Buccaneers visit Japan; Yamada returns home

The Bucs and Jets will play an exhibition game Saturday.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) -- Some of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are grumbling, at least privately, about the 13,000 miles of roundtrip travel they'll be making to Japan this week for an exhibition game against the New York Jets.
But not linebacker Shinzo Yamada.
"I don't know what a good time for them is," said Yamada, who added he's gotten plenty of questions from his teammates about what to expect in Tokyo. "I've taken their requests and I've asked my Japanese friends to be ready."
And Yamada, a Japanese native who lived in the United States for four years as a youngster, will not be alone in offering advice for American football players. Jets receiver Yoshinobu Imoto is also traveling to his native country for the American Bowl matchup in Tokyo on Saturday. Both were teammates this year with NFL Europe's Amsterdam Admirals.
Branching out
The trip to Japan is part of an effort by the NFL to broaden the appeal of American football to foreign audiences. NFL teams have traveled to such places as Osaka; London, England; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin, Germany; Mexico City, Mexico; and Dublin, Ireland in recent years.
Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson says the trip makes training camp longer.
"But it's just the way it is," Johnson said. "It's the cards you're dealt with, and you play with them. Don't complain, don't explain. That's the way it is."
"It's something we need to do. Anything that can promote unity on the team and chemistry," coach Jon Gruden said. "A long flight together, a lot of time together in a foreign country is something that can only help our team."
While American football is played in high schools and colleges throughout Japan, Yamada began learning the game when he was 10 years old and living in Memphis, Tenn., where his father represented a Japanese electronics company for four years.
There is little chance he'll earn a spot on a defense that was first in the NFL a year ago, when the Bucs won the Super Bowl.
But he has impressed the team with the way he's handled himself in camp.
"He's doesn't back down from any kind of competition. I admire that about him," Gruden said. "Obviously, he doesn't have the experience like a lot of these players, but he's improving daily."
Home country
Yamada jokes that he'll be a part-time tour guide for the week.
"I want to tell them everything about Jon Gruden, Warren Sapp and all the players. I'm just happy to go back to my homeland with the Super Bowl champions."
He's not making any predictions about the game.
He said one of the toughest parts of camp has been digesting three big playbooks he was given the first day.
"The terminology is so different. I can read English but they're so thick I couldn't believe it," Yamada said. "But in a couple more days, I'll be fully ready."