your butt and do something about it. Donate time/money to help, don't just sit around whining about some womans ability to seriously pack in food. It just makes you look pathetic.
And yes, if nothing else, I'd say it rates a brief mention. I mean being able to eat that much... Thats just amazing. Some other terms I could use, but I won't.
butterfly1
she ate 3.6kg of soba in 10minutes. as she was last years champion, she had a 5 minute delayed start and still won easily.... she might not be in the photo cause there were 3 groups. if you guys want more info that is here, start watching morning TV!! Zoom-in Super give me all the important info I need!!
Hawkeye
Holy cow! 383 bowls of WANKO in 10 minutes, she must have blown her cookies all over Morioka after she finished.
ptolemy
Hatsuyo, Hatsuyo, Hatsuyo! You are my new "I did something stupid and survived" hero. Ooo, wee!
WilliB
I will never understand the popularity of these eating contest. I find it pure stupidity, and disgusting on top. If you want to waste food, why not throw it in the garbage right away.