Although there are Iowa State students who enjoy watching the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, there is one student who has a special connection to the Olympics.

Ryoichi “Rio” Yanagisawa, sophomore in aerospace engineering, is the lone student at ISU who hails from Nagano, which, according to www.lycos, has a population of about 350,000 citizens.

Although Yanagisawa said he never really favored Nagano before it became a household name, he is pleased with all the positive press his hometown has been receiving.

“I had never loved Nagano [very] much as it is a rather rural community,” Yanagisawa said. “However, I recently realized that Nagano is a very beautiful place with lots of mountains and snow. Though I have seen many [images] of Nagano on TV lately, I can hardly believe that I’m from such a wonderful place.”

Yanagisawa said that in the past he has preferred watching the Summer Olympics, but has found himself becoming a fan of this year’s Games.

“Weirdly enough, I’ve spent a lot of time watching this Olympics, and I really like it,” he said. “I kind of had a hard time studying for exams last week because the Olympics seemed to be more important to me.”

Yanagisawa said he is looking forward to watching figure skating, and is glad the United States’ Women’s Hockey team won the gold.

As for a controversial issues surrounding the Olympics, the removal and subsequent return of Canadian snowboarder Ross Robagliati’s gold medal after he tested positive for marijuana use, Yanagisawa is decidedly undecided.

“I don’t really care about this issue, partly because I don’t really know him, and partly because I don’t know how marijuana affects the athlete,” he said, adding that he despises smoking in all forms.

“But, if my favorite athlete did it [smoked marijuana], I would be pretty much upset,” he said.

Yanagisawa, who decided to attend ISU after briefly living in Madison,Wis., last returned to Nagano a few months ago during holiday break, shortly before the Games commenced. He commented that at that time, the citizens of Nagano were concerned because Japan was experiencing an unusually warm winter.

“We were very worried about the Olympics, because there was not enough snow at that time, and we are having a very [warm] winter this year,” Yanagisawa said, adding that Japan got its due amount of snow just in time for the Olympic Games.

Yanagisawa said many Nagano citizens are ecstatic about the attention their city has been receiving.

“People in Nagano City are very much excited and very happy about the Olympics, as there are so many foreign visitors and great athletes coming over for the event,” Yanagisawa said.

He added that Nagano looks a lot like an international city.

“I’m happy about that,” Yanagisawa said.

However, Yanagisawa added there are some residents of Nagano who are less than pleased that the Winter Games are in their city.

“I don’t really know how other residents of Nagano Province feel about the Olympics,” Yanagisawa said. He said the life in the province section of Nagano is increasingly more high-tech and fast-paced, in order to catch up with the glitz and hype of the Olympics.

Yanagisawa said a Super Express train called “Shinkansen” has come to the province, along with several new highways and shopping malls.

“People should be happy about [the changes], but we can’t ignore the others who are suffering from it,” he said.

“Obviously, some [parts] of Nagano province [are] getting more convenient to live, but there are also some places that became less convenient to live.”

Yanagisawa said he is also concerned about the costs his hometown has spent and will end up spending on the Olympics.

“Nagano had spent too, too, too much money for getting ready for the Olympics,” he said. “I doubt that they can get all the money back just from the Olympics.”