There comes a time in every Gaijin's life when you realize what a great place Japan is for its fine eating and drinking establishments. And then you say to yourself, if only I could share my wisdom with others...

Such an enlightenment came to me one day, after having lived in Nagoya for about a year. I thought, there sure are lots of great places, and some not so great places, and I wish others could benefit from my experience.

And thus RedLanternGuide.com was born. This is a forum where Gaijins from all over this great land can converge and, hopefully, learn about the most excellent bars Japan has to offer.

I am a Gaijin, as I'm assuming you are. We Gaijins have discerning tastes, values, likes, and dislikes. RedLanternGuide.com attempts to go one step further than any Japanese-run reviews site, in that we will try to frankly review bars and izakayas from the point of view of the average Gaijin. We're Gaijins, and we like good Japanese food, and especially, good Japanese drink! We don't like getting ripped off! I hope that this site can act as a venue for my discerning team of reviewers and me to enlighten the rest of the Gaijin population with out findings.

I hope you will enjoy and benefit from the reviews on this site as much as I've enjoyed going to these places and reviewing them. If you have any questions about what you see or would like to send comments, rants, or raves, I emplore you to contact me

We speak Japanese but we realize you may or may not be as insane as we are, so we've tried to make this site as English-oriented as possible. But we also figure that if you were a hopelessly uninformed gaijin you probably wouldn't be here in the first place, so we assume that you have at least a fundamental understanding of certain concepts key to the night life in Japan.

If you like what you see and would like to share your insight with the Gaijin world, we welcome you to join the team and become part of the most used Gaijin reference to come to Japan.

We use a system of lanterns to quantify out ratings on a few different categories. Ratings range from one lantern () to five lanterns ()

Here are some of the points we review on:

Atmosphere
What is this place like? What characteristics stand out? How do the staff act? Is it easy or uncomfortable to be there? These are some of the questions we ask when coming up with an Atmosphere rating. represents low atmospheric quality, while stands for a place with an exceptionally stylish, classy, or comfortable atmosphere.

Quality
In the realm of izakayas and bars, it seems there is a constant battle between price, value, and quality. The goal of the discerning drinker should be to seek out establishments with the most economical balance of the three, i.e. highest quality, lowest price, which translates to high value. Quality refers to the "tastiness" of the food, or the degree to which a cocktail or drink is professionally prepared. A place may earn a 5 for quality if it consistently delivers highly tasty food and expertly prepared, stong drinks. A 1 for quality may indicate a restaurant with little to no complexity in their cooking, or a bar that tries to rip you off with watered-down drinks. All else aside, quality is one of the most important factors to consider.

Price
Our rating of price is really just an indication of the relative total dollar amount an average person can expect to spend at the place being reviewed. A 1, although rare, would indicate a place where the average Gaijin spends less than ¥1000 for a casual night of eating and drinking. Conversely, a 5 represents a place that you might be likely to spend ¥5000 for a similar course. Most of the reviews on this site fall in the 3-4 lantern range.

Value
Value is where it all comes together, in terms of whether a place is worth your time and money. A bar will score high value points if it delivers a high-quality product for less than average cost, and especially if it operates without a cover charge. This earns big points in our book. A low score for value indicates a place that is attempting to rip you off, either by charging too much for drinks, imposing an unreasonable cover, or by producing an inferior product.