Welcome to Kanazawa After Dark

Kanazawa is famous for its gardens, its old teahouse streets and its seafood. Far less gets written, in English, about what happens after the sun goes down. That is the part of the city I want to show you.

Who I am

I’m ZUMA. I live in Kanazawa and work as an English coach. Years ago I studied abroad, first in the Philippines and then in Australia. The thing I remember most from those years is not a lesson or a textbook. It is how much easier everything became once a local took me somewhere they actually liked to go.

Now I’m the local. This site is my way of doing the same thing for people visiting Kanazawa.

What you will find here

Every article is about one place: a bar, an izakaya or another spot that is open late. I will tell you:

• what I ordered and roughly what it cost
• whether there is an English menu, and how easy it was to order in English
• a Japanese phrase or two that will help at that particular place
• small things that can surprise first-time visitors, like a table charge or a cash-only rule
• the address, opening hours and closing days, in a table at the end

The rules I follow

I only write about places I have been to myself. If I have not sat there and ordered something, it does not go on this site.

I don’t make things up. If I could not confirm a detail such as opening hours online, I mark it “(unverified)” instead of guessing. Hours in Japan change often, so I also recommend checking before you go.

Nobody pays to be here. No place has paid to appear on this site.

Where to start

The first places are being written up now. You can browse everything on the Articles page, or use the Kanazawa Nightlife Guide, which groups every place by area and will grow with each new article.

If you have a question, a correction, or a place you think I should try, you can reach me through the Contact page. See you out there.