Panda-themed Adventure World express debuts in Osaka

OSAKA – A Kuroshio limited express train led by a car with a panda face debuted Saturday in Osaka to lure tourists to Adventure World, the giant wildlife theme park in Wakayama Prefecture where the popular animals are on show.

“I’m about to board the train and I’m excited,” said Wakayama Gov. Yoshinobu Nisaka, who attended the celebration ceremony at JR Tennoji Station in the city of Osaka.

The train’s interior is decked out in a panda theme that’s visible on its seats, doors and other areas, while the exteriors of some of the cars are covered with big images of the crowd-pleasing animals.

The special train, which will officially enter service on Sunday, is scheduled to run until around November 2019.

Adventure World is in the town of Shirahama and has five giant pandas in its animal collection, which includes sea life as well.

“The design is very exciting. I want to get on board,” said Kirara Yamamoto, a 7-year-old from Kyotanabe, Kyoto Prefecture, who was headed to the park with her mother.

LATEST BUSINESS STORIES

Airbnb 'still removing' unregistered lodgings in Japan a week after new P2P rental law came into ...

Airbnb Inc. said Thursday that it is still removing "thousands" of listings from its website for unlicensed private lodgings in Japan, as required under a new law that took effect last week to c...

U.S. tariff exemptions on steel and aluminum unlikely to placate Tokyo, experts say

While the U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday that it would grant tariff exceptions on steel products to firms in Japan and four other countries, the win may only be temporary as the po...

Okinawa monorail system to experiment with ticket gate Alipay payments for Chinese

An Okinawa monorail firm said Thursday it will experiment with accepting fare payments made by Alipay, a QR code-based platform run by China's Alibaba Group, at its gates to improve convenience ...