Hatsumode is the first temple or shrine visit of the new year.
This is when wishes are made, new omamori (charms) are bought, and old omamori from the past year are brought back to be burned.
This year I went to Hokkaido-jingu Shrine located in Maruyama Park Sapporo. Before entering the shrine on the right side of the path there were announcements next to a large white tented area; this seemed to be a local blood drive asking people to help donate. Inside the shrine grounds was a mass of people all in separate lines according to their agendas.
The wishing area in front of the shrine itself had been altered from a small trunk sized box to a huge hanging tarp leading down to several trunk like boxes. People in the multiple wishing lines throw their offerings at the tarp and it would slide down into the box. Regular offerings is 5 Japanese Yen but depending on the person and how strongly they’re wishing the offering can always be more. After the visit to the shrine the path leading to the main area of the park was lined with street venders.
Most were selling different food items, some toys, and others overlapped what other booths had. The shrine, unlike the park, does have parking available to the public but as you can probably tell already with the sheer amount of people there to get one of the stalls would be a wish granted at the shrine already! It would be best in my opinion to take the subway system instead of you are planning to visit here for Hatsumode.
As Hokkaido-jingu Shrine is along a route I do drive a lot I have noticed that the parking lot often has cars in line along the road waiting to get in on various days. This being said even if you plan to visit on a non holiday it may be best to have back-up parking ideas such as Coin Park or Time’s Parking.