It's a cold windy night in Sydney's West when SBS News arrives to speak with two up and coming Japanese footballers.
But adverse weather conditions have never got in the way of Eri Namita and fellow student Miki Onodera playing their sport of choice.
Onodera, 21, played for Kokushikan University in Tokyo. She's turning out in Australia for the Bankstown Dragons in Sydney.
Eri Namita, left, and Miki Onodera at training with the Bankstown Dragons. Source: John Baldock/SBS News
Apart from some language barriers, Onodera says the biggest difference between playing in Australia and Japan is the training regimes.
In Japan, training is more frequent. "Six times for a week for practice, but in Australia, it is maybe three times a week," she says.
'Three leagues for women'
Japan is a powerhouse of women's football, with three tiers for women to play in, compared to the single tier of the W-League in Australia.
Despite that, many players choose to fine-tune their skills abroad, partly to widen their experience but also travel and learn new languages.
Star player Mana Iwabuchi of Japan celebrates a goal against Norway during a 2018 friendly. Source: Getty Images
Both Onodera and Namita came to Australia independently, joined Bankstown, and became friends.
Namita, 20, who played for Ryutsu Keizai University in Japan, says: "I came here and met her, and once we started talking we became friends".
They are on one-year working visas and once their English language skills improve, will be looking for jobs.
Bankstown Dragons Women's team after training Source: John Baldock - SBS
The link between them is Sydney based Japanese player-manager Tadashi Miyashita.
Tadashi has 40 Japanese players on his books playing in the Sydney and Illawarra area, but Onodera and Namita are the only women.
He has lived in Sydney for 15 years and believes both are good enough to play in Australia's top women's division.
"They played at a high level in Japan with their universities, so hopefully they'll get a chance in the W-League," he said.
Their coach is George Markopoulos says despite the language barrier, their football intelligence has helped them settle straight into the team.
"These Japanese girls are very smart, they sit back and they have a look and see what we do.
"They're very smart footballers ... and they're starting to pick up the English, and they're doing quite fine."
Dragons get a team talk from Coach George Markopoulos (wearing hat) Source: John Baldock - SBS
Japan won the tournament in 2011 and reached the final in 2015, losing to the USA.
They'll first face Argentina on 11 June.
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup takes place in France, 7 June-7 July.
Read more news from the and see the rest of the stories in the .
SBS will offer all Matildas matches, the opening game, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final live, free and in HD. All SBS games will also be live streamed on website and app.
