5 At-Home Rainy Day Date Ideas

When an unexpected rainstorm ruins your date plans. Do you cancel? Reschedule? No need. Time to plan an indoor date instead!

Don’t you just hate it when you spend time planning out a romantic date, only to have the rain totally spoil it? Depending on where you’re located in Japan, tsuyu (rainy season) lasts anywhere from the start of May to the end of July. And especially in the year 2021, we’ve all adjusted to spending more time at home. So there is no better time than now to become an expert on how to make indoor dates as special as possible.  

Instead of letting the weather dampen your mood and ruin your plans, try out one (or all) of these rainy day date ideas for when you’re sick of doing the Netflix binge and ordering takeout as your only dry options. 

Spa Night

Time to dig through your bathroom cabinets and get out all those beauty products you’ve been saving to use. Get in the mood by dimming the lights, lighting up some candles, and putting on your robes. Make spa water by slicing up some lemons and cucumbers, and enjoy a blissful night of pure relaxation. 

Oh, and try making your own DIY Japanese beauty masks: 

Rice Milk Face Mask

This mask is recommended for preventing wrinkles, fine lines, and acne. 

You’ll need: 

• 2-3 tbsp uncooked rice
• 1 tbsp warm milk 
• 1 tbsp honey

Directions:
In a small pot, bring the rice to a boil. Once it’s soft, strain the rice and add warm milk and honey. Mix until well-combined. Apply the mask to the face and neck area and leave it on for 30 minutes. Wash off with warm water. 

Matcha Yogurt Face Mask 

Great mask for moisture and cell renewal. The yogurt which contains lactic acid is great for pore refining. 

You’ll need:

• 1 tsp matcha powder 
• 2 tsp natural yogurt 
• few drops of vitamin E or avocado oil

Directions:
Put all ingredients into one bowl and stir until combined. Apply to the face, preferably with a brush. Leave it on for 20-30 minutes and wash off with warm water.

Home Cooking Night

No more takeaways, please! Instead, dust off your recipe books (or if you’re veeery modern, go online) and spend your evening whipping up your favorite dish for two. Cooking together is not only a great bonding activity but it can also be surprisingly therapeutic. And if it doesn’t end all that well or meet your taste expectations? No worries. It’ll give you something to laugh about later- at least you tried, right?

Stuck on what to make? Try out these classic Japanese comfort food recipes to get you through tsuyu seasons:

Fusion Onigirazu 

Matcha Lemon Drizzle Cake

(adapted recipe reference)

Lemon-flavored things are currently in season!

Ingredients:
Lemon drizzle syrup:

• 80g caster sugar
• 1/2 lemon, juice only
• 100ml water

Cake:

• 100g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 80g sugar
• 3 tbsp milk
• 5g matcha
• 2 medium eggs
• 80g plain flour
• 3g baking powder

Method:

1. To make the syrup, place the water, sugar and lemon juice in a pan and heat gently. Stir until sugar is dissolved and bring to a low simmer. 
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, add the melted butter and sugar. Mix until well-combined.
4. In another bowl, add and mix together the milk and matcha. Then, sieve the mixture using a tea sifter.    
5. In the butter bowl, add the two eggs and mix. Then, add the matcha milk to this bowl and continue to mix.
6. Add the flour and baking powder. Mix well with a whisk. Line the cake tin with parchment paper. 
7. Pour the cake mixture into the tin and microwave (700w) it for 4 minutes 30 seconds. Leave it in the microwave to rest for 3 minutes. When the cake comes out of the microwave, prick it with a bamboo stick, to make sure it’s ready. Remove the cake from the tin. 
8. Finally, warm up the syrup and pour it over the cake, making sure that the syrup soaks. 

Tips:
If you’re not a fan of lemons, you could always try other fruits like yuzu or orange citruses instead. And try serving this cake with icing sugar or cream.

Indoor Picnic 

Around this time of year, we usually see crowds of people having a picnic. But of course, if it just so happens to rain on the day of your outdoor picnic, chances are high that you won’t be making it to the park. But don’t let that stop you from calling the whole thing off! Simply throw yourself an indoor picnic instead. This can all be recreated by following 3 simple steps. 

Food

Food is going to be the most important part of your indoor picnic. It’s time to go all out! 

Start by making (or if you’re feeling a little lazy, a supermarket/convenience store-bought) bento box lunch with all your favorite foods. Consider including typical items like makizushi and tamagoyaki. 

And don’t forget the drinks! Your picnic would be incomplete without sake. Or if you’re not a fan of sake, beer is also a popular beverage choice.

Atmosphere 

You’ll find it difficult to get into the mood if your place is a mess. You’ll find it hard to enjoy eating all the delicious food in front of a pile of laundry or your dirty dishes from last night. That’s why it’s important to make sure your place is spotless.

Set the mood with some chilled background music and spread a picnic sheet out on the living room floor. 

Decoration 

The final step to hosting your indoor picnic would be the decoration.

This leads nicely to the next stay-at-home date idea…  

Japanese Crafts Night

Making decorations for your indoor picnic can be a completely separate date night activity in itself. It’s time to get creative and get out all your arts and crafts tools. 

Of course, you’ll want to be surrounded by plenty of bright, colorful flower decorations. You can do this by using some origami or construction paper. For that extra touch, further decorate your flowers with glitter glue. It’s also relatively easy to make your own paper lanterns. 

Take it up a notch by creating some traditional Japanese art pieces. Especially if you’ve never tried calligraphy before, this is a great opportunity to do so. The rainy season is also the perfect time to make some “teru teru bozu” or Japanese rain-prevention dolls, made from tissue paper or cloth, usually white and ghost-like in appearance, and hung outside doors and windows in hope of sunny weather.

Board Games Night

Yes, we are living in the tech era, meaning most of us are obsessed with playing games online or filling up our free time scrolling through social media. But don’t you ever miss the old days playing board games? Chances are you already have a couple of board games lying around the house, making it easier to prepare for your full night of competition. 

If you’re ready for a throwback, I suggest trying out a few traditional Japanese board games. Try Go which is considered the world’s oldest board game and is similar to Othello but far more complex.

Or if you prefer a mentally stimulating game to build up your brain, I suggest shogi. Similar to chess, this two-player board game will require you to be strategic, cunning and patient. 

And the next day, why not get the kids involved? Show them exactly what it was like to have fun pre-TikTok days!