National team manager Takeshi Okada was hoping his squad's recent tour of the Netherlands would give him food for thought ahead of the World Cup in South Africa.
Two games, 10 goals, one 20-minute master class and one five-minute comeback later, Okada got enough to give him indigestion until the first ball is kicked in Johannesburg next June.
Japan's 3-0 loss to the Netherlands on Sept. 7 and subsequent 4-3 win over Ghana last Wednesday came in such frantic circumstances, such queasy lurches from high to low and back again, that perhaps bite-size morsels would be easier to stomach.