Monday night I was in our nation’s capital to experience baseball stateside for the first time seeing the Seibu Lions take on the Rakuten Golden Eagles two weeks ago in Japan. My hometown team–that would be the Washington Nationals–won the game 10-8, meaning I have now root, root, rooted for the home team successfully twice in a row.

This doesn’t happen for me very often.

Having been to Nats Park many times before it’s not as though I was seeing anything new this week, though seeing it for the first time in 2025, so soon after my Japanese excursion, I was struck by a few things.

One, the sheer size of the place. That would be the stadium itself, and its massive accompanying parking garage. I’d commented previously on how big Japan was, that the sheer size of everything was intimidating. Looking at it now I’d say big everything else, small ballpark. Belluna Dome felt like someone’s living room compared to Nationals Park. Whereas everything in Belluna Dome was efficiently laid out and compact, Nats Park was the opposite. We in D.C. may think it’s on a little parcel of land crammed up against a river, but please, this is the Wild West compared to the cities I visited in Japan.

They’ve got a lot more room and a lot more stuff, and though I can’t say I saw it all (security guards and velvet ropes and all that), I did appreciate visiting the spacious team stores and museum-like totems that adorn the various halls and passageways. A lot more high-end items for sale and a lot more high-end experiences to be had. That’s about it in a nutshell.

Me? Free tickets from my local library and a free kid’s meal for my son via a separate promotion. Because that’s how I roll.

When I’m in a country where I know the rules and can work the system.