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 originally intended

Month-long Pan-Asia Trip, East and South-Asia Asia This was a major trip which took me months to plan. Because there were many key details to follow such as accommodation, train travel times and inter-city transport connectivities, I had to cancel and re-book many of my hotels and train tickets bookings repeatedly. And also because I was visiting many of the places for the first time, my only source of information was from the internet. Not much of this information was accurate and some of the inaccuracies nearly resulted in me missing my inter-city connections. Lesson learnt and note to self, take information from the internet with a big pinch of salt! But this was a wonderful trip. I am unlikely to be able to go on such a long trip with so many different destinations in one single vacation again anytime soon. Work schedule always dictates that I can go away for at most two weeks at any one time. Thus, I was really glad I managed to complete this trip. While I had to lug my work lapto

  "My discoveries in my travels shaped the person that I am ." -    Timothy Tan, tankstraveltales Railway Tracks, Atsumi, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan (2023)

In the midst of my Pan-Asia Trip 2023......  I am currently in the midst of my Pan-Asia Trip 2023. Today is Day 20 of my 27-day long journey across multiple countries and cities in Asia. As I sat in the cabin of my cruise ship writing this blog entry somewhere in the East China Sea heading towards the Taiwan Strait, I am still surprised that I am able to go on this trip despite my busy work schedule. If I had not pushed ahead with my travel plans, I will probably be back at home and office working. For the record, I still worked while traveling for the past 20 days. I took calls, answered work messages, replied to emails, conducted technical analyses and even managed to continue working on my next upcoming book. Thus, it had not been all fun and laughter for the past 20 days. I was heavily engaged in work and travelling at the same time. My point? Do not let your everyday affairs stopped you from traveling. Busy schedule? Try a work-around solution. Postpone the trip if you have to but

Currently in the midst of my 27-days Pan-Asia 2023 trip, I have been regularly recording my travel experiences on a daily basis. Due to patchy internet connectivity during large parts of my trip, I have mostly return to the "old ways" of recording events of my voyage, using the traditional pen-and-paper method.  As I am currently traveling with a bunch of my favourite fountain pens and journaling notebooks, this method has proved to be a reliable way for me to record and capture my daily adventures faithfully before fading memories fog out the details. In my current travel, I have been moving from city to city, lugging all my belongings with me. It was a tiring experience and one that is not really enjoyable. Nevertheless, I got to see and experience more things that I would otherwise be able to. In a day trip to Tsuruoka in Japan's Yamagata Prefecture, I managed to get a little off the beaten track and witnessed for myself the raw beauty of Japan's natural heritage a