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【June 2026 Trip Plan】A Long Drive from Tokyo Through Hokuriku and the San'in Coast to Kobe
I've put together a route for a long driving trip — leaving Tokyo, passing through Takasaki and Nagano, heading into Hokuriku along the Sea of Japan coast, then looping west through San'in and east through San'yo before stopping at my family home in Kobe and returning to Tokyo.
Week One: Heading toward Hokuriku
When driving to Hokuriku from Tokyo, the two main options are going through Niigata or through Nagano. Since I visited Niigata Prefecture back in April, this time I'll take the Nagano route.
I'm planning to leave after work on a weekday, so the first stop will be Takasaki in Gunma Prefecture. The following day I'll head to Nagano City, then spend the weekend exploring and shooting around Toyama and Kanazawa.
Week Two: West Along the San'in Coast
From Kanazawa I'll continue west through Fukui City, Echizen-Ono, and Obama — following the Sea of Japan coastline. Passing through the Kinosaki Onsen area in Hyogo Prefecture, I'll continue west along the San'in coast through Tottori and into Shimane.
I've traveled through a lot of cities across Japan by now, but Hamada and Masuda in western Shimane are places I've never been. Izumo draws its share of visitors, but this western part of Shimane is genuinely hard to reach from Tokyo, which makes me curious about what these towns look like. Getting there is half the challenge, and that's part of what makes it interesting.
Week Three: Finishing the Loop
From San'in I'll cross into Yamaguchi Prefecture. Hagi is another city I've never visited — it was the seat of the Choshu Domain during the Edo period, and I've long heard it's a beautiful castle town. I've been wanting to go for years, so this feels like the moment.
Shimonoseki was on my list too, but the schedule didn't work out. Instead I'll prioritize Hofu or Shunan — two cities I've passed through without ever stopping. From there I'll turn east along the San'yo coast, through Hiroshima. Since Okayama wasn't that long ago, I'll skip it this time and head straight to Kobe. It'll be a long day of driving, but I'm hoping to use the weekend effectively and make it back to Tokyo.
Route Map
I've built a route planner — a tool where you can register waypoints and visualize the full route on a map. I used it to plan the stops for this trip. You can check the route map at the link below.
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