A friend took me to lift weights with one of the local karate groups. Entering the warehouse where they kept their weights I found seven young men. They varied in from sixteen to twenty-eight. While most of them were shorter then me, they all without exception had arms thicker than my own. The biggest and oldest was their leader. He directed them in their training while he sat near the door smoking a cigarette. Every so often he would come out and arm-wrestle one of the younger boys. The bout would begin with him holding his opponents arm vertical, letting them strain against him. Then he would ever so slightly allow his arm to be forced down. When it seemed as though he would soon lose, he would slam his opponent's arm back and walk away victorious. The second half of the training session found him engaged with another man his own age who was training to win the local arm wrestling championship. Despite his aloof manner, he seemed a decent enough fellow.
Arm-wrestling is big in Tsushima. The group that I trained with had a special arm wrestling table that they had ordered off the internet. Most of the young men who are not in high school are fishermen. This explains the fact that a fair number of them have forearms that are very nearly as thick as their biceps.
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