A new proposal is on the way. Which means it will soon be possible to travel the 6,000 miles between London and Tokyo completely by train.
The Japanese government is hoping to extend the Trans-Siberian Railway, making it possible for Brits to get all the way to their buzzing capital by rail.
At the moment the route stops at Vladivostok in Russia, but the new plan would see the railway line continue on to Khabarovsk.
A four-mile long bridge or tunnel would link the city to the Russian Pacific Island of Sakhalin then a 26-mile tunnel would be built to connect it to Hokkaido in the north of Japan.
The Kremlin is keen to implement the plans to develop Russia's Far East which lags behind the rest of the country economically.
"The ventures are seen as leading to a revival of not only commercial traffic between the two countries, but also to increased tourism and other human contacts," reported the Siberian Times.
It's possible that the plans will be scuppered by tensions between the two nations over the Kuril Islands since WW2 – with both claiming the four islands as their own.
The two sides never signed a peace treaty ending the war over the territorial dispute.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to visit Japan in December, but The Trans-Siberian route, which turns 100 years old this year, currently takes seven days to complete.
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