For the benefit of anyone who subscribes to this newsgroup, here a few 
interesting facts about Japanese railways:-

The Seikan undersea railway tunnel linking Honshu with Hokkaido, with a 
length of 53.8 kilometres (23.3 kms under the seabed), is by far the longest 
railway tunnel in the world and at a depth of 240 metres below sea level, it 
is also the world's lowest railway. There are two stations located inside 
the tunnel, one housing a museum.

The San-yo Shinkansen line from Okayama to Hakata is 398 km long. There are 
111 tunnels totalling 222 km which represent 56% of the route.

Nemuro station in Hokkaido is the farest east you can travel by train in 
Asia.

Gerry