Oogui 2006 : Gluttonous Queen of Japan
I have been able to track down information about the Japanese television series about female competitive eaters I wrote about earlier this week. The show, Oogui 2006, is broadcast on TV Tokyo and the second episode will be televised Sunday night. (The program debuted on Tuesday.) The program’s home page is http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/oogui2006/ (Google translation) If Japanese competitive eating can command 2 hours of broadcast television in prime time Sunday night, it cannot be doing that badly.
In the contest, seven competitors are chosen from two qualifiers and then a series of contests are held which eliminate the last place finisher until only the champion remains. A similar event open to both genders was held last fall. Three qualifiers in the women’s contest also qualified for the open contest: Miyuki Iwata, Tomoko Mikaye, and Natsuko “The Gal” Sone. I am assuming that no slots in the open contest were reserved for women. Those three are the favorites for the women’s contest. Iwata is generally considered the top Japanese female competitive eater after Takako Akasaka (she lost the 2005 Tokyo Nathan’s qualifier by just one hot dog), but “The Gal” has more “upside” because she is only 19 while Iwata is 32. (I hope to write individual posts about the above three competitors later this week.)
Japanese Blog entries about the contest can be found at: Everyday of the R sea bass gluttony (Google translation) and Much & Fast (Google translation)
Click below for screen captures from the contest and additional information
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