Some about transports

Truth is that the original idea of this trip was to reach Japan by crossing the whole of Siberia and then taking a ferry from Vladivostok to Japan (it takes 2 days):
Port of Fushiki, apparently:
http://ease.com/~randyj/rjjapanx.htm#vlad


at the West coast just accross the land from Tokyo.

As the Transsiberian railway is a well known route and frequently used, that's no problem so.

This first part of the trip is the one that I've got clearer in mind, because I know what I want to visit in Russia and then in Japan (then I will take a ferry to South Korea, but I don't know much about Korea yet).


The very first step is getting to Russia.
I thought for some time to do this by train from my hometown (Bilbao, near the French border of Spain):
Bilbao > Paris > Berlin > Warsow > Minsk > Moscow (not strictly this route, but I think it's the most likely).
But being Europe this could make the trip more expensive from the start (and given the long way ahead this doesn't seem practical); trains aren't especially cheap here.
On the other hand, this could give me the chance to experience the land journey to the Far East.

Then I thought about flying to Kaunas (Lithuania), where I have been before, and where there are cheap flights to, Russia being easily reachable from here.

I don't consider visiting Saint Petersburg on this trip, that could be done at any other time.

However, since I haven't been to Poland or Belarus, starting this trip visiting those two appears as an attractive alternative to warm up before the real journey.

Once in Russia I will spend some days in Moscow (I've got friends there) and take the Transsiberian from there.

Some stops on this railway are worth a visit, notably Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Irkutsk.
(Notice that the full railtrip without stops lasts 9 days in a row).