The new event center features new audio-visual systems, modern carpet, and multi-colored LED overhead lights. John reinforced that the Riverside’s “impeccable service” still remains.  Members of various chambers of commerce from Washington to Cedar Rapids gathered to celebrate the new event center. Michelle Redlinger, executive director of Washington chamber of commerce, highlighted Riverside’s established reputation for high-quality concerts. She pointed out that Riverside patrons enjoy “singing their heart[s] out”.

Riverside’s contributions to the surrounding community are important to their philosophy. Redlinger reiterated that the “compassion… Riverside gives to [the] community” is integral to the Riverside, and the business owes gratitude back to their community. A director of the Washington Riverboat Foundation recalled the time they gave the YCMA a “$3.5 million grant for a new building”, and a veterans group $20,000 for renovations. John touted Riverside’s “mandatory employee volunteer program” that has won the Give Back Iowa challenge five of the past seven years, including 2022.

Redlinger also claimed that the Riverside’s events “attract national talent” to a rural community who wouldn’t experience it without the casino. Online casinos like BoomtownBingo contribute to the accessibility of such experiences beyond physical locations. They also provided lots of bonuses that they offer to new and old players, which you can navigate to on this site, casnobonussuomi.com. With a plethora of bonuses available, these online casinos, including ยูฟ่า777, not only amplify the allure of gaming but also cultivate a sense of inclusivity among players, regardless of their location or background.

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Brandon Gibbs, who toured with Poison on their stadium tour last year, previewed the venue’s upgraded sound system. Armed with custom acoustic guitars, he strummed and sang a heartfelt rendition of Motley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home”. At one point during the show, he brought up Shelby, his daughter, to sing a heartwarming duet. Gibbs also performed familiar favorites such as “Stuck in the Middle with You” and Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive”.

For older students looking for a weekend getaway, the Riverside Casino and Golf Course is a great place for it. The optimal time to visit is the spring, once their renowned golf course opens. You can find their website here.

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Home sweet home.

But what exactly do we think of when we say, “Home sweet home”? Do we think of the house we grew up in, our hometown, or our home state? Perhaps it depends on where we’re coming from, and how far we go.

This familiar phrase has an equivalent word in Japanese—the noun 故郷, “furusato.” As opposed to its English cousin, it’s not something you whisper to yourself as you get off at your home train station, or walk into your parents’ house. Instead, it’s an interpersonal communication thing—while I think it’s pretty rare for Americans to ask each other, “What’s home sweet home for you?” It is a more doable thing in Japan. “What do you call your furusato?” “Do you have a furusato?” “I’m going back to my furusato.” Though used like “home,” it comes with the strong nostalgia and sense of belonging in “home sweet home.”

“Furusato” is also a popular theme in Japanese literature, music, and poetry. A couple of my favorite short poems (called “tanka”) about this topic are written by the author and poet Tawara Machi, popular for her book Salad Anniversary.

It feels like collapsing an umbrella

As I change trains

And find myself at home (from Te no Hira no Taiyou)

We smile about nothing

Laugh about nothing

Nothing really matters

That’s why I love my home (from Salad Anniversary)
Particularly with the second poem, it’s because Tawara Machi uses “furusato” that you can quite freely surmise that the speaker is a loooong way from home—which does not come out as well in my (feeble) translation.

A staple in children’s songs is, appropriately named, “Furusato,” with these wistful lyrics:

“Chasing rabbits up that mountain

Fishing for little carp in that stream

Even now those dreams come back

About my home that I can’t forget

…

If my wishes could come true

I would be going home someday

Home is where the blue mountains are

Home is where the streams are clear”

The word “furusato” is not without a little controversy, however. There tends to be a strong association of a rural setting with the word, which some areas in Japan have used for commercialization. In northern Japan, for instance, you’ll see haphazard billboard signs advertising the area as someone’s “furusato,” also hoping to lead you towards some ma and pa merchandise in the souvenir shop below the signs.

Regardless, this popular image has led to some interesting studies—one survey asked native Tokyoites if they considered Tokyo to be their furusato. Nearly fifty percent said that they did not. This was in stark contrast to the answers from people coming out of Tokyo, approximately eighty percent of which answered that they did have a furusato. Of course, there are Tokyoites who will fiercely insist that there is no reason to not call Tokyo their furusato—however, the rurality of the word still remains.

Yet we’re also in a setting where it was common for country dwellers to leave their rural homes to find work in Tokyo, to the point where this emigration to Tokyo also has its own word—joukyou. In this almost three-hundred-year-long pursuit of economic promise in the capital, “furusato” has become smoked with these flavors of long-distance exile and nostalgia, together with a stalwart sense of identity and attachment to one’s homeland. This also seems to speak to the individuality of Japan’s different prefectures—there’s now even a Furusato Festival in Tokyo every year, where you can go and get the unique experience of what Japan’s different prefectures, or should we say furusato’s, can offer.

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