TANKS Travel Tales - a travelogue.......

Japan, Niigata and Yamagata Prefectures, Kairi Joyful Train Ride This blog post describes my experiences taking a tourist train for the first time. The trip was in August 2023 when I traveled to Niigata Prefecture for the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival. A sign in Car No 3 of the Kairi Train, Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan (2023) ****************** Watching train documentaries on Japan's NHK World Channel, I had always wondered what it would be like to experience a ride in one of Japan's so-called tourist trains. The opportunity to actually ride on one presented itself when I visited Niigata Prefecture in August 2023 to attend the Nagaoka annual Fireworks Festival. I extended my stay in Niigata by an extra day and night so that I can actually catch a ride on the Kairi Tourist Train. The icing on the cake was that my 7-day Japan Rail Pass allowed me to ride on the Kairi in Car 1 without any additional charges. I just need to make a reservation in advance. I orig...

Wishlist 2024, Asia 2023 signals the resumption of leisure travel as the world cautiously but resolutely return to interconnectivity from the pandemic years of 2020, 2021 and to some extent, 2022. Personally, I resumed leisure travel in 2022 with regional trips to Bali, Cameron Highlands, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Siem Reap. I also took two cruise trips, with port calls to Penang and Phuket. In 2023, I ventured a little further from the region, taking vacation trips to Japan and China (Hong Kong). Other regional trips include trips to Malaysia and Vietnam. I was glad that my trips in 2023 allowed me to fulfil a few personal travel bucket list items including watching the Nagaoka Hanami (Fireworks) Festival, sailing from Yokohama to Singapore and enjoying the experience of my first ever joyride on a tourist train, the Kairi  which travels between the Japanese cities of Niigata and Sakata. I also got to admire the majestic views of Sakurajima in-person when I was in Kagoshima in ...