How to Get to Ebisu Circuit from Tokyo: Car, Train, Bus & Taxi (2026)

Ebisu Circuit sits inside Tohoku Safari Park at 1 Sawamatsukura, Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, about 230 km north of Tokyo. The realistic ways in, checked on the official pages on 4 September 2026: drive it in about 3.5 hours (Tohoku Expressway to Nihonmatsu IC, ¥5,740 toll, then 15 minutes), or take the Shinkansen to Koriyama and a local train to JR Nihonmatsu Station (about 1 h 54 min, from ¥8,360) and finish with a 20-minute taxi or the ¥500 Fukushima Kotsu bus. This page is only about getting there; the courses, 2026 day-pass prices and rental operators are in our full Ebisu Circuit guide.

Which way in? The four routes compared

Driving from Tokyo: the Tohoku Expressway and the GPS trap

NEXCO East’s planner puts Kawaguchi JCT to Nihonmatsu IC at 231.2 km, 2 hours 15 minutes and ¥5,740 for a regular car at the standard rate, all on the E4 Tohoku Expressway. Add the crawl out of central Tokyo and the 15 minutes from the interchange and you land on the 3.5 hours the circuit itself quotes.

The last 15 minutes are where phones lie. Ebisu’s official page says it plainly: set your satnav to Tohoku Safari Park, because the circuit is inside the park’s grounds. The park’s own directions from Nihonmatsu IC: left at the third traffic light, 5–6 minutes, left at the T-junction, follow the road. Type 福島県二本松市沢松倉1番地 if your app does not know the park.

The gate opens at 8:30 (9:00 from December to March), running is 9:00–16:00, and the official price list has no parking charge for a normal day. Event days differ: the D1 Grand Prix rounds on 26–27 September 2026 charge ¥1,000 per car per day, sold only at the entrance. Nihonmatsu is the last town before the hill, so fuel up there.

By train: Tokyo to Nihonmatsu Station in under two hours

Yamabiko departures run from 06:04 to 21:24 out of Tokyo. Buy Tokyo to Nihonmatsu as one journey: the ¥8,360 through fare is ¥4,620 base plus ¥3,740 Shinkansen surcharge. Ebisu’s own bus sheet calls the trip “about 90 minutes plus about 40 minutes” — the extra is the wait for the local at Koriyama, so check the connection before you pick a Shinkansen. Routing via Fukushima Station costs ¥9,240 and takes 2 h 21 min; only do it if you are sleeping in Fukushima city.

The last 20 minutes: taxi, route bus or matsuri shuttle

This stretch decides whether you see the 9:00 start or wander in at noon. Three ways up the hill, in order of certainty.

Taxi. Ebisu’s page says about 20 minutes from JR Nihonmatsu Station. The Nihonmatsu City Tourism Federation lists two companies: Showa Taxi (0243-22-1155; 41 vehicles including seven nine-seat jumbos, useful if four of you have helmet bags) and Maruya Kotsu Taxi (0243-22-2744). Neither publishes a fare for the run, neither site offers English, and both book by phone. The circuit’s bus sheet tells arrivals to go straight to the Higashi (East) course office.

Route bus. Here is the line older English guides — ours included — missed. Fukushima Kotsu line 16-1, Shiozawa Onsen via Gakko, leaves the Nihonmatsu-eki-iriguchi stop, a 3-minute walk from the station, and reaches Safari Park-mae, the park entrance, 28 minutes later for ¥500. The operator’s stop page, Ebisu’s bus sheet and the Safari Park’s access page all print it.

Two timetables exist, 11 March – 9 December and 10 December – 10 March, and a few runs differ, so check the stop page for your date. No buses run on 1–2 January. The Fukushima Kotsu Nihonmatsu depot is 0243-23-0123, Japanese only. The walk from the park entrance to the circuit office is not stated on any official page — treat it as TBC and leave margin.

Matsuri shuttle. For the 9–10 May 2026 Spring Matsuri, Ebisu posted a bilingual bus sheet on 2 May, one week ahead. Alongside the route bus it added a Showa Taxi shuttle from the station forecourt to the circuit and on to Dake Onsen: 8:40, 11:15 and 14:15 out, reaching the circuit 28 minutes later; 9:52, 12:50 and 16:00 back from the circuit. ¥500 one way for adults, ¥250 for children, cash; inquiries to the Nihonmatsu Tourism Association on 0243-24-7702. As of 4 September 2026 the matsuri page still carries only the spring sheet, with nothing posted for 14–15 November, and the D1 Grand Prix pages list no shuttle at all. The weekend itself is covered in our first-timer’s guide to the Ebisu Drift Matsuri, and the entry windows in every 2026 matsuri date and deadline.

So the honest picture: the route bus only fits a weekend, the shuttle exists only on matsuri weekends and appears days before, and the taxi that covers everything else is a Japanese phone call with no published price and no guarantee of a car waiting for the trip back down.

Flying in: Fukushima Airport and Sendai Airport

Fukushima Airport has flights from Osaka (Itami) and Sapporo, plus a Taiwan service on Tuesdays and Fridays. Fukushima Kotsu’s limousine bus meets the flights and reaches JR Koriyama Station in about 40 minutes for ¥1,200: six buses a day each way, no reservation, contactless and IC cards accepted on board. From Koriyama it is the 22-minute local to Nihonmatsu, or the rental-car desk.

Sendai Airport has more international flights and is workable: the Sendai Airport Access Line to Sendai is ¥680, and local trains via Natori and Fukushima put you at Nihonmatsu Station in about 2 h 10 min for ¥2,210 on the Ekitan search for 4 September 2026. Landing at Haneda or Narita, ignore both and take the Shinkansen from Tokyo.

Rental cars, winter roads and where to sleep

The Nihonmatsu City Tourism Federation states there are no rental-car branches near Nihonmatsu Station. Collect at Koriyama instead: Toyota Rent a Car’s Koriyama Shinkansen-guchi store is about a 7-minute walk from the station, open 8:00–20:00 every day of the year (024-939-0100), and Ebisu’s own area map puts the circuit about 50 minutes from there, 40 from Fukushima Station and 15 from Nihonmatsu Station.

Winter changes three things. Ebisu runs winter hours and prices from 1 December to 31 March: gate at 9:00, office closing 16:30. Toyota’s two Fukushima rental operators fit studless tyres as standard across the same dates, at a season rate, so you do not have to ask. And Fukushima Kotsu switches to its 10 December – 10 March timetable and stops entirely on 1–2 January.

For the night before, the same area map is the guide: Dake Onsen is about 10 minutes from the circuit and on the matsuri shuttle; Nihonmatsu Station is 15 minutes with a couple of hotels; Koriyama and Fukushima have the choice.

Which date you pick changes the answer more than which route — D1GP on 26–27 September, EDS Rd.3 on 1 and 3 November and the Autumn Matsuri on 14–15 November each fill the hill differently, and our Japan drift calendar carries every Ebisu date with its entry deadline.