Arrive in Inawashiro, a lakeside town in Fukushima Prefecture sitting at the foot of Mount Bandai. Known more for its nature and ski slopes than its nightlife, the town holds a quieter, local drinking scene that most visitors never find on their own.

Meet your guide at the starting point and get an immediate sense of where the evening is headed — away from tourist routes and into the spots where locals actually drink.

Follow your guide on foot through the town’s accessible bar areas, stopping at three different venues over the course of the night. At each stop, settle in, order from the menu, and drink at your own pace before moving on to the next.

The shift from one place to the next brings a change in atmosphere and crowd, giving you a fuller picture of how locals spend an evening in Inawashiro rather than a single snapshot of one bar.

By the third stop, move through three distinct corners of the local bar scene, each chosen for its Tabelog listing and approachable price point. Leave the tour having drunk where locals drink, in a town that rarely appears on standard nightlife itineraries — with a clearer sense of Fukushima’s everyday social culture than any guidebook provides.