Izakaya are Japanese style bars/pubs. They are a great place to take a load off from traveling or to get to know the locals. Izakaya sells a wide variety of Japanese bar food such as gyoza, edamame, buta kimuchi (kimchi pork), yakitori and so on.
There are a good many different kinds of izakaya ranging from a small yakitori shop to a large chain selling a large number of different items.
'''yakitori''' (______) - This literally means grilled bird i.e. chicken. Yakitori is generally small pieces of breast meat cooked on skewers over an open flame (sometimes the grill is electric). There are many different types of yakitori such as mune or breast, horumon or cartilage, haato or heart, to even weirder stuff like chicken ovaries. This type of izakaya will usually only serve yakitori and some vegetables including edamame.
Most izakaya serve only one kind of beer, usually one of the big three beer companies of Japan: Asahi, Sapporo or Kirin. On rare occasions you find a place that serves Suntory. One can usually tell what beer the place sells by the numerous posters or other advertisements that are likely to adorn the walls. If you're still not sure just use the universal order of "nama chuu kudasai" (draft medium please). With that you'll get a nice sized mug of ice cold beer.