Japan is going viral for a $2.50 ice cream sandwich shaped like the Tokyo Dome and America needs to wake up before it’s too late

Enough is enough. I am not going to sit here and tell you Japan is beating us at our own sport and our own ballpark food culture. I refuse. What I am going to tell you is that America is sleeping and someone needs to sound the alarm because this is getting embarrassing.

It is called Tokyo Dome Monaka Ice Cream. It is shaped like the Tokyo Dome. It has a mochi wafer shell. It comes in chocolate and vanilla. It costs two dollars and fifty cents.

Two dollars and fifty cents.

A freelance photographer named Joshua Mellin posted a photo of the dessert they are serving at the Tokyo Dome during the World Baseball Classic and it went viral worldwide. He also sent me an email demanding $15,000 for using his photo which he posted on Twitter (X).

I had Joshua Mellin’s tweet embedded in this article showing the ice cream sandwich but now that he wants to sue me for $15,000 for sharing it, with a direct link back to his Twitter account where again, he posted the photo, I’ll just screen shot the tweet.

You can search this dude and find the pictures yourself.

The Tokyo Dome Monaka Ice Cream Sandwich >>

We are out here charging nine dollars for a soggy chocolate chip cookie sandwich that disintegrates before you get back to your seat and Japan is serving a dome-shaped mochi ice cream creation for less than a movie theater candy bar. This is not acceptable. This is a call to action.

America invented baseball. We gave the world this sport. We built the cathedrals. We immortalized peanuts and Cracker Jack in song. And now we cannot put together a two dollar ice cream sandwich worth going viral for?

At a World Baseball Classic that we are hosting half of? In Houston?

Japan is 3-0 in pool play. They have Ohtani. They have the best stadium food culture on the planet. Bento boxes, karage, yakisoba, and now a dome-shaped mochi ice cream sandwich for two fifty. Meanwhile we are out here acting like the miniature helmet with a scoop of soft serve is some kind of achievement.

Something has to give. I do not know what the answer is. I do not know how you fix it.

What I do know is that America invented baseball. We gave the world this sport. We built the cathedrals. We immortalized peanuts and Cracker Jack in song. Now we cannot put together a two dollar ice cream sandwich worth going viral for? At a World Baseball Classic that we are hosting half of? In Houston?

Team USA vs Mexico tonight is the game the World Baseball Classic was made for

I have written too many of these articles during this tournament. Too many times have I had to report on something happening with Japan or at the Tokyo Dome that makes our ballpark experience look lazy by comparison. We need to fix this. Not because Japan is better. They are not better. We invented this. We just got complacent.

Get it together, America. The Tokyo Dome is not going to out-ice-cream us forever.

Complete Schedule: 2026 World Baseball Classic

Join The Chase