TOKYO — Fame is his middle name.

But for Wally Amos, the cookie king who has cashed in on America's love affair with the chocolate chip, fame isn't the name of the game.

Contrary to his company's catch phrase, the 50-year-old father of the Famous Amos cookie franchise says "being famous is no big deal."

Arriving without fanfare at Hiroo's Famous Amos cookie studio in Tokyo last week wearing an oversized, weather-beaten trenchcoat and blowing a kazoo, Amos looked more like a street-smart schoolteacher than an entrepreneurial cookie mogul.

Amos was in Japan to promote his creations at all 12 cookie studios here. He admits, though, that his cookies "aren't the best cookies out there."

"I never said they were the best," he said, "they're just different. They're different because I'm different."

You could've fooled America.

AMOS OPENED his first cookie studio in Hollywood, Calif., March 1975. Now, 11 years later, 35 Famous Amos studios steadily churn out cookies Stateside.

Five studios are in Singapore, with two in Hong Kong, two in Malaysia, two in Indonesia, and a couple in Canada to help rake in the dough.

But Amos isn't counting. He acknowledges "business is great," without being more specific, but he says the number of studios he has is not a measure of his success.

"People are just now asking me how it feels to be successful. They never asked me that when I opened my first store. To me, that was a success; just to be able to open."

But then Amos's success story isn't the usual saga of slaving over a hot stove to find an original recipe that would create a new kind of market and spawn a host of imitators.

Amos was born in Tallahassee, Fla., but he began baking cookies as a 12-year-old when his family moved to New York City. He said he never thought about exposing them to the public's palate until five months before his first store opened.

"YOU DON'T NEED research," Amos insists. "The cookies sell themselves because everyone likes chocolate chip cookies."

Even Amos.

"I love chocolate chip cookies. I eat them all the time," he says.

"I was at a business meeting one morning and I was eating them. I said to myself, `I can't believe I'm eating chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.' "

Amos says he can't believe he's in the cookie business either.

"I never wanted to do this for a living," he said. "It just happened."

"You know, some people want to be doctors or lawyers," he said. "I never had a career goal. Still don't."

But still, his business flourishes, with a Famous Amos diet chocolate soda and a hot chocolate mix in the works.

And yes, there'll be other Famous Amos cookie studios. How many?

Amos just shrugs.