Can You Drift at Hadashi Tengoku Circuit? Yamaguchi Guide (2026)

Yes to watching, and a qualified yes to driving. Hadashi Tengoku Circuit (Yamaguchi), in the hills of Shunan, has three drift events left in 2026: the Yamaguchi-ichi Ketteisen on 18 October, the Hadashi Tengoku Cup final on 22 November and D1 NEXT West Rd.2 on 6 December, with ¥500 general admission at its own events. Driving takes a phone call in Japanese, because the circuit has no website and publishes no running fee. Everything here was checked on 1 October 2026.

Hadashi tengoku (はだし天国) means “barefoot heaven”. It is a small, drift-focused circuit, and our Chugoku region guide covers how it fits next to Bihoku and Nakayama. This page goes deeper on the dates, the entry rules and the last 2.7 km.

What drift events can you watch in 2026?

The circuit runs its own series and hosts one D1 regional round. Its Instagram account is the only live source, and it posts often.

Yamaguchi-ichi means “number one in Yamaguchi”. It is a local title fight now in its 17th running. The circuit has named the judges: Ken Nomura (野村謙), whom it calls a legend of drifting, judges it for the first time, alongside 岩井てるよし, a long-serving judge of this event, with 中村健一 as MC. There is also a team class for three or more cars.

For scale, the Cup’s Rd.2 on 23 August drew 66 cars and 285 people through the gate, by the circuit’s own count. Busy for a local day, but not a crush.

Can you drive at Hadashi Tengoku?

Not at the two October and November events: both were already full by late September. That leaves two routes.

Ordinary practice days. The circuit publishes no running fee and no calendar of open days anywhere current. Its old website sat on a free homepage service whose homepage function closed on 31 March 2020, and nothing replaced it. Online directories list a phone number, 0833-91-3789, and that is the only way to ask. There is no booking form, no email address and no English page.

D1 NEXT West Rd.2 on 6 December. This is a real competition, not a track day. Read our D1 NEXT series explainer first. The West regulations ask for:

The forms and notices run through Japanese, including LINE messages, and the organiser is D-STAGE, not the circuit. If you have never driven a Japanese grassroots event, our guide on entering a Japanese drift day as a foreigner explains the usual paperwork.

Where is the circuit, and how do you get there without a car?

The address is 28-1 Higuchi, Shunan, Yamaguchi (〒745-0622). It sits in the hills of the old Kumage district, about 6.4 km by road from Kumage IC on the Sanyo Expressway. If you drive, that is your exit.

Without a car, the route is Shinkansen to Tokuyama, then the local JR Gantoku Line to Takamizu (高水). We measured the last leg on OpenStreetMap routing.

The Sunday timetable at Takamizu is the same as the weekday one. The gap matters: miss the 08:39 and the next train is 11:45, which loses you the morning runs. Because the station is unstaffed, there is nobody there to call a cab for you, and a taxi out here is another Japanese phone call. Visitors also describe the final climb as a narrow mountain road, so a taxi from the station is the comfortable choice, not a luxury.

Is it worth the trip from Hiroshima or Fukuoka?

If you are already in western Japan between October and December, yes. Three Sunday events fall within eight weeks, and a ¥500 gate keeps the day cheap once you are there. Pair it with Bihoku, where the D1 NEXT West series opened on 9 August (see the Rd.1 results).

For all three dates alongside every other round in Japan, use the drift calendar. The Hadashi Tengoku entry in our tracks directory keeps the contact details in one place.