MORIOKA, Iwate Prefecture--They may not have had the biggest stomachs, but three children whose elementary school was destroyed in the March 11 tsunami were tops in style at an eating contest here.
MORIOKA, Iwate Prefecture--They may not have had the biggest stomachs, but three children whose elementary school was destroyed in the March 11 tsunami were tops in style at an eating contest here.
Ikuei Maekawa, 9, Tatsuki Koyama, 12, and Jun Yamazaki, 12, from disaster-stricken Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, won a special award for their "beautiful eating manner" at the 26th Wanko-soba noodle-eating contest on Nov. 20.
Judges commended their authentic way of eating noodles in which "an eater moves his mouth to a bowl and slurps the noodles in one breath."
In the national event, groups of three eat as many bowls of buckwheat noodles as possible within two minutes. Ninety-two teams competed in three categories--adults, junior and senior high school students and children.
In the children's category, Ikuei, Tatsuki and Jun, who all attended Unosumai Elementary School before the disaster, ate 98 bowls in total, well short of the 139 bowls devoured by the winning team.
But the friends said they were pleased with the free tickets for wanko soba awarded for their eating style.
"We can eat soba again together," Jun said, smiling. "My stomach is full. So is my heart."
All children at Unosumai Elementary School were well prepared in tsunami drills and survived the disaster. But the school remains closed due to the extensive damage.
The homes of Tatsuki and Jun were also destroyed by the tsunami, triggered by Great East Japan Earthquake.
The winning adult team at the contest ate 251 bowls, while the top goup in the junior and senior high school category consumed 151 bowls.