TOKYO -- If David Eckstein wasn't already aware that this has been a very long baseball season for him, he certainly was when the team bus pulled up to the hotel following a Tokyo Dome workout Thursday and the bright lights above the lobby displayed a seasonal welcome:

"Merry Christmas!"

"I saw that and I was like, 'What's the deal?'" Eckstein said. "Christmas is still December 25th, right?"

	Yomiuri Giants slugger Hideki Matsui is heading to the major leagues in 2003.

Well, let's just say that the holiday isn't going to sneak up on Japan.

Besides, Eckstein has been playing for so long this year that Christmas isn't that far around the corner. Counting spring training and postseason games, Eckstein has played more than 200 games with another eight more to come in this week's bi-annual Major League/Japan League All-Star exhibition tour.

By the time this series ends next weekend, they very well may be dying Easter eggs.

Not that Eckstein had to think twice when a major league representative asked during the Division Series with the Yankees whether he would like to play even more games by participating in the tour.

"This was something I was hoping they would ask me to do," Eckstein said. "When they asked me, I was going to say 'Yes' right away but they said to give it a day to think it over. And I'm like, 'What is there to think about? Why would anyone say no?'"

Why indeed? Each player receives $120,000 for the tour, plus an all-expenses paid trip for the traveling companion of his choice. A long row of neatly dressed hotel employees applauded the players when they arrived Wednesday evening and they were given thick envelopes of cash and then served food and beverages and only then allowed to check into their rooms. The players are treated so well that even Barry Bonds is smiling.

With hospitality like that, the real question is why so many Japanese stars have left their country for the majors in recent years.

That issue is also why this tour is far more significant than normal, for it represents both an eagerly awaited homecoming and another superstar departure. Saturday's tour-opening game between the major league All-Stars and the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome will be Ichiro's first game in Japan since he joined the Mariners and it very likely will be outfielder Hideki Matsui's final game with the Giants.

After a decade as the Giants' top slugger and after hitting .334 with 50 home runs and 107 RBIs this season, Matsui, whose nickname is "Godzilla," announced last week that he plans to follow Ichiro's lead by signing with a major league team this winter. Many people expect him to sign with the Yankees, who by the most amazing coincidence, allowed Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams to represent the major league team here, the first time owner George Steinbrenner gave any Yankee permission to play on the MLB tour.

"That's what everyone thinks Bernie and I are doing, that we're on this 007 mission and meeting with Matsui and taking him out to strip joints," Giambi said. "But I begged him to let us go. I was on the tour four years ago and I loved it. So I went in there to him and said, 'C'mon Boss, let's go. It's a lot of fun.

"But I'm sure maybe something other than (having fun) was involved."

Matsui's likely departure is so important to Japan that he dominated a brief news conference when the major leaguers arrived even though he wasn't anywhere near the building. After a couple Matsui-related questions, the conference's facilitator requested that there be no more questions about the outfielder. New Mets manager Art Howe, who is managing the major league All-Stars here, quickly broke the Matsui embargo by joking, "I have my own question about him. Does he know there are two teams in New York?"

How good can Matsui be in the U.S.? We'll find out but Ichiro already proved that a great Japanese player can be a great major leaguer by winning the batting title and the MVP in his rookie season in 2001. "I'm very honored to be part of the All-Star team," Ichiro said. "This is my first time back in two years and I'm honored to represent the Seattle Mariners."

A reporter asked Bonds about his reaction to Ichiro's success, saying that Bonds said during the tour two years ago that a Japanese position player never would be a star in the majors. Bonds seemed puzzled by the comment and insisted he never said anything of the kind. "That's not a comment I would ever make."

Which just goes to show you that Barry can't get go anywhere without the media stirring something up.

"We have all nationalities playing baseball. It's finally come full circle," Bonds said. "It's been a long time coming and everyone should enjoy it and be proud of it because this is what baseball is meant to be."

When the major league tour last came to Japan, Ichiro still was virtually unknown in the U.S. and there still were doubts whether a Japanese position player could succeed in the majors. That seems like a very long time ago now.

So do a lot of things. When baseball put the All-Star roster together, Howe still managed the Athletics. When Bonds boarded his flight for this trip, Dusty Baker still was his manager.

Then again, the present quickly becomes the past on this side of the dateline, where hotels celebrate Christmas the first week of November.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at cuffscaple@hotmail.com.