Hokuriku Shin from Tokyo to Kanazawa

Hi there,
I want to go to Kanazawa from Tokyo, with side trips to Nagano, Takayama, Fukui in between. I have exactly 7 days for this journey, with 4 additional days in Tokyo.
Was wondering which JR pass combo to best go with.
I'm thinking of taking adventage of the new JR East Nagano pass for 17000 Yen, and then add on the JR Hokuriku Area Pass for 5000 Yen. However, the JR East Nagano pass only goes to Joetsu Myoko Station on the Shinkansen while the Jr Hokuriku Area Pass doesn't start until the Kurobe Unazuki Onsen Station... They don't connect and there's only one station seperating them (Itoigawa). That's super annoying...

does anyone know how to by pass this? Can I just stay on the Shinkansen and then talk to a ticket agent? I don't want to be charged an extra 5 station when really, it's only between 1 station that's missing on my passes. Does anyone have experience in this?

Thank you!

I think theoretically you can just purchase the section between Joetsu-Myoko and Kurobe-Unazuki (approx 3500 yen but it may get complicated when you factor in train types), but in this case you are probably better off getting the 7-day nationwide pass as it is the only pass that covers all the sights you are interested in. Note that Takayama isn't covered by any of the Hokuriku area passes and adding it pretty much wipes out any savings over the nationwide pass. So 7-day pass for both simplicity and savings.