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.”

Facing the Hanshin Tigers and hearing the team’s cheering section was a blast from the recent past for the former Hiroshima Carp star.

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,

Suzuki was showered with applause in his return to Japan as a member of the Chicago Cubs, but it was the Hanshin Tigers who came out on top in the exhibition game.

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.