TOKYO -- Shigeo Nagashima, the most popular player in Japanese baseball history, stood near the ballroom stage, speaking with a handful of people at Thursday night's welcome party for the major league All-Star tour. And then Ichiro walked into the ballroom and joined Nagashima. And then someone noticed Ichiro. And then someone else noticed Ichiro. And then someone else noticed Ichiro. And pretty soon dozens were swarming Ichiro and Nagashima, pulled near them by the gravity of celebrity.

Within a minute, layers upon layers of fans surrounded them, holding up digital cameras and wrapping themselves around the two as surely as the twine wrapped around the solid core of a baseball.

	Ichiro is back to play in Japan for the first time since leaving the Orix Blue Wave.

Which is fitting because in a very real way, the two are an important core of Japanese baseball.

Nagashima, the former Giants manager and ex-teammate of Sadaharu Oh, remains the most popular player in Japanese history, a beloved star from an era when Japanese ballplayers stayed in Japan. And Ichiro, of course, has become one of the game's most popular players and an icon of Japanese baseball, a player with billboards in Seattle and Japan, a man with his own museum (run by his father in his hometown).

The man who left Japan to become the first Japanese position player in major league history is returning this week as an even bigger star than when he left. Before, he was the extremely popular batting champ for the Orix Blue Wave. Now he is an international star and proof that Japanese players can excel in the major leagues.

"He's a happening in this country," said Ichiro's agent, Tony Attanasio. "He's a persona.''

Ichiro said he is looking forward to the tour and won't fully know his emotions for his return until he starts playing and seeing the fans' reaction. That will have to wait an extra day because he will not play in Saturday's opening game against the Yomuiri Giants due to a Little League obligation in his hometown of Nagoya. He will play the remaining seven games of the tour after that.

Asked to compare his feelings from the flight he took to the U.S. two years ago and his return flight here for the All-Star tour, Ichiro joked that when he first arrived in Seattle, it was early in the morning and he thought he would really be tired with an entire day stretching before him. When he returned to Japan on Tuesday, he arrived late in the afternoon and thought, "This is great. I can eat and go to bed pretty soon and jet lag won't bother me."

Ichiro laughed as he said it but the tale was both literally and metaphorically true. Traveling from the U.S. to Japan is the easier route to handle because of the departure and arrival times. That was especially true for Ichiro, who not only arrived in America early in the morning, but with a world of pressure on his shoulder and a demanding season ahead of him as the first Japanese position player.

"Two years ago, of course, I was worried about how I was going to do," he said through his translator. "Being a rookie with no experience playing in the majors, there were apprehensions. But this time, coming back on the plane, I was coming back as a major leaguer. All I had to do was look forward to playing here, with no apprehensions."

Ichiro has played for Japan before in this bi-annual series but it is clear that being here as a major leaguer is very important to him. He stressed he is honored to be representing the Mariners and being on the major league team several times during a press conference Wednesday night and again after a workout Friday morning.

And he showed that he has assimilated well into the majors during Wednesday's press conference. Asked a question by a Japanese reporter, he began responding in Japanese before Jason Giambi yelled at him to stop. "Hey, you've got to speak English. You're a big leaguer.''

Ichiro's response: "Shut up, dude."

On the other hand, Ichiro is staying apart from the team on the tour (and like Barry Bonds, has his own p.r. people here). Which is understandable given his enormous popularity in Japan. The only thing more frightening than getting between Ichiro and the charging army of photographers when he gave a brief interview to the Japanese reporters Friday would have been getting between U.S. sportswriters and the buffet table at Sizzler.

Attanasio said fans are so out of control that Ichiro can only eat in restaurants that have a private room or are closed to the public. And Ted Heid, the Mariners' Pacific Rim scouting director, recalled how Ichiro was driving one day and had to pull over at a rest stop to go to the bathroom. When he did, several motorists recognized him and followed him into the restroom to watch him go about his business.

Compared to that kind of pressure, becoming the first Japanese position player in the majors must have been a breeze.

Ichiro's major league success has been both good and bad for Japanese baseball. It provided a tremendous source of pride for fans here but it also lessened interest in the Japan League while showing players they could be successful in the majors as well if they left. Hideki Matsui, the Yomuiri Giants slugger who is almost as popular as Ichiro, has already announced he will sign with a major league team this winter, a tremendous blow to the league.

"I've been away for two years so I can't really answer (what effect I've had) first hand, but I hope that the younger generation who have seen me play on television has increased their desire to play baseball," Ichiro said. "Hopefully in that way I've had a good effect on Japanese baseball."

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