Sapporo for 2 Days

Top Things to Do in Sapporo

Sapporo is the capital of the Northern part of Japan, Hokkaido. If you travel to Sapporo, I would suggest staying at hotel nearby the JR Sapporo station, so that could save subway fee from JR Sapporo to other station. In Hokkaido, we can use the SUICA Card that we bought in any stations in Tokyo, but we cannot top-up the balance for SUICA card in Hokkaido. So make sure if you have top up enough amounts when you were at Tokyo.

Day 1

Shiroi Koibito Park

Shiroi Koibito is famous for the biscuit made in Hokkaido. Almost every part of Japan sells the biscuits, it can also easily be found outside Hokkaido. This is not a theme park, there is no adrenaline attraction. It is simply a park with beautiful decoration, and a chocolate factory. I visited there during Christmas, so there was Christmas illumination and amazing decorations.
 

Attractions in the park:

1.      A café offering the Ishiya’s sweets and souvenirs shop.

2.      Exhibition room in level 2.

3.      Make your own cookie at Cookiecrafts studio at level 3. The fee is JPY 972 per person for 1 cookie.

4.      A chocolate lounge at level 4. The fee for the chocolate fondue or tea set is JPY 2,160 per person.

5.      Rose garden from mid May to end of October.

How to get there:

Take Subway to Miyanosawa Station on Tozai Line + 8 minutes walk

Opening Hours : 9.00 – 18.00

Entrance fee: It is Free for those who just wants to walk around the park.

Sapporo TV Tower

The observation deck is at elevation of 90 meters and it offers 360 degree of view.  Although there are many tall apartments and buildings are built in Sapporo recently, the observation deck is still the only place to view Odori Park from top.

There are some restaurants in the building too. We picked ramen since somebody was craving for it. We ordered curry ramen and soyu ramen, the portion too big that we couldn't finished it.

How to get there:

The nearest subway station is Odori or 10 minutes walking distances from JR Sapporo Station.

Opening hours: 9.00- 22.00

Entrance Fee: JPY 720  for adults, JPY 100 for children below 3.

Odori Park

Odori Park is located next to the Sapporo TV Tower. I think the best time to visit here is during winter. The famous Sapporo Snow Festival is held at Odori Park on every February.


Christmas Market

I went there on December, so there was German Christmas Market at Odori Park, selling kinds of street foods from Munich.

Hot Wine

It is an ideal drink in this cold weather. It taste sweet and warm.
We can feel the Christmas festive occasion here. It was a very nice park to walk, the beautiful illuminations and the Christmas market.

Sapporo Beer Museum

Sapporo Beer Museum is kinda a legendary museum in Japan. It is the top choice museum in Sapporo, especially for the beer lover.
 

How to get there:

-   Take subway to Higashi kuyakusho mae Station + 15 minutes walk

-   Take subway to JR Sapporo Station + Bus No 188

-   Take bus  ‘Loop 88 Factory Line’ departs every 20 minutes from places nearby Odori Station and in front of Seibu department store near Sapporo Station

Opening hours : 11.30 to 20.00 (entry until 19.30), closed every Monday.

Entrance fee : free

I am not a beer lover, but I would like to see how legendary it is. Too bad when I arrived there was already 7.30pm and it is closed T.T . So we went to the Sapporo Beer Garden which located next to the museum.

Sapporo Beer Garden

Sapporo Beer Garden is located next to Sapporo Beer Museum. It is a barbeque restaurant. We can choose to have ‘all you can eat’ or ala carte meal.

The average price per person is JPY 3,500. Here is what we’ve ordered:
 

Day 2

Day Trip to Otaru 

Otaru is a city in located nearby to Sapporo. It can be accessed with only 50 minutes of subway from JR Sapporo. It is covered by the JR Pass. Most people make a day trip in Otaru from Sapporo.

Otaru Morning Market

We went to the Otaru morning market for lunch.

Kinda disappointed as the meals were not as fresh as we expected. We had one in Tsukiji Market in Tokyo and it was really fresh and delicious.

Music Box Museum

Otaru music box museum is a beautiful old building with full of music boxes in various types, sizes and songs.

How to Get There:

-        Take Subway to JR Minami Otaru Station + 7 minutes walk

-        Take Subway to JR Otaru Station + 25 minutes walk

Opening hours : 9:00 to 18:00

Entrance fee: Free

Otaru Canal小樽運河

We walked from the music box museum to the Otaru canal. Before arrived the Otaru Canal, we passed by few stores like Hokkaido ice cream stores, convenience stores and Uniqlo. We spent for about 1 hour to shop and eat ice cream before arrived the Otaru Canal.
Hokkaido Milk Ice Cream is a must try when you're at Hokkaido. The milk texture is very rich. I love it so much despite the cold weather.

Hokkaido Ice Cream

Otaru Canal is a famous tourist destination in Otaru.  It is a definitely not to be missed destination if you have time to visit Otaru.

Although I have spent 3 days in Sapporo, but 1 day was supposedly travel to Tomamu Ice Village. However, due to heavy snow and bad weather, we spent most of our time on the transportation back to Sapporo.

Nakajima Park

Heavy Snow

This is a suggested itinerary if you have 2 days in Sapporo.  I traveled from Toya Lake to Sapporo and arrived Sapporo at 11am. After check in and lunch, we arrived Shiroi Koibito at around 1pm, which unable us to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum on that day. If you have 2 days full, then it allows you to visit all of the places I mentioned above.