TOKYO – The Tokyo Dome video board lit up Sunday night with the words “ CUBS WIN,” flashing between English and Japanese. Clark, the team mascot, waved a “W” flag in center field. And “Go Cubs Go” played over the loudspeakers, celebrating the team’s first exhibition game win.

Seiya Suzuki remembers being in the Tokyo Dome when Hideki Matsui returned with the Yankees as part of MLB’s season-opening series in 2004. Matsui launched a mammoth home run deep into the right-field stands and a 9-year-old Suzuki was within the wild,

Baseball mania reached fever pitch in Japan on Friday (March 14) with public appearances of national hero Shohei Ohtani and other Japanese players set to take part in MLB season-opening games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

This week, Suzuki returned to his hometown of Tokyo, representing the Cubs in his fourth MLB season. “My goal is to stay in this league and play for as long as I can, until my body stops working,” Suzuki said. “Here [in MLB] it’s so hard with age, but also, whenever your performance drops, there’s always that next guy up.”

The Chicago Cubs are in Japan getting ready to open the regular season against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday at the Tokyo Dome. The Cubs will play two games and then head back to the United States to resume spring training before their “domestic” opening day against the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 27.