Basically Japan took karate and removed everything that made it effective and useful, but then it reverse populated back into Okinawa and they started copying all the gay shit the japanese were doing like spinny kicks and punching the air
So at this point no difference really

>>248358
Well fuck. There's a Goju Ryu place nearby that's run by some students of Masaji Taira. Seemed like a good place.

>>248360
Give it a try, you might like it

>>248361
I may. I dunno if it's all stripped down shit.

>>248343
Japanese karate got recontextualized to be a long range striking system due to taking competition ruleset from kendo where they obviously stand at very long range with the shinai and overextend as fast as possible to smack the other first, since a strike with even a shinai would be fatal they only need one point ippon, so when karate got to Japan, gichin funakoshi first simplified it to allow a wider group of students to grasp it more easily.
Then when karate competitions started, they took inspiration from kendo making karate a long range striking system.

Okinawan karate, even shotokan as gichin envisioned it, is a close range style with minimal footwork where the striking is based on timing where you catch the opponent coming in and most moves in kata are stand up grappling techniques.
When it become long range in japan, even the kata moves where recontextualized to be defenses for strikes that make absolutely 0 sense because those moves are meant to be close range grappling moves.

That said i would still dare to say Japanese karate is still better because they atleast do some sparring and is excellent to get into counter striking.
Okinawan karate hardly does sparring but is great to understand the actual purpose of kata which is grappling techniques.