Karate, patience and pain on a trip to its roots in Japan's Okinawa

Shimabukuro, 79, still has muscles like iron. Photos: Andreas Drouve/dpa

Excelling at karate starts with your outfit. You need to tie the loops of your suit correctly – not easy for a beginner.Terumitsu Taira helps learners out until the snow-white suit no longer slips.

We move over to the lawn of the Okinawa Karate Kaikan training and museum complex where Taira set up two cement blocks and laid a layer of roof tiles over the space between them.