Maybe it’s time he commits seppuku, though, I don’t know if I’d want to see a stomach full of hot dogs get disemboweled.
It’s been a year since the last “Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest” at Coney Island, when reigning king (at the time) of eating food “really really fast” lost his title, and his world record, to San Jose’s Joey Chestnut. This makes me sad. I thought for sure he would come back with a victory, regaining his honor.
Still, Kobayashi did actually manage to tie Joey Chestnut with 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes (it was 12 minutes in years previous), but lost it in overtime, where they had to eat 5 hot dogs faster than each other. It seems that now, though, both of them hold the record for most hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes, so that’s something I suppose.
I remember seeing a little blurb about Kobayashi on TV when I was in Japan. They wanted to find out how such a skinny guy was able to eat so many hot dogs. They followed him to a ramen shop where he at a ridiculous amount of ramen. They then did a cat scan, or something, where they found out his stomach was much larger than a normal human’s. If I remember correctly (and let me know if I’m wrong), it’s 3 times as large as a normal stomach. Not sure where there’s room for that, but apparently it’s there.
He also uses a special technique when eating hot dogs – they call it the “Solomon Method.” Basically, he breaks the hot dogs in half and stuffs both sides into his mouth and swallows it that way. Whatever works, I suppose. Not surprisingly, though, hot dogs aren’t his favorite food. His five favorite things to eat are cold tofu, Yogurt, Plain Bagels with Cream Cheese and Lox, Royal Milk Tea, and Vietnamese Spring Rolls.
Here is a list of his matches. It’s really interesting to see his improvement. You would expect a professional eater to just be able to eat until his stomach is all full, but apparently there is a lot of training that goes into it.
-2001: Ate 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes (shattering the previous record of a mere 25). He gained 8 pounds during this contest.
-2002: Ate 50 and one half hot dogs.
-2003: Ate 44 and one half hot dogs.
-2004: Ate 53 and one half hot dogs, getting a new record
-2005: Ate 49 hot dogs
-2006: Ate 53 and three quarters hot dogs, getting another world record. He also became world champion at eating bratwurst (I imagine this contest was a bit tastier) by eating 58 sausages in 10 minutes.
-2007: World record was broken by Joey Chestnut, who ate 59 and one half hot dogs in 12 minutes. Later that year they went head to head, and even though Kobayashi ate a ridiculous 63 hot dogs, Chestnut bested him by eating 66.
-2008: Kobayashi loses a tie-breaker to Chestnut in a “who can eat 5 hot dogs the fastest contest.” Both of them ate 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes (that’s really fast).
It’s obvious he’s not “losing it,” he has improved in the last few years. It’s just that there’s finally someone better than him eating lots of hot dogs. So, the question is, can Kobayashi keep improving and eventually beat Chestnut? I suppose it all depends on where their limits are, and I’m not sure if they’ve reached them yet.