Every day, Michael Preston, who is responsible for Team USA media relations, will post a blog here on GlobalFootball.com…

They arrived here football players, but will go home samurai warriors. 

Without wishing to spoil the surprise, more than a third of the Team USA contingent that enjoyed a two hour visit to the Buddhist temple at Asakusa made the most of an opportunity to do some shopping to buy samurai swords. The uniquely Japanese souvenirs will be popping up from Arizona to Kentucky and Wisconsin to Louisiana when the team arrives home next week.  

The visit to the Tokyo district of Asakusa came after Team USA had completed its final practice session before Saturday’s big game against Japan at the Kawasaki Stadium. The final run through of the game plan was held in blustery conditions, but thankfully there was no rain to dampen the mood. Saturday’s forecast is for sunny skies and some welcome warm weather. 

The bus ride into Tokyo gave us another look at some gridlocked traffic and an impression of just how vast this city really is. I heard Tokyo compared in terms of size to an area equivalent of the San Francisco bay area, only with 13 million inhabitants all crammed into the city. Quite different from lineman Billy Deane’s home of Adams Friendship, WI, which he estimates is home to less than 2,000 people. 

While the team pressed on with their shopping expedition in Asakusa, team manager Patrick Steenberge and yours truly wandered off the beaten track to sample some local culinary delights. After being lured into paying 400 yen (about $4) for a baked potato with an artery-clogging amount of butter, we sampled a mystery dish that tasted as odd as its description suggests. A mix of an omelet, pasta, seaweed, a barely fried egg and a topping of dried haddock flakes, it made for an interesting lunch. As did the cookie covered with a very hot red spice that a couple who had befriended us at our table encouraged us to try.

They clearly expected us to gasp for water once the spices kicked in (and boy did they kick in!) but I grew up in an area of England where burning Indian curries are popular and Patrick lives in Texas and regularly samples authentic Mexican dishes, so we spoiled their fun and ate the cookies. Well, we ate some of it. 

Talking of food, here are the Team USA culinary likes and dislikes that we promised you in yesterday’s blog. First the likes / then the dislikes: 

Darius Petratis: Loves noodles / hates seaweed
Tony Martin: Rice and gravy / Chinese vegetables
Jordan Ralph: Sushi / sea urchin
John Pokorny: Noodles / sushi
Matt Groudle: Miso soup, beef stew / some of the fish
Jake Thompson: meals with meat / sushi
Michael DiGangi: I love sushi. I’ll eat anything
Troy Roffi: Tempura / sushiJoe Zambito: I have liked every food that I have tried, but my favorite is probably sushi
Daniel Nicholas: I have liked everything so far except sushi
Rob Moran: Tempura and some sushi / tofu
Akeen Satterfield: Whatever I ate, it was good. I don’t know what it was
John Earl: So far I like all the foods I have tried here
Billy Deane: I like the Japanese pound cake and raw salmon eggs
Mike Parsons: Noodles with sauce / sushiJon Harms: Soup / anything not cooked
Brandon Young: Noodles, egg, fish / wasabi, scallops
Taylor Ward: Tempura, sukiyaki  

So a divided camp when it comes to sushi then. 

After an hour-long ride back to Kawasaki, the team checked into rooms at the Sunroute Hotel where the coaches and staff have been staying this week. The team will all be together to walk the short distance to Kawasaki Stadium to begin preparations at 10am. The group bonded on Friday evening at a team dinner at a Korean barbeque where the all-you-can-eat policy was well received. 

Next time on GlobalFootball.com…. The GE Global Challenge Bowl game recap…