With your host as your GPS, translator, and restaurant reviewer, you’ll be experiencing the very best of Fukuoka’s intoxicating nightlife. In the colorful glow of the neon-lit Naka river, sample Fukuoka’s famous street food from the long line of yatai mobile carts, or head to Tenjin to explore where the wealthy unwind. Down a quick draft beer at your host’s favorite izakaya, check if Ōhori Park is hosting any cool outdoor events, or simply hop between all the tightly-packed bars, pubs, and clubs in streets that show no sign of tiring. In restaurant-lined Ropponmastsu, grab a vending machine ticket and cash it in for Fukuoka’s go-to late-night snack: rich, creamy, umami tonkotsu ramen. Now you’ll be going strong for a good few hours. 

When the sun sets over Naka River, a different Fukuoka wakes up. At 6pm on Nakasu Island, yatai food stalls appear on the river’s sandbanks, selling some of Japan’s best street food. Grab a smoky, chargrilled yakitori skewer before following your local insider (and hordes of well-dressed salarymen) through central Fukuoka’s incomparable nightlife scene. One mile west, in downtown tech hub Tenjin, LED screens line backstreets leading to upmarket izakaya and trendy bars. Just west of Tenjin, you could belt out a song at one of Oyafukō street’s neon-lit karaoke bars, then head to neighboring Daimyo for a different kind of nightlife: late-night cafes, zany otaku stores, and several crowded tachinomiya – simple, no-frills “standing bars”.