When I heard this idea on the radio a few years ago I thought it might be something that I could try as a way of motivating myself to go to some places with my wife that I’m usually not too interested in. I did think of suggesting it to her and then taking it in turns to come up with things to do for each letter but I thought she would dismiss it as a silly idea straight away so decided to keep it secret.

If you haven’t seen part 1 (A-E) then please click here to read that

The rules are quite simple. Do something for each letter going in alphabetical order. It would be quite easy to do an A-Z of dining out experiences so I decided that should be limited to only ten…..which is probably still too many! It was fun thinking up ideas for each letter but reality is a different matter altogether! Of course there are always going to be better and more interesting things to do for each letter but this is what we did for part two of this series…

F is for Friday`s (June 2021)

Maybe it’s because of all the years she lived in New York but my wife loves TGI’s which I’ve never really understood. Maybe because it’s too normal for me but is something more exotic for her and reminds her in some way of her time Stateside. The food itself was nice, and the portions are a bit bigger than many Japanese restaurants, but it’s not a place I need to go too regularly.

G is for G-Cans (August 2021) 

Tokyo Metropolitan’s giant drain is somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for about a decade. The midst of the hot and humid summer seemed like a good time to go but we did still need to get to the place so were sweating when we arrived. We descended 50 metres beneath the surface via 116 steps to the pressure-adjusting water tank referred to as the “Underground Shrine”; a vast flood control area with 59 colossal pillars weighing 500 tons each that supposedly resemble the columns of the Parthenon in Greece which may explain the shrine nickname! More details here.

H is for Hikarigaoka (September 2021)

This place is famed for its big park which is pretty much equidistant between Shimo-Akatsuka and Narimasu stations on the Tobu Toju Line. It’s a vast park covering more than 600,000 m2 and contains a lawn square, bird sanctuary, gymnasium, library, baseball fields, tennis practice wall, track field and archery ground. After that we then had lunch in the shopping mall over the road where I had Karakara uo ramen which has to be one of Tokyo’s spiciest ramen dishes!

I is for IKEA (September 2021)

Knowing what was ahead I needed a quick ‘I’ to be ticked off so asked if she wanted to go to IKEA in Harajuku one morning before I went to work in Shibuya. She loves IKEA so it was quite easy to get her to go there. I have no interest in the place but am always happy to go and try some of the Swedish food delicacies on offer there at such reasonable prices.

J is for James Bond (October 2021)

Good timing for one of the biggest film releases since the Coronavirus outbreak nearly two years earlier. Having been to see ‘Skyfall‘ (2012) and ‘Spectre‘ (2015) at the cinema (we didn’t even know each other when the first two Daniel Craig 007 films came out!) it was inevitable that we’d go to see this one. I had already seen it on the opening day but a week after it’s initial release we went to see it together. I guess it’s still too early to give spoilers but I was so emotional at one part of the film even though I’d seen it. I guess it was because I knew what was coming! Surprisingly, my wife (who often cries when watching things) didn’t even shed a tear!

Click here to read ‘Alphabet Dating In Japan With My Wife Who Was Completely Unaware Of The Task At Hand! (S01E01: A-E)’

Click here to read ‘The A-Z Of Tokyo Fox Celebrating 15 Years of Blogging (Part 1)’

Click here to read ‘The A-Z Of Tokyo Fox Celebrating 15 Years of Blogging (Part 2)’

Click here to read ‘The Complete A-Z Of Filming Locations On Tokyo Fox’