One Hungry Girl

I love Japan. What other country would raise competitive eating to an art form? For the past ten years, the Japanese have kicked butt in the annual July 4th Coney Island hot dog eating contest. Since 2000, the same man has claimed the prize. Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi ate 56 hot dogs in 12 minutes last year. Just thinking about it makes me nauseous.

I'm not a proponent of gluttony, and competitive eating is not without its (very serious) risks. However, I'm pleased to hear that a woman has now emerged as a serious contender. As you might imagine, men have long dominated the "sport." (For obvious reasons: bigger stomachs and fewer inhibitions.) But in recent years, one very small woman has become the darling of the Japanese competitive eating world.

Natsuko Sone, known as "Gal" (a reference to her style of dress which would require a whole new post to explain properly), is 5'4 and weighs 95 pounds. Yet she regularly goes head-to-head with some of the most successful men in the business. Sone has been known to eat 183 pieces of sushi in thirty minutes and 20 pounds of food in an hour. Remarkably, medical tests performed on the prodigy have shown that her stomach is of normal size.

To see her in action, click here and here. Boy do I love Japanese variety shows.