Twins feast on California State Fair foods for Japanese TV show
It was mid-afternoon at the California State Fair when Ako and Kako Ono prepared to do what earns them a living and the moniker “hungry twins” in their home country of Japan: eat a lot — on camera.
Their seven-person crew was preparing, too. Surrounded by noshing fairgoers under a vast canopy, the crew members set up cameras and assembled on a red plastic tablecloth the smorgasbord for the petite 33-year-old twin sisters to take on.
A hamburger with cotton candy. A plate of beef tallow french fries. A drink in a hollowed-out watermelon. A funnel cake with strawberries. And so on, perhaps ad nauseam.
The group came to the State Fair on Friday, its antepenultimate day, to shoot the Japanese television show “Sekai Kurabete Mitara” — which translates roughly to “let’s compare to the rest of the world,” according to on-site production coordinator Ryan McCune.
Footage of Ako and Kako’s visit to the State Fair may fill multiple episodes of the show, expected to air in the fall, in which Japanese celebrities will react to their cross-cultural experience, McCune said. The Onos participate in Japan’s popular eating competitions and, as the “Harapeko Twins,” run a YouTube channel with more than half a million subscribers.
In an interview translated by McCune, the pair said they were struck by the scale of the fair and its food.
“They’re impressed with the size of the fair, like the fairgrounds themselves,” said McCune, a Pasadena-based production freelancer who studied Japanese at UC Davis and spent stints in Japan totaling nearly three years. “And then also, all the food that they’ve encountered so far has been very large in portion size.”
Passersby took notice as the crew toured throughout the fair, and the videographers leaped at chances to interview bona fide fairgoers.
Ryan Martindale, 47, who lives in Rocklin and sells truck accessories in Auburn, approached the Onos for a selfie as they sat at their increasingly food-filled table before feasting. They flashed peace signs and grinned for one more camera. Then two members of the production staff in turn approached Martindale and his family’s own table for some local color.
The crew members asked the Martindales for an estimate of how much each of the voracious twins weighed, Janine Martindale, 42, a government worker and Ryan Martindale’s wife, said later.
“I was like, ‘Maybe 119?’ They’re like, ‘No, they’re about 90 pounds,” she said. “So that makes it so much more impressive.”
Janine Martindale said she hoped Japanese viewers of the TV show would see American families enjoying themselves in a setting apart from global politics.
“I guess we’re seen like we think we’re superior to the rest of the world, but hopefully this fair will show people that we’re just trying to have a good time,” she said.
Ako and Kako Ono seemed not to disapprove of anything they saw or ate Friday. Once their buffet was laid out — within the frame of a camera aiming down on the table — videographer Keisuke Iwasaki stepped between them and clapped his hands like a clapperboard.
“Itadakimasu,” the Onos began in unison, using the customary Japanese pre-meal expression of gratitude.
Ako picked up the cotton candy burger. Kako picked up a burger fried in beef tallow. Within minutes, there were no burgers to be seen.