Cubs forming 'kizuna' in Tokyo: Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki throw elaborate welcome party

TOKYO — Cubs players arrived at the Kanda Myoujin Shrine on Thursday night sporting traditional happi coats. Their wives and girlfriends had wrapped themselves in kimonos. And the festivities began.

“It makes me very happy seeing my teammates, especially at the party [Thursday] take a lot of interest in Japanese culture and just enjoy the whole day,” left-hander Shota Imanaga said through an interpreter, after he and Seiya Suzuki hosted a welcome party for the team.

The night included a purification ritual as they entered the shrine, the breaking down of a whole tuna, and a samurai performance.

“As much as anything, it was ‘kizuna,’ which is a Japanese word for bond,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And that started for our team last night with a great party, and being able to be together. This is the start of a journey for our team.”

The team will bond through baseball in the coming days, starting with an exhibition game Saturday afternoon Tokyo time. But Thursday night was their time to come together through a shared cultural experience, with their Japanese teammates serving as their guides.

Counsell joked that it was “scary for a second” watching players cut into the tuna.

“I didn’t think the knife would be that big,” center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said. “I thought my form was pretty decent, though. … Didn't make it all the way through the first cut, but I definitely think I did better than Porter [Hodge]. And that's all that matters.”

Corner infielder Justin Turner didn’t get to slice into the tuna — “I was going to dice that thing up,” he lamented – but he did jump in on the turntables as a DJ.

“Shota and Seiya put on an awesome event,” Turner said. “You could just see how proud they were of showcasing their country and where they from, and they put on quite a show. It was great food and music and some traditional stuff that we hadn't ever seen before.”

Turner, who has played in 86 playoff games in his career and won the 2020 World Series with the Dodgers, knows what kind of bond can help give a team an edge.

“I've been on some teams that everyone was really cool and close and nice, but it just didn't translate to winning,” he said, emphasizing the importance of building the kind of relationships that breed accountability. “It's about getting to know each other, trusting every single guy in that room, knowing that there's one goal in mind every single night, and that's to win a baseball game. So trips like this can certainly kick start that.”

Dropped into an unfamiliar country where they don’t speak the language, Imanaga and Suzuki’s teammates also got a tiny taste of what they navigated when they transitioned to Major League Baseball.

“I definitely gained a little more perspective,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I don't think I gave them enough credit at first, or even really thought about how hard it actually is. But that's the fun part about it, for me, is — and we're only here for a much smaller sample size — but having to struggle a bit is fun, and learning along the way.”