So looks like rainy season is going to last a bit longer and it’s also getting hot, hot, hot outside, so I thought I’d see if I could come up with 100 activities you could do indoors. Then I thought maybe 100 is a bit much, not sure if I can think of THAT many, so let’s try to think of 50, that I can do. As I live in Fukuoka, most of my ideas are in Fukuoka over other places. So here we go . . .
1) Fukuoka City Museum
2) Fukuoka City Art Museum
3) Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Picture book exhibition starts today!)
4) Fukuoka City Science Museum
5) Saga Air and Space Museum
6) Kyushu Museum in Dazaifu
7) Oita Fragrance Museum
8) Fukuoka City Citizens Disaster Prevention Centre
9) Shopping in Tenjin (you can use the subway tunnels to get around and stay mostly dry/cool)
10) Canal City, you can go to Hamley’s and take the kids in the Play Room or go watch a movie.
11) Shopping at Hakata Station, there is also a cinema here too, and a small children’s play area on platform 1.
12) Markis shopping mall, again has a cinema and an Asobi Park for kids and a game centre and VR area too!
13) Shopping at Marinoa City, where there is also a game centre.
14) Marine World Aquarium
15) Karaoke anywhere
16) Go swimming at a public pool
17) Go to a Planetarium, there is one at Yurix in Fukuma and one in the Fukuoka Science Museum too.
18) Go bouldering, we went with our 3 year old son and he liked it, and it wore him out so much he fell asleep and we could do a board game session!
19) So obviously play a board game! CATAN!!
20) Go to the cinema, Toy Story 4 and live action Lion King both coming out soon.
21) Go to a driving range and practice your golf swing (not with young children)
22) Go to a batting cage and practice your baseball swing (the ball comes out to fast, too scary for me!)
23) Round 1! Game Centre and Karaoke and Darts and Billiards combined!
24) Make some teams and go play indoor Futsal.
25) Put some music on loud at home and have a dance party, or a silent one by listening through your headphones.
26) Download an exercise app and do some working out at home, my son loves joining in with this, especially skipping and bicycle kicks!
27) Aso Farmland, I wrote a blog post about here, they have a lot of things to do indoors.
28) Shimonoseki Aquarium and Fish Market for some fresh sushi.
29) Go to an onsen despite the heat 😬
30) Go on a scenic drive, there is a great one on Ikitsuki island (Nagasaki Pref.)! There is a bridge connecting it to Hirado island which in turn has a bridge connecting it to the mainland.
31) Bake or cook something new.
32) Do a painting or a drawing or any other artistic activity, many art supplies can be bought at ¥100 shops.
33) Teach yourself origami using the internet and make a paper forest/jungle.
34) Go ten pin bowling, the one we go to has ramp for children so my son can play too.
35) Practice/study Japanese or any other language.
36) DVD marathon at home.
37) Try writing poetry or a haiku or anything you want.
38) Take the kids to an indoor play area.
39) Go to a second hand shop and try to find the craziest items of clothing you can and try them on. Or choose something for a friend to wear and act out an 80s style fashion movie montage.
40) Go to Fukuoka airport viewing deck or even the roads close to the runway and watch planes land and take off.
41) Go shopping for rain coats and Wellington boots and once you’ve got some, brave the weather and go out anyway!!
42) Go on a road trip to Kokura and check out the castle, covered shopping arcades, and River Walk shopping mall.
43) Go to Karatsu and check out Karatsu castle and go on a boat ride to some caves.
44) Invest in Mini4ku, small cars that you have to build and then can race them on tracks, some electrical stores have the tracks inside to use for free. The cars and parts themselves are very cheap. A great hobby to get dads involved helping their kids do the building and tuning up of the little cars.
45) African Safari Park close to Beppu in Oita Prefecture. You see the animals out the window from the comfort of your own car, so even if it is raining you can enjoy this zoo. You can also opt to ride the jungle bus, big buses in the shapes of various animals. If you ride this, they will provide you with food for the different animals and large tongs and you can actually feed lions and tigers and bears! Oh my!
46) Take a scenic train journey, this is a bit expensive but Kyushu has a lot of scenic trains like Seven Stars, Aso Boy and the Rail Kitchen Chikugo. Enjoy the scenery without having to go outside.
47) Another famous castle is Kumamoto castle, Kumamoto also has a lot of covered shopping streets in the centre of town, where you can stay nice and dry.
48) Sasebo in Nagasaki has a lot of covered shopping arcades as well and you can go and get a famous Sasebo burger. Also at nearby Kujukushima you have the option of doing scenic boat tours. There are many types of boats you can choose to ride and some of them are covered so you can stay dry.
49) Yufuin town in Oita prefecture has a lovely little shopping street (this road can get very crowded with tourists!!) it might not be the best place to go if the roads are crowded with people carrying umbrellas, but there are many little shops. So easy to keep popping into places to avoid the rain. There is also a scenic drive up the side of Mount Yufu with some atmospheric views when it is raining.
50) Stay home, read a book, take a nap, flick through YouTube videos or invite friends round to chill out with and enjoy a lazy rainy day at home 🙂
me - living life in kyushu 