Tony Trains Karate in the Place It Was Born | Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown | Season 6 Episode 2

Anthony Bourdain travels to Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, three hundred miles south of mainland Japan and worlds apart from it—tropical, slow-moving, and, as he quickly discovers, not really Japanese at all. Okinawa was its own kingdom before it was a prefecture: a prosperous island chain with no standing army, made up of farmers, traders and diplomats who looked west to China rather than north to an isolationist Japan. When the Satsuma invaded in 1609 and banned weapons outright—a ban reinforced when Japan annexed the island in 1879—what emerged was karate, literally empty hands. At the dojo of Sensei Tetsuhiro Hokama, a legendary master of Goju-Ryu, Bourdain watches a warm-up designed to deliberately damage the hands and feet until the bone builds armour, then finds himself on the floor courtesy of a seventy-one-year-old demonstrating pressure-point technique. There is an old saying here: if two men were fighting with fists, it was an amateur fight. If they were fighting with open hands, they were masters. The island's history is heavier than its mood suggests. In 1945 an invasion force larger than Normandy's came ashore in what Okinawans call the Typhoon of Steel, and an estimated 150,000 civilians died—more than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Former governor Masahide Ota, a teenage conscript at the time, explains how the island was held as long as possible so the mainland could prepare its own defence, and what happened to Okinawans who spoke their own language during the battle. Seventy years on, Okinawa is one percent of Japan's landmass and carries more than half its foreign military presence—thirty thousand troops, thirty installations, much of the island's farmland underneath them. And the food runs through all of it. Pork is king here, eaten in every part: belly simmered in bonito stock, ears dressed in rice vinegar, ribs brined in sake. There is Okinawan soba made with wheat noodles, bitter melon champuru, sea grapes, tofu that tastes like blue cheese, and taco rice—an American taco dumped onto rice in the 1980s for Marines coming home from the bars, now a local classic. There is a bullfight, where two bulls push until one walks away and both go home. On tiny Kume Island, which the war never reached and no base ever occupied, Bourdain eats tuna cut straight from the market on the beach and steps into a round of Okinawan sumo himself. And at Dojo Bar in Naha, over habushu—awamori aged three years with a snake in the bottle—a young female student answers his question about women in karate: it is all about love, and if you have the strength to protect yourself and your family, you can afford to be kind. Subscribe here to discover all of Anthony Bourdain's adventures and watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCffagYQTThJx4N55UKdr5ew?Sub_confirmation=1 Travel the globe with the legendary chef, author, and storyteller Anthony Bourdain as he uncovers the soul of a destination through its food, culture, and politics. Far more than just a cooking show, Parts Unknown dives deep into the corners of the world rarely seen on TV—eating with locals, exploring diverse culinary rituals, and asking the hard questions. #AnthonyBourdain #PartsUnknown #TravelDocumentary #culture #cuisine