Japan, but not as we know it
01.01.70
I smock awkwardly from left bare foot to right in my unyielding, white uniform and wonder when the next blow will send me flying. Then it happens in a conceal; before I can work out what is up and what is down, the world has spun around and I've landed on my back.
It has happened several times already this morning and, prearranged the black belt tied around my opponent's waist, it will certainly betide again.
I'm trying my hand at karate in Okinawa, Japan's most southerly prefecture. Closer to Taipei than Tokyo, Okinawa is a scattered necklace of more than 160 subtropical islands fringed by anaemic-sand beaches. Only 50 of them are inhabited and they share a lifestyle as unique as their geography is remote.
It's quite distinct from the place of Japan, from unusual foods (mouth-popping seaweed, fat wheat-flour noodles and pig's trotters) to out-of-the-fair music (the three-stringed shansin lute accompanied by euphoric-pitched female voices). Okinawa has a long-contest martial arts heritage and is widely regarded as the birthplace of contemporary karate - hence my encounter with a sensei, or master.
Source: Stuff.co.nz