The Travel Wire: best travel reads #37

The Travel Wire is a weekly newsletter of the best travel reads from around the web, edited by James Clark from Nomadic Notes.

Travel reads

• Japan's unstaffed train stations getting rural revival on track [Kyodo News]

"With rural Japan experiencing severe depopulation, some unstaffed train stations and vacant homes are being transformed into places for tourists to stay -- and it is proving a success."

• When travel people take the blue pill [Marklands]

"Why we choose an alternative, Barbie-style world over the real one."

• I travelled the length and breadth of Luxembourg by bus – and it didn’t cost me a penny [The Guardian]

• Monaco's new €2bn neighbourhood rising out of the sea (archive) [BBC Travel]

• Through a love of note-taking, José Naranja documents his travels one tiny detail at a time [Colossal]

• In the footsteps of Saigon’s Quiet American, 70 years on (archive) [SCMP]

"Unearthing the Vietnamese city that the English author knew and described in The Quiet American, which turns 70 this year."

• Five countries. One safari… Are cross-border trips the future of wildlife tourism in Africa? [Adventure]

• The curious case of South Ossetia (login required) [Escape Artist]

"A country in limbo fights to find its true identity."

• Germany’s Camino trek rivals Spain’s famous pilgrimage—and is a lot less crowded [National Geographic]

"The Camino de Santiago is more than just one 500-mile route through Spain. Here’s why you should consider hiking the German section of trails."

• The underrated region where Italian lifestyle meets Swiss efficiency (archive) [Traveller]

• 2 Akita dog siblings appointed as airport directors in north Japan [Mainichi]

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James Clark (@nomadicnotes)