The news out here is going absolutely nut-zo. No, they're not going crazy over the coalition forces taking down the Hussein statue in Baghdad (although there is considerable coverage on that). No, they're not going crazy over the SARS thing (because it hasn't reached Japan yet). They're all going crazy over Hideki Matsui's first homerun of the regular season... a grandslam homerun in New York's first home game. In terms of air time, the homerun is taking a lot more time than the Iraqi war and SARS virus epidemic combined.
How crazy is the Japanese media going? Not only do they have footage of New York's reaction to the homerun, not only do they have interviews with some of his junior high classmates, not only did they ask Ichiro and Shinjo what they thought of the homerun, but some are now saying that Matsui looks like a "samurai" out there. "It looks like he has the heart of Miyamoto Musashi (a legendary samurai in Japanese history)." What this is supposed to mean, I'm not quite sure... but to put it in perspective, it would be like seeing a quarterback march his teammates down the field on a drive for a touchdown, and then saying that the quarterback reminds me a lot of George Washington going down the Delaware River.
CRAZY!