Dave's Mostly Japan Photo Gallery

Red Japanese lanterns at a Tokyo yakitori shop. These akachochin (red lanterns) indicate a Japanese pub/restaurant that serves liquor/sake. Friends tell me these lanterns were popular after WWII as a marking for black market shops and restaurants. As time progressed they came to mark restaurants where you could get drunk and have a good time (izakayas). Now they are all over Tokyo and generally indicate good food & drink at a working man’s price. There is much more to the history of Japanese lanterns. I would not dare to try to understand it all myself.