Kuwabara is the captain of Japan's national ice hockey team currently playing at the Pool A World Championships in Germany. Kuwabara, a Japanese-Canadian who was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens and now stars for Japan Ice Hockey League champion Kokudo, has agreed to keep a journal chronicling some of the team's experiences while in Germany.

NUREMBERG, Germany -- Today (Sunday) was the first game of the tournament for us. We have been here in Nuremberg, Germany, since Tuesday, practicing and getting ready for today's game against Slovakia.

This has been like any other game day for our team. We had team meetings prepping for what to expect against Slovakia, like video of what they like to do, followed by our pregame meal and then it was time to get on the bus for the ride to the rink a few hours later.

We arrived at the rink two hours before game time to get ready. Some guys work on their sticks, ride the bike and stretch, while the injured guys get taped up.

On to the game. Slovakia finished second in the tournament last year so we knew it would be a tough game for us. They have a few NHL players on their team like Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa and Robert Petrovicky. Since we didn't get a chance to play any exhibition games against any other countries before the tournament, this was our first game as a team.

After the first period, Slovakia was up 3-1. Not bad, considering it was our first game. We got a power-play goal from (Masaki) Shirono.

The second period was better. We started to relax and execute our systems better. All the guys seemed to get comfortable with the tempo, which was a little quicker than we are used to in the Jap- an League. The second period ended 5-2 with us getting a nice goal from Ryan Fujita, as sisted by Chris Yule and Taro Nihei.

In the third, Slovakia kind of pulled away with three goals, but we didn't give up and we got two goals later by Takahito Suzuki and Yutaka Kawaguchi as the game ended 8-4. Not bad, considering I don't think they got four goals scored against them in a game at last year's tournament.

Ryan (Fujita) was named the game's best player for Japan. It was a tough game, but everyone came to play and it was good to see every line start to gel and play well together as the game progressed. We have a quick turnaround because we play Finland tomorrow, another top team in this tournament. Let's hope for a win.