Deep joy: 3.5m hole in 30 minutes wins Japan’s hole-digging championship

A burly group of men from Saitama, north of Tokyo, took home first prize of 100,000 yen (US$840) and a golden shovel at Japan’s national hole-digging championships. They managed to burrow down a staggering 3.48 metres in the allotted time of 30 minutes. The 15th edition of Japan’s bizarre shovel-a-thon, which is open to fun diggers as well as ultra-serious competitors with clipboards and blueprints, attracted a record number of 305 teams. Organisers now face the daunting task of filling in all the holes.

It takes about a week for our staff to gradually refill the holes.

Tournament official Ai Okazaki

The hole-digging championships, which are held at a Narita campsite, were started as a means to drum up business during the winter. Digging the deepest hole is not the only way to win: Six young women from northern Japan who went to work with trowels and buckets while sporting fish-shaped headgear swam away with the best costume prize. And there was elation for a team from Hokkaido who sacrificed depth and a chance at victory by sculpting a giant hand creeping from their hole, winning them the “humour prize”.

Odd News