“We believe,” said the Japanese boy, “that it takes all of a person’s life to learn anything.” [Illustration: A JAPANESE SCHOOL.] That this was a common opinion in Japan Tom soon found out for himself. Whatever the trade or profession in which a man was engaged, he seemed to have been at it all his life, and ten to one his father and his great-grandfather before him had followed the same business, and each one of the family had given so much time and attention to his business that he became almost perfect in it—as far as Japanese perfection went. [Illustration: JAPANESE WRESTLERS.] For instance Tom went to a wrestling match, where the wrestlers, great powerful fellows, all belonged to a tribe or guild that according to their account, had existed ever since the third year of the first Mikado, which in our chronology would be the year 658 B.C. [Illustration: JAPANESE BALANCING FEATS.] At any rate, they were men whose ancestors for hundreds of years had been wrestlers, and they themselves gave up all their time and thought to the attainment of perfection in their art. Consequently they were splendid wrestlers. Other gymnastic performers were equally proficient in different lines. Some of them had great long noses fitted to their faces, and on these noses they balanced themselves and each other, and did many other astonishing feats. One man laid on his back supporting on one foot a fellow who stood on his nose, while, on the prostrate man’s nose, another man stood, balancing on _his_ nose an umbrella, while he kept five or six balls flying in the air, catching each one as it fell and tossing it up again, never allowing one of them to drop. Each of these performers, no matter what else he was doing, held a fan in one hand, which was kept constantly in motion. And in all the performances there was never a mishap or a mistake. Every man was absolutely perfect in his part. When Tom went back to Yokohama he told his father that he had made up his mind that he was going to be absolutely perfect in some one thing. If the Japanese could succeed in this, he was sure he could. He had not made up his mind what he would do, but it was to be something. His father commended this resolution, and suggested arithmetic. Tom did not feel altogether certain about arithmetic, but as soon as he could think of a good thing, he intended to commence the study of perfection. When his father laughed a little at his enthusiasm Tom said that one great difficulty would be that he was afraid he could not find out what his father and grandfather had been perfect in. If he could do that, it would help him very much. But we cannot mention all the curious things that Tom and Moriyama saw in Japan.