The air is stifling in the cement interior of the Ishikawa Dome, despite the sides being open to the weather. I shift my limbs, in danger of losing circulation on the unforgiving benches, while my right arm furiously works my paper program as a fan in a desperate effort to gain respite from the Okinawan humidity.

Then there's a tap on my shoulder. "Look," gestures my friend Mutsumi. "The bulls are coming."

We've been waiting in this sweatbox in central Okinawa to witness some heavyweight fights of a bovine variety. The mainland may have its popular sumo tournaments, but here in the islands it's bull-wrestling that rules.