Quaint American Customs for the new Japanese Immigrant.

For new Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka...

Dice-K earns stripes: Team-building begins - Boston Red Sox - BostonHerald.com:

"See, you gotta make my bunk. See, we’re in Italy. The guy on the top bunk has gotta make the guy on the bottom’s bed all the time. It’s in the regulations. If we were in Germany, I would have to make yours. But we’re in Italy, so you’ve gotta make mine. It’s regulations.’- John Candy, as Dewey Oxburger, exploiting the ignorance of a fellow soldier in “Stripes”

Did you see him carrying my equipment bag? I told him its an American custom.’ - Jason Varitek, explaining why Daisuke Matsuzaka lugged the catchers equipment onto the field yesterday at spring training.

...Matsuzaka is on his way, it seems. After all, the ultimate goal is to forget that he is Japanese at all. That is why, with the help of interpreter Sachiyo Sekiguchi, Varitek informed Matsuzaka yesterday morning that the rookie had to carry the veteran catcher’s equipment. Through Sekiguchi, Varitek “made sure that (Matsuzaka) knew I was joking,” and so a smiling Matsuzaka happily played along.

In turn, Varitek carried the glove and spikes of his new batterymate onto the sun-baked practice fields."