Cultural exchange with the U-17 Japan Women’s National Team

Wednesday, October 19, 4:00 p.m., a charter bus with 16 female students, 11 of them belonging to the football club of a Girls’ Public Secondary School from Amman, departed for the Amman International Stadium. That day, from 5:00 p.m., they had the opportunity to participate in a cultural exchange with the U-17 Japan Women’s National Team players who participated in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Jordan 2016.

The “Little Nadeshiko” team from Japan had defeated Spain’s Women’s National Team in the semifinal match two days previously and now they were training for the final. Despite that, they gladly spared their time for this cultural exchange.

 [Mini-game between the mixed teams with local female students]

After training, the cultural exchange with the students started.
Presently, JEN and UNICEF are cooperating to carry out a water and hygiene support program for those public schools throughout Jordan who accepted Syrian refugees.

This Amman girls’ public school is one of the schools that supported the program. This school is located in the Amman old city next to the stadium where the U-17 Japan Women’s National Team played the semifinal match. Even though it’s not common for public schools in Jordan to have a football club, this school has one. The members are 15 to 16 years old girls and include Syrian refugee students who participate as well.

 [We are all friends of same age]

Fortunately, the rush-hour traffic was avoided and the students arrived at the stadium early. Therefore, they could watch the Japan Women’s National Team’s training session. At 5:00 p.m., the Little Nadeshiko team and the students greeted each other and everybody was divided into 4 groups and played mini-games.

They played for about 30 minutes until the end of the first half of the cultural exchange. Getting over the language barrier, the girls became very friendly with each other, they high-fived and laughed together.

[They practice dancing seriously]

During the few minutes break, music played and the students started to dance. This was a traditional dance that is well known in oriental countries, in particular Syria and Jordan, as “Dabke”. “Dabke” means “step”, “kick”, and “foot tap” and it is a kind of line dance performed by stepping but without much hand or arm movement.

Holding hands with the National Team players, a student at the right-hand side of the line lead the steps. Since the National Team players are good at football, they are also good at step-dancing and easily learnt how to do the dance. Therefore, they enjoyed dancing with the students.

[Memorial photograph]

The approximately 1 hour cultural exchange passed quickly. The players and the students looked like they had a good time. They would like to have had the chance to spend more time together and took pictures until the bus carrying the students departed.

The Japan Football Association’s webpage also contained an article regarding this cultural exchange.

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