Sapporo Road Guide

Now let's talk about Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido Island. You can use Sapporo as a base to explore Hokkaido, for example to Otaru , Niseko, Furano, or Biei.

Transport to Sapporo

There are 2 ways to get to this city, by plane landing at New Chitose International Airport (CTS) or by JR Train (if from Tokyo or Hakodate ). If you take AirAsia, you can choose the Kuala Lumpur route directly to Sapporo Chitose (CTS), so you don't need to go via Tokyo. Scoot also has flights from Singapore to Sapporo.

From Chitose Airport, we can go to Sapporo Station in 30 minutes using the JR Rapid Airport (free with the JR Rail Pass )

Itinerary in Sapporo

There are several tourist attractions in Sapporo city that are worth visiting, I did not visit all of them because of time constraints. If you want to visit all of these places you will need 2-3 days.

Sapporo Clock Tower

Sapporo TV Tower

Sapporo Former Government Building

Mt Okura Ski Jump Observatory

Mt Moiwa Observatory

Shiroi Koibito Park

Ramen Alley

Sapporo Beer Museum

Accommodation in Sapporo

For hotels in Sapporo, I recommend staying around JR Sapporo Station, Odori, or Susukino. This place is like a busy center, so there are many choices of transportation and food. The three places are 3 train stations, but there is an underground mall that connects these three stations, so if you use your feet, you can walk up to 1.5km from end to end. Don't look for cheap room rates in Sapporo because they are hard to find...

Some hotel options:

Mercure Sapporo , about 50m from Susukino Station, from the Accor chain you're probably already familiar with.

MyStays Sapporo Station , a budget hotel with many branches in Japan. Rates start from around ¥4000 per person.

Century Royal Hotel , near Sapporo Station, rate around 1.2 million per night.

A more economical option if you are traveling with two or more people is to rent a house/apartment through AirBnB, usually in the form of a house or apartment unit, for Sapporo the price can be around USD 50-80 per night for 2 people. Usually it is complete with a kitchen and microwave so you can cook for yourself. A good host will even provide free pocket wifi that we can carry around. Btw, the airbnb link above is a referral and you will get $ 20 credit.

Tourist Attractions in Sapporo

Sapporo TV Tower and Clock Tower

This is the city center, as well as the landmark of Sapporo. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go here because I think it's not cool enough (compared to Tokyo Tower). Yes, the TV Tower is too short compared to the tall buildings in Sapporo. Please just google it, hehehe.

Mt Okura Ski Jump Observatory

So where did I spend my time? I climbed Mt Okura, one of the mountains/hills to see Sapporo city from above. To get here is by taking the Tozai Line subway from Odori to Maruyamakoen Station, then connecting with bus #14 from the bus terminal. But because the bus schedule is about 30-40 minutes during non-peak hours, I decided to take a taxi from Maruyamakoen (about 800 yen I forgot the exact amount), also because the bus stop is still a few hundred meters below the Ski Jump Stadium with an uphill contour.

This place is used as a ski race arena in winter, but in summer it becomes an observatory. We bought a chair-lift ticket for ¥500 to go up. The chair we ride has a safety belt, so don't be afraid of falling... it's really fun.

Viewed from the lower station, to the right is the ski slide

Viewed from the lower station, to the right is the ski slide

At the top... the view of pure white Sapporo is beautiful. Don't forget the cool air almost all year round here.

On the way home, we walked down the hill, about 10 minutes until we reached the bus stop to catch bus #14 back to the city.

You can choose to go to Mt Moiwa (people usually come here to see the night view of Sapporo) or Mt Okura, more or less the same. The difference is that Mt Moiwa does not have a chair lift, you go up using a ropeway (cable car ¥1100).

Ramen Alley (Ramen Yokocho)

If in Yokohama there is a Ramen Museum, then in Sapporo there is Ramen Alley, the place is not far from the Susukino station exit. This is a narrow alley where several ramen shops gather. Because the place is small, so you have to be ready to queue and be ready to eat fast. One shop can only fit 4-5 people. The taste of ramen varies, you just have to see which one suits you.

Shopping Places in Sapporo

As I explained above, for shopping we just stick to the JR Sapporo Station-Odori-Susukino axis, this 1km long road is full of shopping centers, both above ground or roadside and underground. You can find anything, especially fashion like Mitsukoshi, there are also all kinds of shops, including Don Quijote here. Yodobashi and BIC Camera, the 2 largest electronics stores in Japan are also near Sapporo Station.

One thing you shouldn't miss is trying Sapporo-style Cheese Tart... The shop is called Kinotoya, located at JR Sapporo Station. You can smell the aroma from afar, and the taste is delicious.

Shiroi Koibito Park

This might be an interesting place to bring your partner or kids: a chocolate biscuit factory that also has a beautiful garden. Shiroi chocolate biscuits will probably be the most popular souvenir people buy when traveling in Sapporo with the Ishiya brand . Actually, I think it's just so-so, but it would be a mistake not to buy it.

The highlight here is entering the park which is quite large (free), imagine the design is like Farmhouse in Lembang. There is a mini train for children which is quite impressive, and every 1 hour there is a bell with music and animated moving puppets on the roof of the building.

Garden at Ishiya Shiroi Chocolate Factory

If you want to join the Factory Tour, pay a ticket of ￥600 (you will get sample biscuits). The contents are not too important, most of them are the personal collection of the owner of this Chocolate Factory, but if you don't go in you will regret it hehehe, so I suggest you just join.

Sapporo Beer Museum

There is another recommended place , Sapporo Beer Museum, but I didn't have time to go (also because I brought the kids), the place where the famous Sapporo Beer brand originated. This place is free to enter and you can also have the opportunity to taste the beer for those who are interested.

Next

Please continue to articles around Sapporo such as Daytrip to Otaru , Furano (in writing), or to Asahikawa city.