Getting my Aussie on - Meatoco (Australian bar) in Nakano, Tokyo

About a year and a half ago I visited Nakano, a very awesome place in Western Tokyo (if you would like to read about Nakano, and I highly recommend it, you can find part 1 of my post about it here and part 2 here).  Nakano has a lot of little small bars, cafes, restaurants and izakayas (a lot like Shimokitazawa in that respect).  The place is seeping with Showa era charm and wandering the alleys of Nakano is something that I like to do.

When I visited Nakano for my blog in 2014 I stumbled upon a little Australian bar and cafe called Meatoco (Facebook page here).

I went in and had a beer that night with good friend Mikey who lives in the area.  I met Yasuhito the owner (who is a very friendly nice guy) and he told me that he had studied at university in Melbourne, Australia in the late 90's.  He developed a love of Australia and a number of years later decided to open Meatoco.  He has a selection of Australian beers such as Coopers, Carlton Draught, XXXX (no, don't get excited, it is the name of an Australian beer.....), VB and Fosters and a few Australian wines. He also said that on the 29th of each month he serves up various, hard to find meats such as crocodile, ostrich and kangaroo.  A lot of people ask about the significance of the 29th.  Well in Japanese the number 2 is pronounce ni and the number 9 is kyu.  Putting them together sounds a lot like the Japanese word for meat, nikku!  Now I have tried crocodile and ostrich before, but as an Australian I was particularly excited about kangaroo as I do like myself some kangaroo from time to time.  I mentioned the Meatoco to a few friends and pretty soon we had banded together a group of 6 who were interested.  Myself, Tetsuya, Atra, Ken, Tom and Norico.  None of the others had tried kangaroo before and were all very interested.

We met at Nakano station (north exit) and weaved our way through the back alleys of Nakano before arriving at our destination.  We had, however, neglected to make a reservation and upon arriving we found the place full (when coming to Meatoco on the 29th I highly recommend making a booking.....).  Rather than turning us away, Yasuhito set up a table and some chairs outside in the alley and pretty soon we were sitting down Al Fresco style enjoying our first beers.

Soon our first Aussie delicacy arrived, Vegemite.

For those who have not had the pleasure of eating Vegemite, do not let it's similarity to chocolate fool you (many others have famously made this mistake in the past with hilarious consequences).  Australian kids grow up on Vegemite, eating it spread on toast for breakfast or having Vegemite sandwiches for an easy after-school snack.  We were enjoying it with cabbage and crackers.

Next up was some lightly seared ostrich.

This meat had a very neutral flavour to it with the texture typical of a good lean meat.  The next dish that came out was some crocodile tail done tempura style.  I almost forgot to take a photo we were all so keen to eat, but I did get a shot of the last piece!

The flavour and texture of this one was all chicken!  Very similar!  The capsicum (peppers) gave it a nice crisp, clean contrast.  The next dish was also crocodile, but this one was crocodile tongue.

Everyone was completely surprised by this dish.  It had a completely different taste to the crocodile tail.  This one had a subtle fish taste to it and the texture was a lot more tender than we expected it to be.  Very nice though!  Next was what we had all been waiting for.  The kangaroo arrived!

For those who have not had the pleasure of eating kangaroo, it is a very lean, healthy meat.  The taste is a combination of beef and lamb.  The pepper and the garlic shoots in this dish complimented the kangaroo very well.  Amazing!

Pretty soon our time at Meatoco had come to an end.  We thanked Yasuhito for his kind and generous hospitality and left, with everyone keen to return again in the future.

So, if you are ever in the Nakano area, wandering the back alleys as I love to do, keep an eye out for the Australian flag.

Drop in and say G'day to Yasuhito.  I recommend the Coopers Sparkling Ale!

Our night was not over, however, as we made our way around the corner to the nearest karaoke bar.  Walking inside we found one guy who had sung himself to sleep.....

As I mad my way to our karaoke booth, I had no idea of the mayhem that was going on behind me.....

.......

Thank you to Atra for these photos.  And if the lovely gentleman who was sleeping happens to see these photos........sorry!

Eventually we were all together again and spent a nice couple of hours doing that most Japanese of activities, karaoke!

Way too much fun!!

And that rounded off a very enjoyable evening.  Everyone agreed that the kangaroo and the hospitality shown by Yasuhito at Meatoco were the highlights of the night.  Plans are already being made to go along to another meaty 29th day of the month.  How about you?

You may have noticed that I neglected to mention how Vegemite tastes.  That was intentional.  I would love for you to try it for yourself.  Just remember, moderation!!  No matter how much it looks like chocolate, it isn't!!

That's it for another post.  Thanks again for reading.  Please leave a comment below, sign up to receive email updates when I post and if you know anyone who would enjoy reading, feel free to share the blog.

See you next time!

An evening of surprises - Nakano (part 2)

This is part 2 of a post about Nakano.  I recommend reading part 1 first if you have not already done so.

Halfway between Koenji and Nakano stations I paused as a train flew past overhead to have a drink and rehydrate.

There were some seriously nice old houses along here which was a nice preview of what I was going to see soon.  It reminded me a lot of Yanaka.

I soon arrived at Nakano station and found myself looking at Nakano Broadway.

Nakano Broadway is a long (very long...) undercover shopping mall on what I guess used to be a regular street.  It has a lot of regular shops, but also a lot of anime, manga, idol and fantasy figurines.  Akihabara is the hotspot for this subculture, but Nakano Broadway has a fairly impressive offering of these shops as well.  Forgive me for not taking photos of a lot of these shops, but that was not the purpose of my visit to Nakano, but I did take a few photos on the walk along the Broadway.  This particular day was a Sunday so there were quite a few people out.

Lots of clothes shops, restaurants, cafes and even a maid cafe where the staff dress up in outfits resembling black cats........

Well, I guess Japan has a large enough population to cater for these niche markets!  The guy looking in the door was obviously part of that niche!

As I had walked along Broadway, I had noticed some places outside, off to the right-hand side that looked like what I had come to Nakano looking for, so, out to the right I went.

Now, this is what I had come for!

Much better!  Little alleyways snaking their way around Nakano lined with uncountable small restaurants, izakayas, yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick), bars and who knows what else!  I thought, okay, here is my next couple of hours booked!  So I started roaming the streets of Nakano, spending almost the entire next 2 hours with my jaw dragging on the ground in amazement.  I have a friend, Mikey, who lives in Nakano and I messaged him telling him that he lives in an awesome neighbourhood! (Mikey has a youtube channel where he does videos about the game Minecraft with a Japanese theme, so if you are into Minecraft, you can find his channel here).

Let me allow some of the pictures to tell the story much better than my words could ever do.

Some kind of izakaya (I think),

ramen,

okonomiyaki (hiroshima style, the best.....),

monjayaki (Tokyo's version of okonomiyaki),

yakitori, oh, delicious, smokey yakitori,

500 yen ($5) pizza (and 500 yen pizza is pretty good in Japan!),

and another small little open-air izakaya.

The alleys kept on going and going.  If I didn't have my smartphone with me and Google maps, I would have surely wandered around the alleys of Nakano for weeks, not being able to find my way out, but was I ever loving it!

This guy looked like he had been roaming the streets lost for weeks....

Suddenly I saw something that stopped me dead.......

An Australian bar?  I stood there stunned for about thirty seconds not able to move.  In the middle of Nakano I had stumbled across an Australian bar.  Unfortunately it was not yet open, so I had to find somewhere else to kill some time so I wandered off and found another little bar and wandered in.

Inside, I messaged Mikey and told him of my find and he suggested waiting there until he arrived and he would join me for a beer at the Australian place.  When he arrived, we walked back to the bar and went inside.  The name of the bar is Meatoco and it's facebook page is here.  The owner, Yasuhito told us that he had set up the bar one year ago and had lived in Melbourne, Australia for a while when he was a university student.

So we ordered ourselves a Coopers pale ale and a meat pie and enjoyed this little patch of Oz right here in Japan.

Satisfied, I left Mikey to head home while I walked back to the station to do the same.

I thoroughly recommend heading to Nakano when you visit Tokyo as it's alleys are an opportunity to immerse yourself in an older, much less visited side of Japanese life.

Thanks again for reading.  If anyone has any places they would like to read about, feel free to leave a message and I will see if I can do so.

Until next time, bye. 

An evening of surprises - Nakano (part 1)

I had a free day recently and I started wondering a few days before what I would do with it.  Not long after I visited Koenji some of my Japanese coworkers suggested that I visit Nakano as it had a similar feel with the small alleys with numerous restaurants and bars lining them.

People say that Nakano has a Showa era feel to it.  The Showa era ran from 1926 - 1989 when the economic bubble burst.  I can imagine at that time lifestyles were changing and eating out was becoming more and more popular and common (which I guess is why Nakano is lined with small restaurants and eateries.  

In 2011, Nakano was voted the best place place to live in Tokyo by readers of the popular Tokyo Walker magazine after having finished second the previous year, so there was obviously a great deal of appeal to the area.  All of this was enough for me to finally decide to go and check it out.

I jumped online to see how far away Nakano was from home and found that it was definitely within walking distance so I set off.  I hadn't planned to take any photos on the way there, only once I got to Nakano, but the walk started getting interesting too.  At one point I approached a tunnel of trees that completely covered the road.

Off to the left was a track that went into the trees.  That seemed more interesting to me, so I walked in.

It was one of the many little pockets of green that are all around Tokyo.

These little areas, you can enter, be surrounded by nature and forget about the metropolis that waits outside!  Enjoy the peace, just as the sign says.

Pretty soon I reached the other side and came back out into reality, but a few minutes further on was another park, so I once again entered the cone of silence that these places offer.

A little further on I came across a couple of very nice temples that had the usual beautifully manicured gardens.

Then there was this place........

That funky little cafe was a sign that we were approaching the Koenji area!

At this point I had to go up some stairs and across a walkway that went over a main highway.  As I got halfway up, I smelled an all too familiar smell..........tonkotsu (pork soup) ramen.  Looking around, sure enough, there it was!

10 minutes before, I had started to smell the unmistakable smell of rain in the air, and sure enough, it had now started, although it never got too heavy.

Back out to reality again.....

This one has become a two part post too, so I will finish part one now and I will start on part two, picking up from when I get to Nakano.  That is a blog post in itself!

Thanks for reading.