"Hideki Matsui turned the corner, stepped into the A's clubhouse and was greeted with dozens of people, all waiting for him, and dead silence.

"I sensed everyone staring at me," Matsui said through his translator, Roger Kahlon. "It was kind of awkward. I didn't know if I looked weird or did something."

As the A's new designated hitter was directed to his locker, he spotted the 6-foot inflatable Godzilla doll dressed in a Matsui jersey. Matsui threw back his head and laughed, and the tension vanished.

"To be welcomed in this manner is a pleasure, but Godzilla is the last character I ever thought I'd be welcomed by," Matsui said with a smile. "I was really surprised. I wondered when they told me to come by at 8:30 a.m. I didn't understand, but now I clearly know why."

Pitcher Dallas Braden, the mastermind behind the Godzilla doll, was almost as popular as Matsui on Sunday. Braden regaled the Japanese media in a media session, explaining his welcome gesture for Matsui and also discussing his love of Japan; he'd enjoyed the A's trip there in 2008, he went back during the offseason - and he even bought a heated Japanese toilet and had it shipped back home."