Sapporo Like a Local Guided Tour
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Odori literally means 'large street' is a spacious green park located right in the heart of Sapporo downtown. Greatly contrasting the surrounding high buildings, the park serves as the city's lungs and a perfect place to relax and escape from the city's hustles and bustles. It is possible to spend all day long at the park without even getting bored since there are interesting art sculptures, open space gardens, and fountains. It also connected to Sapporo Tower at the eastern end with its observation deck where you can see a breathtaking view of the whole city from above. Odori Park is also strategically placed among shopping and entertainment districts it only takes a short walk to get to any city attractions in the area. Most of all, Odori Park is a venue where most cultural e vents are held each year. The well-known Sapporo Snow Festival is held annually at Odori Park to celebrate winter season.
Sapporo Beer Museum introduce all interesting beer-related knowledges and facts. In fact Sapporo has been known as a birthplace of 'Sapporo Beer', the most well-renowned and the oldest beer brand since 1877. The museum resides in a former brewery from Meiji Period giving an even more vintage vibe. All of these will make all beer lovers even more eager to spend their time at the museum. In Sapporo Beer Museum, you not only learn more about the process of beer-making, but also you can have a chance to taste a glass of beer sample being offered. Hop to the Sapporo Beer Garden just next to the museum to enjoy various restaurants serving delicious dishes and of course accompanies with a glass of beer your choice. Garden Grill restaurant is the most famous restaurant with sophisticated vibe. Not only you can enjoy the atmospheric beer halls, you can even enjoy all-you-can-eat mutton BBQ with all-you-can-drink beer in 30 minutes that will definitely satiate your appetite.
'Shiroi Koibito' literally means 'White Lovers Park', actually a reference to a popular French-style white chocolate cookies brand named 'Shiroi Koibito” made by a confectionary company who also established the park. At Shiroi Koibito Park you'll get to see process of how your favorite chocolates are made. You can also try hand on making some delightful 14 cm heart-shaped cookies to impress your koibito, a.k.a lover. You can even decorate your cookie with cute heartfelt scribbles made of melted white chocolate. Nothing's cuter than that now, isn't it? Don't forget to visit a souvenir shop selling assortments of Ishiya's renowned chocolate and confections. There's also a restaurant offering you delightful desserts from chocolate drinks to Shiroi Koibito Parfait. Don't forget to take some time to enjoy a beautiful outdoor view of colorful flowers grown in the park's garden.
Sapporo Clock Tower, locally known as 'Tokeidai' is an iconic landmark and symbol of Sapporo. The clock tower is actually one part of Sapporo Agricultural College (today known as Hokkaido University) and serves as a museum containing artefacts of students' belongings who studied there, along with the history of the college. On second floor, you'll find a spacious ceremony hall with American-Midwest accent that also serves as a musical hall. There are some display about the clock with most information are also written in English. The outdoor scenery is breath-taking it's worth to stay a bit longer to take some gorgeous panoramic shots.
Located in the northernmost of Hokkaido Island, Sapporo has become the coolest and the most favorite city locals and international tourists love to visit during Winter. Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the biggest winter festival in Japan held regularly here. The city gained its momentum since Winter Olympic in 1972. Sapporo boasts numerous attractions you can visit and enjoy to your heart content at anytime of the year.
How to Get Tickets?
Tickets can be bought offline or online. If you want to skip the line and save more time, it's better to buy the tickets beforehand. You can purchase them at this website and make a safe paymetn afterwards.
How To Get Around?
Sapporo is one of the easiest city to navigate in Japan, you can hardly get lost here. Walking around on your own can be a great option, whether on the open street or through the underground paths, but if you want to travel faster, there are many public transports for you to choose. Sapporo's unique public transport, streetcars, are probably the most convenient and money-saving. Each car is only 7 minutes away from each other, it reaches almost every part of the town, it's the fastest way to get anywhere, it's affordable (only 200 yen) and it accepts any IC cards (SUICA, Sapica, etc). Aside from that, you can also ride the subways and trains. While trains are more useful to explore nearby places outside the city, the subway can also reach almost every place in the city, like the streetcars. But the fare are slightly more expensive. If you have an international driver's license or Japanese driver's license and you're 18 years old or older, you can try renting a car and explore the city at your own pace. A lot of car renting website are available in English, so you don't need to worry.
What Should I Wear?
People don't really wear sleeveless since the city is cold most of the time. In summer, people wear less clothes, but they still wear short-sleeved shirts paired with shorts or skirts. In spring, long sleeves, trousers, and covered shoes are the best choices for you since it can still be cold. Autumn requires long sleeves and trousers too, but you might want to also wear a jacket or scarf. Meanwhile in winter, you need to wear layers, depending on how much you're used to the cold of winter. The outdoor can be very cold but buildings ususally have heaters inside. Layers are better so you can take off your outer clothes when you're inside a building with heaters.
Best Time to Visit
Every season in Sapporo has its own beauty so you won't regret going at any season at all. In Spring (March to May), the snow has started melting and it starts getting windy and cold, but the view is beautiful since the sakura flowers are blooming. Summer (June tp August) has the best weather since it's dry and warm. Even though the sakura flowers aren't blooming anymore, other beautiful flowers are blooming during this season so you won't miss the beautiful view. In autumn (September to November), it gets even windier and early monrings and late nights can get very cold. Even so, Sapporo offers another amazing view during this month as all the leafs are starting to change colors. It's a wonderful view after all. Lastly, in winter (December to February), it gets extremely cold, but there are many exciting activities you can do. You can try the hot springs, enjoy some winter sports, and witness Sapporo's winter festivals. So any season that you choose, your experience is still going to be great.
Currency
Yen
Will I Need a Guide?
No, a guide is not needed since transportation is easy and you'll hardly get lost. But most people say language barrier is one of the problem of traveling without a guide there. So, hiring a guide might be useful to help you get around and enhance your experience here. But if you don't hire any guide, you can still survive just fine.
How To Get There?
International tourists traveling from outside of Japan can reach Sapporo by air, arriving at Sapporo's New Chitose Airport. If youre traveling from Tokyo, you can ride the Shinkansen, which takes about 8 hours to get to Sapporo. If you want to travel in even slower pace and cheaper, the ferry can be a great option.
Additional Info
Always research first about tourist attractions opening hours in advance since they might close a little earlier. Don't smoke in public, it's completely banned. Even though the city is peaceful and quiet, you still need to keep an eye on your belongings in public places. Most of the shops in Sapporo has adapted cashless payment, but bringing enough cash is still needed, just in case. If you want to try the city's famous food with a tight budget, eat at the local cafes serving high quality noodles and ethnic treats. The plug type in Sapporo and Japan is type A and B. They both have two parallel pins but type B has an extra prong for grounding at the bottom.