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Hello everyryone, My name is Tripcomapany And here is Odori Park of Sapporo Hokkaido is the best vacation spot in Japan And Sapporo is its center city In this video, I will introduce Sapporo to you But not its top10, top12, top20 But Identity, features, background, districts kind of that
I hope you understand Sapporo itself through this video Yes, it is the time to discover the fantastic city in Hokkaido Sapporo is the center of Hokkaido one of the four islands that make up Japan. 2 million population makes Sapporo a largest city north of Tokyo.
Traditionally, the center of Japan has been southwest of Tokyo. and that’s still the case today. Anyway, when people think Sapporo They imagine a snow covered city in the north. Surprisingly, the absolute latitude is not that high. Letβs compare to other continents. There is south Oregon on the east side of Pacific Ocean
At the other side, there is Marseille with a Mediterranean port It is quite south than Berlin, the capital city of Germany But it’s amazing to see how cold and snowy it is. I will talk about the climate in more detail in the other video
Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido, is vying with Fukuoka For the Japan’s fourth largest city. While Sapporo has more people in the city itself. but Fukuoka has a larger metropolitan area. It all depends on what you look at when ranking cities. Most of the Japanese companies known abroad
Are in manufacturing and finance or character but Sapporo’s economy is a bit far from those 2~3 sectors Tokyo has a dominance in financial sector and the industrial base is concentrated in the south Japan Sapporo’s main industries are agriculture distribution, bio, and IT. They have few connections with oversea major international companies
And there are not major universities except for Hokkaido University which is one of 7 Japanese imperial universities It means not many people visit Sapporo for business or study abroad. Sapporo is mostly a tourist town for foreigners. Sapporo is also the starting point for traveling in Hokkaido.
First of all, most travelers from other countries arrive at New Chitose Airport, which is close to Sapporo. Although there is a high percentage of nearby travel. but once they’re in Sapporo, based in Sapporo and travel around There is also Shinkansen from Honshu to Hokkaido. but it only goes as far as Hakodate now
And it’s very expensive at $200 on one way. Hakodate is also the southern tip of Hokkaido so tourist has to spent another time to go to Sapporo If you fly from Tokyo to the New Chitose, it is half price. so it’s still a much better deal.
Yeah, Sapporo is the fourth or fifth largest city in Japan and the northernmost large city in the country Also the center and starting point for traveling in Hokkaido. So how did this city come to be? In 1853, American Commodore Matthew Perry appeared off the coast of Edo aka Tokyo with several warships.
As a result, Japan gave in to American demands to open five ports across the country. The development of Hokkaido begins at the same time as the construction and port opening of Hakodate. At the time, Hokkaido was the only vacant land in the immediate vicinity of Japan.
And Japanese government needs to stop the Russian expansion into the Far East. So the three prefectures were established in the early pioneering period. The opening port Hakodate, Sapporo in the center, and Nemuro in the east. The city Sapporo had no relationship with Japan before 19th century
They pushed native Ainu tribes and built a new Japanese town So Japan needed to name their new city The name Sapporo came out of this process. If you read the current Sapporo kanji, It is letter and insignia. Compared to other neighborhoods such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Fukuoka Their names are familiar and logical
East Capital, Capital city and happy hills But letter and insignia, What doest it means? It comes from The original Ainu name Sapporopet Which means a wide, dried river, Ishikari plane And Japan transliterated it to kanji So the city’s name, Sapporo. It only says, “This land was once belong to Ainu tribeβ
No more than that. Of these initial three prefectures Sapporo would eventually become the capital of Hokkaido. Geographically, it just made sense. Hakodate is too far south, not enough plains. Nemuro is too far east. There’s too much distance. But Sapporo is in the center, so it can see all of Hokkaido.
It’s close to the sea, so the city could utilize the harbor at Otaru. Also there is water resource from Ishikari and Toyohira river So Sapporo began to develop rapidly. In 1876, the agricultural school was built which became the foothold of Hokkaido’s dairy and agricultural industry. In 1880, a railroad was built to Otaru.
It made shipping more accessible. Sapporo Station was also built at this time. But there are no traces of the past left in present building It is not like Tokyo, but a countryside. so the first stations were very small. Anyway, the hotel that was built to welcome the vips during this time.
Was the Hoheikan in Nakajima park In the 1920s, thanks to the streetcar line that opened in 1918. Susukino gradually became a downtown area. But even then, there was a large red light district. Even now, it’s one of Japan’s most popular entertainment districts. So It’s a red light district with a long history.
And in the development of Sapporo, there was a lot of American influence. Japanese government didnβt have know-how to develop a modern city. So they invite and hire few American to advise for making new city The first principal of the agricultural school was William S Clark
If you go to Hokkaido University, where this agricultural school evolved. you can see headmaster. Clarke’s silhouette in anywhere The next step was the 1972 Winter Olympics, which brought Sapporo into a new era. That’s how international events like the Olympics and the World Cup work. They make a good reason for the event
And then get a budget for social overhead capital. Sapporo did the same thing, so they built the subway. The Namboku Line, which connects the athletes’ village to the city center It was the first subway in Sapporo. And several hotels had also opened And the underpass connecting Susukino to Sapporo Station
Was also built at this time. The contemporary city of Sapporo was born. It’s now 2024, nearly 50 years after the Winter Olympics. What does Sapporo look like now? Sapporo looks very happy with many tourists But the city’s future doesn’t look so bright. the population that determines the city’s power is declining.
Fukuoka, which is competing with Sapporo for the title of fourth city is experiencing population growth and that’s unusual for a prefectural city. Also, the Hokkaido Shinkansen, which is scheduled to open to Sapporo. is not going as smoothly. The construction process has encountered a number of difficulties and has been delayed.
And they planed to open 2026 Winter Olympics To reignite the hope of Sapporo but after the earthquake, they withdrew the bid. Will Sapporo become a slowly declining city? Or will it be able to rekindle memories of the good old days? So there you have it, an overview and background of Sapporo.
Now, let’s pull out Sapporo’s features from these two. Sapporo is not an old city that was created naturally It is a new modern city which built during the colonization of Hokkaido. And there is no hills, mountains, or large rivers in the downtown area.
So the city was originally laid out in a checkerboard pattern. Through these two factors, the lack of historical ties and the simple shape of the city. Many of Sapporo’s place names lack personality You can see the local name Jo in Sapporo and few Hokkaido cities
It it a word for small district like village And Chome is a smaller name under Jo Odori Park is a standard for north and south And Sosei river is for east and west You will find numerous Jo and Chome in Sapporo Kita 5jo Nishi simply means north 5th village on west
Kita12jo, north 12th village, Kita18jo, north 18th. So we define Susukino as this way From north to south, between Minami Yonjo and Minami Rokujo. and from Nish 2 chome to Nishi 6 chome from east to west As the numbers get bigger, you can roughly guess that I’m far away from Odori Park.
And there is another city that you can meet Jo in many places It is Kyoto Kiyomizu-gojo, Sanjo, and Nijo Castle. It’s interesting to see the most traditional city and the most modern city are cross in a local name Sapporo only has 1 extreme urban center And it is quite impressive in whole Japan.
The city is not large enough to have a secondary city center. nor are they forced by the mountains like in Rome, Italy. This line from Sapporo Station to Susukino is the alpha and omega of Sapporo. Most of the city’s leisure and business needs are concentrated in this center.
Even the subway system is radial. and the transfer station, they are also in the city center too. Odori and Sapporo station And they are connected by an underpass. so it’s practically one station. So travelers usually stay in the center of the city. and if they go outside of that, just for a place
They go to a theme park, they go to a park. They go to watch sports or concerts to dome There would be very few options to base camp elsewhere. Let’s compare it to other cities. Osaka has Namba and Umeda close by, but they’re completely different.
Fukuoka’s Tenjin and Hakata. They are closed to each other but asp they have different personalities I donβt need to mention about Tokyo But Susukino and Sapporo Station is felt like same area so it can be a bit monotonous when traveling to Sapporo multiple times.
You will travel almost exclusively in the city center. And You might think, “I can see everything in a day or two! β However, Sapporo has an official area of 1,121 km2. almost 11 times the size of Paris. And more than half of it is mountainous.
So there are some suburban travel content in Sapporo too From Moiwayama, which is famous for its observatory In the other quadrant, there is a ski resort It is not the only ski place in Sapporo. There are Bankei and more Jozankei hotspring also belongs to Sapporo
It’s a little bit far from the city center so some people donβt think it is Sapporo but it’s within the Sapporo administrative area. Of course, there are many more famous places outside of Sapporo. Noboribetsu is more famous than Jozankei. Niseko is much more recognized than Bankei.
But it’s a bit far, so if you want to do something in the city. there are alternatives. Noboribetsu is four times farther than Jozankei. Niseko is much farther than Bankei. So we have all the basic information. Now we’re going to use this to learn more about how Sapporo is organized.
We’ll start with New Chitose Airport, the gateway to Sapporo. Obviously this Airport is located in New Chitose, not Sapporo. There is another airport in Sapporo city, but so minor Only few Hokkaido regional flights are in there So you will take a bus or train from airpot into the city of Sapporo.
Sapporo is divided into several wards the most important and main one is Chuo-ku Simply means the center ward, First of all, Sapporo Station, the railroad center of all of Hokkaido. It at the northern end of Chuo-ward From here, you can catch all the buses and train
And there are also shopping malls, department stores Electronic stores near Sataion And there is Odori park beneath the station It is a grass covered small park with classical Tv tower Lots of main events of Sapporo hold in here the northern part of Odori park has an office atmosphere.
And the south is more commercial. In terms of major facilities, to the north is Sapporo City Hall. the clock tower of the former agricultural school and the Hokkaido Government Office. In the south, there are several department stores and the Susukino main district. Odori is also the center of the Sapporo subway system.
It’s the only three-line transfer station in the entire city. For more information about Sapporo’s downtown areas such as Susukino and Tanukikoji. I explain of them in Sapporo content video Susukino is Sapporo’s main downtown area. Tanukikoji is the arcade shopping district above it. And there’s one more place to remember
Nijo Market at the eastern end of Tanukikoji. The center of Sapporo’s seafood scene This trio of Susukino, Tanukikoji, and Nijo Market It’s 80% of Sapporo’s food travel, so don’t forget it. And then there’s a big underground passage between Sapporo Station and Susukino. On the ground, there aren’t many people passing by.
And it looks like it’s full of offices. but underground, people are constantly coming and going. The second major area in Chuo ward is Maruyama It’s literally a neighborhood around a mountain called Maruyama. There’s the zoo, the Hokkaido Jingu Shrine and the Okurayama observation deck with amazing ski jump deck
And you can take buses to Bankei, Moiwayama and other mountains west of Sapporo. so it’s quite a crowded area. And there are several wards that surround this Chuo Ward. South Ward, North Ward, East Ward, West Ward, etc. Honestly, you won’t hear or speak any real names.
Because most people mention just its place name And you rarely go into the neighborhoods because it’s a residential area. We talked about what’s in these scattered neighborhoods in the content video. but here’s a quick recap. Shiroi Koibito Park in the northwest, the confectionery company theme park, right?
Hokkaido University, just north of Sapporo Station. This is across the border. It’s not in Chuo-ku, it’s in Kita-ku. But it is really close to Sapporo station So it is 90% belong to Chuo ward for tourist Closer to the east side of Sapporo Station is the Sapporo Beer Garden
And then there’s Factory, a shopping mall that utilizes the brewery building. and further away is Moerenuma Park. In the southeast, the main attraction is the Sapporo Dome. It’s one of the top five domes in Japan. It’s quite magnificent as scenery but if you don’t have anything to see, you don’t go.
And then there’s Hitsujigaoka Observatory further away. but it’s not very well served by public transportation, so it’s less crowded. Many people just choose to go to Moiwayama And the last area where we will look around is Jozankei Onsen. It’s actually a small town, so there’s not much there
But it’s close to Sapporo city centre And there are also several ryokan and waterfalls. So it is enough to spend 1 or 2 days in there And It’s easily accessible by Jozankei bus from Sapporo Station. Of course, it doesn’t mean the trip is cheap. Accommodation prices are not much different from Noboribetsu.
It’s more about accessibility and time rather than price. But you should know this Noboribetsu is also easily accessible from New Chitose Airport. so many people use the onsen and go to the airport directly That’s one of the reasons why Noboribetsu has grown so much. Okay, so it is our overview of Sapporo.
Let’s summarize what we’ve learned today! Yes This is it. Now you learned about Sapporo itself I don’t know which kind of travel you will make in here You can just stay in Sapporo for your whole journey Or you just pass through for other destina Biei, Furano, Noboribetsu and e.t.c.
But I jutst hope you make unforgettable and unregretable memory in Sapporo Thank you for watching this long video and Thank you again