Sapporo
Like so many places in Hokkaido, Japan’s fifth largest city takes its name from the Ainu language. The word Sapporo is the Japanese appropriation of an Ainu place name meaning “large river running through a plain.” For many visitors, expecting a sleepy city far from the heart of things, Sapporo is a delightful surprise. One of Japan’s youngest cities, Sapporo is also one of its most accessible, particularly on foot, owing to its ample park spaces and carefully planned grids of streets. After you’ve thoroughly explored the city, the Susukino drinking district offers the largest choice of bars and restaurants north of Tokyo. Outside Japan, Sapporo is probably most closely identified with the 1972 Winter Olympics. Among Japanese, however, the city is probably better known for its incredible cold-water seafood (especially crab) and the Sapporo Snow Festival.The Snow Festival began almost 60 years ago with a group of high-school kids building glorified snowmen in one of the city’s parks. Today, the snowmen have mutated into enormous and elaborate sculptures, built by international teams competing against one another in an event that draws thousands of people to the city despite frigid temperatures. During the festival, there are also concerts and other attractions nightly. Held each year from February 5th to the 11th, those planning to visit the Snow Festival should make reservations well ahead of time.
The city also boasts an unusually high number of western-style buildings, in part because large numbers of foreign advisors were brought to the city during its early years to train Japanese in the most appropriate technologies for the exploitation of Hokkaido’s vast interior. One well-known result of this policy is that many of Hokkaido’s older farm buildings look as if they were just airlifted in from Iowa. In Sapporo, the most famous of these western-style buildings is the Sapporo Clock Tower, the last vestige of an early agricultural college that later developed into Hokkaido University. Instantly recognizable by almost all Japanese in photographs, the Clock Tower is an attractive building, but has also been named one of Japan’s “Three Great Disappointments” because it’s so much smaller than people expect. Never mind that. Once people have had a look at the rest of Sapporo, they’re more than willing to forgive a slightly dispiriting old clock. Come see for yourself!
More Info.:
Odori Koen Park
William Smith Clark
Historical Village of Hokkaido
Sapporo Beer Garden
Sapporo City: http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/english/index.html
