ROUTES — 3 days, 2 nights
The distance you'd have to return from in a single night, you cross in two. Take the ferry to an island, string your way west along the coast, and head south — the opposite of usual. Arrive on day one, use all of day two, and come home on day three. The length of a long weekend with no need to rush.
Load the car onto a ferry and cross to an island of the Seto Inland Sea. A place unconnected by bridge is, for that alone, still far away. On Shodoshima: the village of olives and soy sauce, the ravine of Kankakei, a path of sand that appears only at low tide. The trip begins the moment you board. With two nights, you can spend time across the sea.
From Wakasa to Tango, work your way down the coast road, staying as you go. Don't fix the next place to sleep. In a boathouse town after the fishing, or a harbor where quiet returns at dusk, stay another night if you like it. Not connecting dots, but tracing the coastline itself over three days.
Northern lakes and the Sea of Japan aren't the only destinations. With two nights, you can head down to the south of the Kii Peninsula. Drive the coast where the Kuroshio Current breaks and sleep in a harbor town with a hot spring. Just reverse your usual direction and the same Kansai looks entirely different.
It starts by choosing your dates and checking availability.