JAPAN, OCT 28 – Sokusekisai Oyama, also known as Japan’s King of Instant Ramen, has made a lucrative career out of eating instant noodles once a day for more than 30 years.
Instant noodles, better known as cup noodles in Japan, are very popular in the land of the rising sun. There are hundreds of different types, from cheap variants you can find at your local grocery store to versions gourmet with toppings such as meat and dried vegetables.
It is by far the most popular fast food in Japan and almost everyone loves it, but no one likes it like Oyama.
A former illustrator with a degree in engineering, Oyama left his career to devote himself to what he loved most: eating noodles and becoming a professional cup noodle critic.
The 65-year-old admitted that he had eaten one serving of instant noodles and a total of more than 10,000 cups of noodles over the past 30 years.
Oyama said he became interested in noodles immediately while studying engineering at Tokyo’s Gunma University.
When he started collecting instant ramen packaging, and now has a collection of over 6,000 different cups and wrappers.
The big breakthrough for his interest in the world of instant noodles came in 1995, when he won the Tokyo Television Instant Noodle Championship, a television show that tested contestants’ knowledge of instant ramen. Oyama’s win raised his name to celebrity status, making him appear frequently on television shows and at different events. – Agency
