Miles sure knows his station

Ireland tour to Japan: The sweltering 30 degrees-plus temperatures earlier in the week have dropped to a less sultry mid 20s, thereby offering some respite to the Ireland rugby squad as they try to acclimatise ahead of Sunday's first Test match against Japan at the Nagai soccer stadium in Osaka.

Since arriving last weekend the players have trekked each day to a training facility 40 minutes from their New Otani Hotel base on the banks of the Daini Neyagawa and Okawa rivers, the latter of which flows through the heart of the city. The only casualty to date has been assistant coach Michael Bradley, who tweaked a hamstring while running defensive lines at a session.

The irregular and slightly rutted sand-based surface took the blame, and the Connacht coach is sticking to his story as he tries to ride out the ribbing he's had.

It hasn't all been work, though, as the opportunity to take in the delights this beautiful city has to offer has not been lost, albeit with varying degrees of success. Joey Miles, Ireland's new team manager who succeeded Brian O'Brien in the role, showed his innate leadership qualities as a small party alighted from a train in the centre of Osaka.

As the group vacillated at the entrance to the station with a number suggesting they descend on the huge mall across the street, Miles took charge and decided they should venture further afield. The following is an abridged version of what transpired.

They went back into the station, came out another door and found they couldn't cross the road at that point. Returning to the station again they went up a level, exited, down a street, turned right and ended up coming in another door to the aforementioned station. This result was repeated when leaving by another door.

Undaunted, they finally managed to get out of the building, traversed a couple of streets and ended up in a bus station. Next week in Tokyo they're planning to visit a ferry terminal and an airport. They eventually decided to visit the huge mall across the street.

The Irish squad suffered no such directional hiccups when travelling to Kyoto during a day off yesterday to visit a couple of traditional Japanese temples in the Higashiyama district. That area boasts more temples per square mile than anywhere else in the world, a fact supplied by Ireland's tighthead prop Simon Best.

Arguably more impressive is the magnificent Osaka castle, a five-minute walk from the hotel. This striking structure on the former site of the Ishiyama Honganji temple dates back to 1583. A shogun named Toyotomi Hideyoshi won a series of wars uniting Japan under his rule - he would later unsuccessfully invade China, via Korea - and built Osaka castle as his base, completing the work in 1590.

Hideyoshi, being a consummate general, designed the most formidable castle ever built in Japan. One large moat surrounded the whole castle with only two ways across it. One of those was a small bridge that could be easily defended or even destroyed if necessary.

The inner grounds that contained the large donjon were actually built three storeys above the moat. Any attacker would have to scale three high stone walls and climb over three sets of turrets to get to the inner grounds.

Osaka, Japan's premier port city, is a striking combination of old and new, encapsulated by the floodlit baseball diamond and state-of-the-art conference centre that stand in the shadow of Osaka Castle. Ground-floor real estate in Japan's one-time capital city is so expensive many bars and restaurants are five and six floors up in apartment blocks.

Endearing features encountered so far include the white-gloved taxi men (doors open automatically on the cars), the polite, friendly, helpful locals, the spotlessly-clean buildings and the mind-blowing exactness of the local transport facilities.

On arriving at the airport a section of the media bought tickets and jumped on a dedicated bus heading for the hotel. Our bags were tagged, redemption tickets provided and loaded on the bus: it was due to leave at 6.45pm. To the second on the electronic clock on the bus, the driver gunned the vehicle into life.

Ireland's preparation for the Test match continues tomorrow night with the players hitting the Nagai stadium - Japan became the first team to qualify for next year's World Cup finals in Germany on Wednesday night - to take in a J League soccer match. After the match the soccer posts will be replaced by the rugby ones.

Not a bad way to see the venue.