Whilst season two of alphabet dating is taking place I thought I could fill that void with a restrospecive series which is certainly an easier operation as they were not done in alphabetical order which can be a little stressful and frustrating at times.

Season 0 will throw back to places and things we’ve done in Greater Tokyo since 2011. I generally hate the term “date night” for people who are married or have been together a long time but I guess it is apt for some of the things we did in this series as it will include some things which actually were proper dates back in the early years when we got together.

A is for Ariake Collosseum (September 2012)

The 2012 Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo promised to be better than usual with 12 of the worlds top 13 women participating for big prize money and a large amount of ranking points. Sadly that one missing player was the one and only Serena Williams who had dominated that year with wins at Wimbledon, The Olympics and the US Open. This was my second time to attend this tournament, and my girlfriend (now wife) did accompany me but it seems like we didn’t take a photo together on this occasion. More details here

B is for Back To The Future event at Hollycon 5 (August 2015)

This HollyCon event ran from Friday night to Sunday. On the Friday night I’d gone on my own to the opening night and met Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown) and Claudia Wells (Jennifer Parker) but on the Sunday I returned with my wife for a photo opportunity to get our own shots with the iconic Delorean car. More details here

C is for International Cuisine (September 2012

In Autumn 2012 I developed something of a fascination for visiting foreign restaurants in Tokyo in order to increase my knowledge of worldwide cuisine. Of course we still went out to Japanese places too but it was more interesting discovering new international dishes we’d never had before. We ended up going to restaurants serving up food from the likes of Cuba, Sri Lanka, Iran, Syria, Malaysia, Israel, Argentina, Pakistan, Tunisia, Myanmar, Lebanon, Cameroon, Yemen, Trinidad & Tobago and Hungary. More details here

D is for Tokyo Disneyland (October 2016)

I can’t say I’d ever had too much desire to return to Disneyland after my initial visit in 2004. However, I found out about the Star Wars Star Tours ride and then we got some free tickets so went along to the magical kingdom and enjoyed it despite feeling a little old to be there without any kids in tow! More details here

E is for Edo Tokyo Open Air Museum (November 2017)

After receiving a couple of Grutto Passes for my birthday, my wife and I set about visiting as many of the museums featured as is possible. This vast open-air museum, located in Koganei-koen Park, was one of our favourites. It is a collection of culturally valuable historical buildings which have been relocated, reconstructed and preserved for future generations. More details here

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 ‘Alphabet Dating In Japan With My Wife Who Was Completely Unaware Of The Task At Hand! (S01E02: F-J)’

Click here to read ‘Alphabet Dating In Japan With My Wife Who Was Completely Unaware Of The Task At Hand! (S01E03: K-O)’

Click here to read ‘Alphabet Dating In Japan With My Wife Who Was Completely Unaware Of The Task At Hand! (S01E04: M-T)’

Click here to read ‘Alphabet Dating In Japan With My Wife Who Was Completely Unaware Of The Task At Hand! (S01E05: U-Z)’