Sapporo Travel Guide

Odori Bisse is a commercial complex beside Odori Park in central Sapporo, running from basement level 2 to the fourth floor under the 'Northern Good Life' concept, gathering popular restaurants, dessert shops and stores from across Hokkaido. The first-floor BISSE SWEETS brings together well-known dessert specialists, and the complex links directly to Odori Subway Station.

Odori Park is a green belt running east-west through central Sapporo, splitting the city north and south across about 1.5 km from Nishi 1-chome to Nishi 12-chome. Flower beds, fountains and sculptures change with the seasons, lilacs in summer, red leaves in autumn, and in winter it becomes the main stage of the Snow Festival, where giant snow sculptures and lights fill the night. The Sapporo TV Tower rises within the park; from its deck you overlook the whole green axis and city. It is where citizens relax and where the seasons' festivals converge.

Shiroi Koibito Park is a fairy-tale factory park in Sapporo, Hokkaido, themed on the famous 'Shiroi Koibito' cookie and run by Ishiya. Its centrepiece is a dreamy English-style castle opening its chocolate production line, cocoa exhibits and hands-on dessert workshops; outside are a clock tower, rose garden and seasonal light shows like a storybook town. A top Hokkaido spot for families and couples, it lets you learn the story behind the snack and take home limited souvenirs with sweet memories.

Hokkaido Jingu stands in the primeval forest of Maruyama in Sapporo, founded in 1869 to enshrine the deities of the island's pioneering and regarded as Hokkaido's chief shrine. Ancient trees shade solemn, quiet grounds with distinct seasons, cherry blossoms, summer green, autumn maple and winter snow. At the approach's end the main shrine honours four deities including Emperor Meiji, and New Year visits draw throngs. Beside Maruyama Park, it is where citizens pray, walk and feel nature's spirit, Sapporo's most tranquil power spot.

The Sapporo Beer Museum is Japan's only beer-themed museum, set in the red-brick former Sapporo brewery in Higashi-ku, Sapporo. It tells the story of Sapporo Beer since 1876 — brewing equipment and the evolution of its advertising; at the end you can pay to taste fresh draught Sapporo, a stop that explains Hokkaido's food culture.

Maeda Forest Park lies in Teine ward in north-west Sapporo, built over ten years from 1982 as a green belt around the city's edge, with roughly half its area left as woodland. Its signature is a canal 600 metres long and 15 wide running dead straight towards Mt Teine, lined by more than two hundred poplars whose reflections and the mountain behind stack into one line on a clear day, one of Sapporo's most photographed designed landscapes. That axis plus the Furusato, Tsuchi and Wild Bird woods give joggers, walkers and birders somewhere to go. Wisteria pergolas flower from late May to mid June, poplars and rowans turn gold in autumn, and in winter the grounds become a cross-country skiing and snowshoe course with equipment hire from early January; on the first Sunday of July the Park Quilt Day brings quilts from across Hokkaido. Entry is free with free parking, open from sunrise to sunset all year, and only the observatory lounge is seasonal, from late April to early November. There is no zoned ticketing or lodging on site: only specific facilities such as the park golf course and barbecue area charge. Chuo bus from Kita-Nijuyojo ends a minute away, while a bus from JR Teine leaves a seven-minute walk.