The Japan men's national team, dubbed SAMURAI BLUE, who have been training in Cessnock, Australia to prepare for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, took a whole day off on 6 January, Day 4 in their training camp there, trying to remove all their fatigues that they accumulated from their training that they've continued since the end of last year and trips.

Some of the players moved their bodies by take a walk inside the hotel facilities while some completely rested, and each member attempted to refresh himself with his own way.

Meanwhile, SHIBASAKI Gaku, who's been away from the team due to an influenza, arrived at the Sydney international airport in the morning. As soon as he landed in Sydney, Shibasaki was headed to Cessnock. When he came in the diner at the breakfast time, he was warmly welcomed by his teammates. After that, Shibasaki talked to the media and began working along with TOYODA Yohei, who also recovered from an illness, with an instruction of conditioning coach Hayakawa.
Both players will join the team from their training on the 7th, which means that the team will finally be able to tune up for the Asia Cup with all the 23 members.

Comments

Shimoda Masahiro, chairman of Technical Committee (Development)
We decided to make the entire day today off during our staff meeting last night. Because we have gone through hard schedule without any time off, including our trip to Australia, since our training camp began on 29 December, we thought that it'd be important to rest our heads and bodies here.
The team have come just fine so far. We played a training match with Oakland City on the following day of our arrival here, and it was a good training for us in terms of adjusting ourselves to the heat. Our players have communicated well with each other and I think the atmosphere has been great.

SHIBASAKI Gaku（Kashima Antlers）
I would like to gradually and firmly adapt to the circumstances.
For me, the Asia Cup will my first official tournament to be on SAMURAI BLUE, and it gives me a special feeling.
As a team, we would like to make it a great tournament in terms of both results and contents. Individually, I would like to accumulate good experiences.