Albion went down a storm in Tokyo on Monday evening.

The squad put in a tough two-hour session amid ever-increasing humidity and a few drops of rain.

It was two days out from their first public friendly of the summer and there was a lot of tactical and match-situation work carried out at an impressive tempo and sharpness.

Temperatures remained in the low 30s at the end of another sweltering Tokyo day which has got even the locals saying it’s a bit too hot.

And if the Albion squad were sweltering even more than usual, we found why soon after.

The intense humidity was followed by a dramatic thunderstorm which swept the Japanese capital within an hour of training coming to an end and sent pedestrians amid the neon-lit nightlife of Shinjuku scrambling for cover.

The heat means Albion are only getting one training session in per day, so they are making them count.

They will be at the National Stadium on Tuesday evening to get a feel for the venue where they will play both Kashima Antlers and Tokyo Verdy in the coming days.

Head coach Fabian Huerzeler has been impressed by what he has seen so far.

He said: “The work on the pitch makes it a lot of fun with the players, because you really feel their energy, the attitude to the training, their work ethic is very positive.

“The standards of the training session is quite high, so it makes it a lot of fun to work with them.

“They try to adapt quick, they try to improve things really quick.

“We have this time in Japan, we only have one time training a day, so we’re using this time for getting more connected to each other, to get to know each other better, not only the players and the new staff, also the players and staff themselves.

“We have to get to know each other, so we use the time to work hard on the pitch and work also off the pitch hard to get to know each other better.”

Albion have several youngsters in their group and Huerzeler likes the way it is knitting together.

He said: “I'm not the biggest fan of just mentioning one player, but I really like the attitude.

“I think that Shannon (Ruth), the under-21 coach, has done a great, great job because you see that the players can deal with the intensity.

“They are clear in understanding the game and they have a great impact on the whole team here, so you don't see a lot of difference.

“That's a very important thing for me that they can show this intensity in training and that's why I'm really happy to have an under 21 coach like Shannon because he always creates the basic things for me so that I can challenge the under-21 players a lot.

“And that's why I'm really happy that all of these players are here and they have done a great job so far.”