The players had a one-day break on 2 June during their trip. The weather was cool from the morning and perfect for having a rest. Many teams, including the cheerful Guam and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands teams, who did not survive the group stage, left the championship. So now the atmosphere seems to be too quiet.
The Japanese players prepared themselves mentally and physically, getting some knowledge and culture about China.

In the morning they gave their group work presentations, which were assigned before the trip. There were six tasks, including Chinese history, the relationship between Japan and China, Chinese cuisine and so on. Three players in each group discussed the　results of their research undertaken in Japan, prepared their presentations and shared them in front of the others. Doing some research, gaining knowledge, and actually staying in China gave the players new impressions about China.
Then they went for a walk outside the China National Football Training Centre for the first time on the trip, where they could see the everyday life of Chinese in a rural area on the outskirts of Beijing. The scenery was so different from the one in the training centre – neither clean nor organised. The players had a lot of food for thought.

They cleaned and tidied up their rooms, sorting out the athletic clothing they borrowed until the afternoon practice session. In the session they mainly spent their time on conditioning exercises in order to maintain their fitness for frequent matches. This was followed by a practice game with two-touch play.
The final round will start tomorrow. They will play against Korea Republic again, whom they lost to last year in the Japan-Korea Exchange Programme.

Comments

HARA Mina (Hyogo, INAC KOBE LEONES B)
- Meals
I’ve been trying a lot of different tastes in Chinese food. I enjoyed them, including the spicy ones and the slightly sweet ones. First I was a little bewildered by the dishes and tastes, which I’ve never encountered in Japan, but now I can eat those without a problem. I also learned about Chinese table manners: you shouldn’t lift up plates or slurp on noodles, which I will try myself. Another thing I discovered was that the size of woks and knives was different from Japanese ones. I’ll remain interested in food and learn more.

DOHI Honoka (Niigata, ALBIREX NIIGATA LADIES’ U-15)
- Communication with players from other countries
I had a meaningful relationship with many players from other countries in the championship. I found that once you broke the ice, people from every country were so friendly. I used English and Chinese as much as possible. I felt very pleased, as they always waved at me or said hi in Japanese when we passed each other.
Communicating with players from other countries, which I think is quite a rare opportunity, was a great experience. We will play the rest of the games as hard as possible, thinking of the players from other countries, who supported Japan.

MAKI Haruka (Osaka, FC VITORIA & JFA Academy SAKAI)
- Group work
Thanks to the presentations I found out that each country is related to one another in many ways. I learned there were still a lot of problems between Japan and China, and there were a number of unpleasant incidents between us. To be honest with you, I didn’t have a good impression of China at all. However, Chinese players talked to me in a very friendly way during breaks, which made me happy.

I felt a bond between us through communication even though Japan and China were opposed to each other. I’ll interact with many more players from other countries as well as from Japan, and hope to learn more.