# The Bottomless Noodle Bowl You're Meant to Finish Whole > Taking on the wanko soba challenge in Iwate Prefecture: endless bowls of buckwheat noodles and a delightfully odd Japanese tradition. Here's how it all works. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/ostatochnyi-variant-lokshyny-iaku-mozhna-zisty-tsilkom/ - Language: en - Published: 2025-06-06 - Categories: Culture, Historic Sites, Leisure, Restaurants, Japan, Food & Drinks --- «Eat more! More!» The waitress's expression, at odds with her sweet but firm little chants, bordered on boredom. Even so, she was relentless. The soba noodles just kept coming. The moment I emptied my tiny bowl, she would swoop in to refill it with another portion, calling out «hai dan dan!» This scene repeated itself 33 times. Telling her to stop was pointless. A tower of empty bowls grew beside me, a monument to my gluten-fueled gluttony. There was only one way to stop the flow of noodles: cover your wanko with its lid. Laugh if you like, but wanko means «bowl» in the local dialect. It's all part of the wanko soba challenge, a form of all-you-can-eat buckwheat noodles unique to Japan's Iwate Prefecture. ![](/storage/image/prev/june-article-image-33-1-2025.jpg) ## The Record: 570 Bowls I decided to try it at Azumaya Soba in Morioka, the capital of Iwate, where they offer an English-language menu. You don't have to take on the challenge. There are regular set menus, including a kaiseki-style lunch. But where's the fun in that? The wanko soba challenge costs 3,240 yen ($31.80) and comes with nine side dishes, such as tuna sashimi, mushrooms with grated radish and other local specialties. Afterward, guests receive a keepsake: a certificate and a plaque noting how many bowls they ate. It's said that fifteen bowls of wanko soba are equivalent to one medium-sized bowl of regular soba. ![](/storage/image/prev/june-article-image-33-2-2025.jpg) I thought my tally of 33 bowls was pretty impressive, until I spotted the stack of bowls next to a man at the table behind me. He told me he'd managed to eat 111 bowls of wanko soba. And he had the certificate to prove it. As for the record, the Azumaya staff say someone once ate 570 bowls in a single sitting. ## The Wanko Soba Challenge: Rules and Tips There are a few rules. First, you have to eat without stopping. You can't take a break, let the noodles settle, and then come back to the table for more. You can snack on the side dishes, but it's better to save them for when you're done with the soba. Just don't skip them. They're all delicious. Another pro tip: avoid drinking too much of the wanko soba broth. There's a bowl in front of you where you can pour out the broth after you've swallowed each portion of noodles. Chewing? Optional. The restaurant recommends simply swallowing each portion of noodles whole. When you've had enough, as mentioned above, you can't just say you're full. You have to cover the bowl with its lid, or your waiter, standing right there with a tray full of soba, will quickly drop in another portion. Related article: 25 Japanese dishes we love, from tempura to miso ## The Rural Roots of Wanko Soba The origins of this soba feast are a little hazy. The founders of Azumaya Soba say it was born out of the region's rugged terrain in the early 1600s. Because of the high mountains and low temperatures, farmers in the Nanbu area relied on easy-to-grow soba, buckwheat noodles, to get by. Since soba was seen as a peasant dish, they were embarrassed to serve it to the nobility. According to Iwate's tourism authorities, when a lord came to the town of Hanamaki on a visit, the locals reluctantly served him only a small bowl of noodles, but paired it with an elegant spread of dishes. He found the noodles so delicious that he kept asking for more. And so the tradition of serving soba in tiny bowls until guests are full was born. Over the past four centuries, it has evolved into the wanko soba noodle challenge that is so popular in the prefecture today. Eating competitions are now held in Iwate twice a year. Iwate tourism officials say the reigning Morioka champion, a woman, gulped down 383 bowls in just 10 minutes. ## How to Get to Morioka Azumaya Soba has four locations in Morioka. The Ekimae branch is just a two-minute walk from the train station. A full list of wanko soba restaurants can be found at Japan-iwate.info/noodle/wanko.html. Morioka is about three hours from Tokyo by bullet train. From Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region, it's a 40-minute train ride.