i didn't have this on my bingo card

as cool as it is to see hideo nomo back on cardboard this year, it was not too surprising given the popularity and interest in japanese born players over the last few years. shohei ohtani is the best in the game, and ichiro is going into the hall of fame so there is no better time to bring nomo back on to card checklists.

one related item that did surprise me, however, was finding a new dodger card of yu darvish this year.

that card is from the 2025 topps tokyo series set, and is a "stars of japan" insert, patterned off of the "stars of mlb" inserts in this year's flagship. rest assured padre (and cub) fans - darvish is featured in other uniforms in the insert set, too (but not the rangers as far as i can tell).

here's yoshinobu yamamoto's stars of mlb card from 2025 topps series 2

no cherry blossoms!

while i don't have any other darvish or nomo cards to show, i do have some recent and semi-recent dodger additions that are relevant to the post. i found this 2025 topps flagship collection of yamamoto

at the card show last month. his 2024 topps big league

and 2024 topps heritage high numbers

cards have been languishing in the scanned folder for a bit longer than that.

hopefully roki sasaki returns to the mound in the second half of the season. here are a couple of 2025 bowman inserts of his i added to a sportlots order recently - rookie of the year favorites die-cut

and rockstar rookies

i wonder if dime box nick would include those cards in his "getting the band back together" mini collection.

finally, here's an ohtani card that i've had for a few months now - his 2024 topps archives wrecking crew insert

given his status among players today, there are plenty of japanese dodger cards to chase, but i appreciate seeing darvish and wouldn't mind some others like kaz ishii or hiroki kuroda back in dodger blue for some new cards to pick up.