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 second set of letters…

U is for Udon noodles (July 2023)

A fairly easy date as not much effort was needed here. There are a couple of quite cheap  udon chains which serve up a variety of different instant noodle dishes with a selection of tempura sides available too. We used to frequent such places quite often when we first lived together but very rarely go to them these days.

V is for Vegetarian Restaurant (September 2023)

This one is in a sense not so different from the letter V in Season 2. However, that was vegan and this is vegetarian! Big difference! Had I not known in advance that it was a  veggie burger then I wouldn’t have guessed there was no meat in it. I don’t eat too many burgers but this was fantastic and my wife raved about the fries which accompanied our choices.

W is for Women’s Rugby (September 2023)

Again, this one could seem like a repeat of W in season two but there is a subtle difference. Rugby did feature last season but it was filed under J for the Japan national rugby team who we watched again but this time they were playing Fiji. The Sakura 15 girls were successful but the match wasn’t quite as exciting as the previous one. More details here

X is for Xi’an Shinjuku Nishiguchi restaurant (November 2023)

Perhaps the most difficult letter to do but this Chinese place seemed like a popular one and indeed it was full when we went one lunch time. The signature dish is a spicy ramen but neither my wife or I went with that and instead opted for the tantan noodles in her case whilst I had spicy stir-fried pork pieces along with boiled gyoza.

Y is for Yanaka (November 2023)

A place we last went to together around a decade ago (I’ve been a few times since then on my own!) so it was time to go again. On a lovely sunny morning we took the train to Nippori, wandered through Yanaka Cemetery and on down to Yanaka Ginza; the traditional shopping street which takes you back to a bygone era and is a world apart from the more modern places on the opposite side of the city.

Z is for Zero Cola Taste Test (December 2023)

The third and final season of alphabet dating goes out on a relative low with this fairly lame and lazy zero cola taste test. We have actually done similar tests before so it didn’t surprise my wife too much when I presented the the three cans of zero sugar and/or calorie cola cans. For the record, her favourite was the Pepsi one but she didn’t particularly care about guessing which was drink was which!

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   So3E04