Seasons one and two (as well as the prequel season zero) of alphabet dating certainly pushed the boundaries of what a “date” is, and that continues in season three with even more tenuous examples for each letter of the alphabet. For the record, doing something together (no matter what it is!) counts as a date in this series which is not always about visiting glamorous places and doing exciting things but just getting out there and exploring locations we wouldn’t normally go to. Without further ado, lets kick off the final season of alphabet dating with what we did for the fourth set of letters…

P is for Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (April 2023)

My wife is a trained pianist with a good knowledge of classical music and I’m a fan of John Williams’ film scores so attending this concert performance was a no-brainer. There were no gimmicks here such as having a giant video screen. When you’ve watched the films so many times you don’t need the pictures to know the scenes involved! The focus is on the orchestra and conductor only which was news to our ears. More details here

Q is for Movie Themes Quiz Night (April 2023)

This letter is never easy so I just played this popular movie quiz on YouTube (it’s had over three million hits) and thankfully my wife did join in and play the game for the 40 minute duration. There are six different levels of difficulty and so had we kept points (we didn’t!) we wouldn’t have got too many in those latter stages. Instead we just did it for fun which is what this alphabet dating series tries to be about.

R is for A Walk Through Roppongi (May 2023)

Beginning at Hiro-o station we took the short walk to the nearby Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park in Minamiazabu before continuing on to Roppongi going along Keyakizaka-dori Street and past Roppongi Hills. We had a leisurely stroll through the lovely Mohri Garden. The National Art Center provided the backdrop as we took a rest nearby before finishing at the wonderful Toyokawa Inari Betsuin temple which is packed full of fox statues.

S is for Shinjuku To Shibuya On Foot (June 2023)

Hot on the heels of the walk we did for the letter R, I made a plan to do something similar for the next letter. Starting at Shinjuku station’s east exit we headed south through Yoyogi to the back entrance for Meiji Shrine. The overly crowded Takeshita-dori Street in Harajuku followed before we walked on to Shibuya among the tourist hordes. Miyashita Park shopping mall was our final destination for the day.

T is for Tanabata Star Festival (July 2023)

This Japanese event did inspire the date for us getting married. Despite this connection though, we’ve never done anything to acknowledge this star festival. That changed this year when we went to this event at Zojoji Temple featuring a beautiful candle light-up in front of the main temple hall after sunset. More details here

Click on the following links to read about previous alphabet dating posts…

S01E01     S01E02     S01E03     S01E04     S01E05     S01E06

S00E01     S00E02     S00E03     S00E04     S00E05     S00E06

S02E01     S02E02     S02E03   S02E04   S02E05   S02E06

S03E01   S03E02   S03E03