Why You NEED to Visit Sapporo
Sapporo is an absolutely stunning city located in the northern most island of Japan, Hokkaido. Temperatures range from below -22 F in the winter to 70 F in the summer. I went to Sapporo in Autumn (October 1-4) and I believe this is an ideal time to go. First of all, the city isn’t too busy compared to other cities in Japan, and the weather is very mild, roughly 50 F. I think something that Sapporo excels at is Cleanliness and nature; Sapporo is easily the cleanest city as I saw maybe a handful of pieces of trash and the worst it ever got was coffee cans. Along with this, the air quality of this city can be compared to a forest, extremely high quality. My first day in Sapporo started with me waking up at 1:30 AM and walking to the 7-eleven that was conveniently located right outside of the airbnb we were staying at. My main purpose for going there was to grab an early breakfast and exchange currency. For currency exchange, almost every convenient store in Japan has an ATM and you can use your debit card to do this, I used my Bank of America card. In terms of exchanging your physical money, there are a lot of travel centers around the city that you can visit to trade in money for yen. With that being said, for buying food or anything of the sort, you don’t need cash, but you will want to have cash on you for other things such as train/subway tickets, vending machines, taxis sometimes, and overall fast transactions in certain situations.
I walked out of the 7-Eleven with a pork cutlet curry, onigiri, and some juice. The quality on convenience store food in Japan is unrivaled and sometimes is better than restaurants in America. Throughout this trip, I almost always ate at convenience stores because they are extremely cheap and… convenient. Some of them even have seating for you to take a break from walking all day. As I made my way back from the 7-eleven, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the sheer beauty of the creek I was walking next to, surrounded by trees and just illuminated by the street lights which make the water reflections dance. I got back to the airbnb where my friends had woken up. We relaxed for a bit before we decided to leave to explore Sapporo at around 5:00AM. Our first stop was Nakajima Park
Nakajima Park was a quick 5 minute walk from our Airbnb. We made our way into the park to view the stunning pond, views, and the devious long-billed crows. We made our way along the park passing the infamous drink vending machines Japan is known for, took a little detour to a gazebo in a wooded area of the park and then arrived at an open field. This field is probably 5 acres of short cut grass where you could probably enjoy a picnic, throw some frisbee, or walk your dog. Speaking of, we saw a lady walking her tiny dog, but there were some curious crows that wanted to have fun. We watched as this lady was followed by these crows across the field hopping away and being absolute menaces. I found it funny how they hopped. After walking around the park and taking some pictures, we decided to finally get into the main part of the city and check out some of the locations I had saved in my spreadsheet for the day. First stop was Tanukikoji Shopping Street
Shopping streets in Japan are very common in cities. They are a roofed street that usually stretches across multiple blocks and house easily over a hundred stores, arcades, and other little shops. We walked along this street for a couple blocks, stopped to check out a few arcades and just explore. These shopping streets are definitely more populated than most places in the city, but you wont be begging for personal space. Overall, i highly recommend when you go to Japan to check out the shopping streets because they provide nearly everything you need from food, fun, to even currency exchange which is a must if you want to visit Japan. Do not skip out even if none of the things I mentioned are what you’re after, which they would be. After this shopping street, I wanted to check out Pole Town and Aurora Town, underground shopping districts.
Pole Town and Aurora Town are located right next to each other and they are very unique installments I have never seen in the United States. Essentially you go down what looks like an entrance to a subway (they are connected to the subway) and there are a plethora of little shops and restaurants they you can visit and explore. You will also find an underground walkway people take to work. The atmosphere of these little shopping districts is very mysterious and calming. We ended up buying some Ice cream, then after we finished, we explored a little bit (I don’t recommend walking and eating in Japan as it is considered rude). After we finished exploring, we headed off to see Odori park
Odori park is located towards the center of Sapporo and is the home of the Sapporo Autumn fest. Sadly the day we landed was the last night of the Autumn fest so we missed out, it runs all throughout September. Next to this park is a cool little tower that you can take solid pictures of for instagram. We took this opportunity here to fill up our water bottles and then we were on our way to Akarenga Terrace.
There isn’t much to say about Akarenga Terrace, it is your standard shopping mall based in the city center. It is in a very convenient location because it is only a 6 minute walk from Sapporo Station so before you head off to the airport, you can stop, shop, eat and then head to the station from there. Our next stop from here was very close, Sapporo JR Tower Observatory T38.
Sapporo JR Tower Observatory is a building that allows you to overlook Sapporo with amazing views. The entrance is located by a parking garage which was slightly confusing, but if you follow google maps, you will have no issue. We payed the ¥700 (roughly $5) entrance fee to get to the observatory which was 100% worth it. Once we made it to the top, we grabbed a delicious dessert waffle and relaxed while overlooking the beautiful city of Sapporo. I also took this opportunity to take some of my favorite pictures that I took in Sapporo. For the men reading this, theres an amazing view from the bathroom so you can experience an amazing peeing experience while overlooking the city asserting dominance to the ultimate level. After we spent a good amount of time up at the observatory, we decided to call it a day as we were very satisfied with all the stops wee made. On the way back, we stopped by Susukino Street which is a beautiful street with amazing billboards and where you will find a large chunk of people exploring. As we got back to our Airbnb, we reflected on the day and felt really happy with how much stuff we saw and how much fun we had. The next thought on our minds was how much fun we would have the next day.
In conclusion, our first actual day in Sapporo was an unexpected success. With the combination of my planning, the mild weather, and great locations, I couldn’t be happier. For those who want to see the video I created for this blog, you can find it here. Next up is probably my personal favorite day that I had in Sapporo, Meorenuma Park and Mt. Moiwa Ropeway!
