Tororo

On Sunday 1st October, as part of the local townspeople festival, there was a tororo eating competition. This competition has taken place every year in Ouchi for the last 26 years.

第26回 元祖とろろめし大喰い大会
Dai 26 kai Ganso Tororo meshi Oogui Taikai


Each bowl is carefully measured out to have 120g of white rice with 90cc of tororo on top. We were given a set of chopsticks, two umeboshi and a napkin. And we had 15 minutes to eat as many bowls as we could. Drinking was not allowed.

I was informed many times that participants got to keep the bowls that they eat from. And that each bowl is worth 300 yen, so I should at least eat 4 bowls to come out on top after paying the 1,000 yen entry fee!

The night before had been the Halloween party in the city, so I wasn't feeling my best for the competition. And unfortunately for me both the presenter of the competition and the local TV camera guy decided to try talk to me. I was struggling a lot with forming English sentences that morning, never mind Japanese sentences!


There were 29 participants in the competition. I managed to eat a mouthful short of 6 bowls when the final whistle blew. I tried really hard to finish the last bowl, but I physically couldn't.

The winner of the competition ate 15 bowls! One bowl every minute! When he was walking up to get presented he was walking with an understandable discomfort. The female winner ate 12 bowls. And as you can see she not exactly the biggest of women either.


This last photo appeared in a local Yurihonjo magazine called Shiseidayori　(市政便り) or Koho Yurihonjo (広報ゆりほんじょう).

Halloween Party

Every year in Akita city we have a Halloween Dance Party and the proceeds go to Room to Read. This year we had a bigger turnout; due to relocating to a better venue and possible the fact that Halloween fell on a Saturday night this year.

I'm not a huge fan of getting dressed up for events. The first year I was here my costume was a Kilkenny hurling supporter; simply because I had a Kilkenny jersey and a crazy Kilkenny hat. Last year I borrowed a costume of an anime character who plays tennis - I have no idea of his name! So this year I decided to put at least a small amount of effort into my costume.

Shortly after arriving in Japan, about 2 years ago, a young student told me I looked like Lupin III; a great anime thief. So I decided to go with that look this year. Lupan III's trademark look is a red jacket with a yellow tie. And although the tie was not an issue to acquire the red jacket was. Luckily I found a Lupan III set in a local store.


I was happy with how it looked.


Me with Queen Chika.