He is known in Japan as "The Tsunami."
Takeru Kobayashi is the world's speed eating champion who makes his living downing more food, more quickly than anyone else. His record is 53 and a half hot dogs in 12 minutes.
Yet Kobayashi, 27, says he has a normal appetite.
"I only eat more during the contests but normally I don't eat much," he said in an interview.
Kobayashi recently brought his swallowing skills to Hong Kong for the city's first eating contest. He chomped his way to first place and won US$2,574 by eating 100 barbecue pork buns -- a stodgy local staple -- in 12 minutes.
Weighing in at just 64kg, Kobayashi says he has the same appetite as everyone else but believes his stomach is a little more elastic than other people's.
His technique is the same for pork buns as it is for hot dogs. He tightly squeezes each one before eating and sips lots of water to soften the buns.
To rest his stomach ahead of the contest, Kobayashi says he skipped dinner and breakfast the day before. He once starved himself for three days ahead of a competition.
Kobayashi has munched to victory in 10 contests all over the world, including five consecutive wins since 2000 at the Nathan's hot dog eating competition in New York's Coney Island. There, diminutive Kobayashi beat off challenges from huge men twice his size.
He set his hot dog world record at last year's event, and another record in the same year when he wolfed down 69 hamburgers in eight minutes at Krystal Square Off in Tennessee.
Born in the city of Nagoya, Kobayashi is a university economics graduate, who says he got into the speed-eating career by accident, courtesy of his friends.
"I used to sweep up all the leftover food my female classmates couldn't finish," he says.
"My friends saw that and believed I had that eating power," he adds. "They once saw an eating contest advertised on TV and put my name down for it. I won, and that's how my career started."
While his competitors tend to be fatsos, 170cm Kobayashi is a fit and health-conscious gym-goer who works out three times a week.
He likes to show of his rippling six-pack stomach muscles and believes strengthening his body helps him to fend off his rivals. The runner-up in Hong Kong could not even finish half the number of pork buns eaten by Kobayashi.
In order to preserve his health, he tries not to overload his stomach between the five major eating contests in which he takes part each year.
"Two months before a competition, I would start gradually to increase the amount of food I eat but reduce it shortly before the contest and then really go for it during the competition," he says. "I would increase my intake of food from the previous meal bit by bit. I follow my instinct on how much I should eat."
Kobayashi says he eats as much as most people but breaks it down into six small daily meals.
"If I eat too much at a time, it will give too much tension to my stomach. As long as I give it some rest, I can do it," he says.
The professional eater claims to never tire of food but says he avoids "unhealthy" items including hot dogs and hamburgers which he has to eat in competition.
His favourite is tofu because it is "light and soft."
He has no craving, however, for cow brains.
"Cow brains are my least favorite food. I had to eat that at a competition in the United States one time," he says.
Despite the gastric pain that accompanies his job, Kobayashi says The Tsunami plans to keep on destroying what is placed in front of him.
"I will do this as long as I can," says the mighty mouth.
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