Sapporo & Otaru: City & Port Adventures

Sapporo City Exploration

This comprehensive Sapporo and Otaru travel guide covers all the top attractions and experiences you shouldn't miss.Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, is also the biggest city in Hokkaido. This place is famous for its night markets, winter festivals, for shopping and also apparently for its local beer. 

Historical Village of Hokkaido (Outdoor Museum)

The Historical Village of Hokkaido is an outdoor museum that has scaled replicas or full sized structures of buildings from the past - residences, shops, a school, factories,  and even a police office . In the town area, you can see where people live and what they did for a living. We saw fishing trade houses  where people stored herring after catching them.

Trying to Milk an Artificial Cow!

There is also a  farm area with a barn where  you can try to milk an artificial cow! In the forest, there is a locomotive station with a train that carries wood to the town so people can make fire. At every shop, there is a place where the owner lives. You can take a piece of paper as a souvenir after you dye it in indigo dye!  If you want to go from the town to the farming and fishing villages, you can take a horse drawn cart to go there.

Sapporo shopping district

You can see the Sapporo TV tower and take a lift to the top or climb up if you like. There are lots of shopping streets  numbered one, two, three and so on. There are drug stores where you can buy beauty products, clothing shops, and also shops selling Hokkaido food products - cheese cakes, chocolates, and souvenirs like wooden bear carvings.

Recommended: The brand Royce’s chocolates

Otaru Port City Day Trip

Otaru is a port city that lies north of Sapporo and is an hour's drive away. Glass works are a specialty in Otaru. You can find lots of glass wind chimes hung up on shops as decorations. There are even music boxes that are made of glass! The port is known for its fresh seafood, and other street snacks like gyoza, croquettes, crepes etc). We also saw a lot of people on boat

Best Street Food: Sapporo and Otaru Travel Guide

 Soup curry in Sapporo (and Toya)

Soup Curry is a traditional food found in Sapporo, which is a blend of Japanese curry and soup. It is made of soup, a variety of vegetables such as mushroom and lotus and meat like hamburger steak, chicken or beef. My grandmother liked it so much she wanted to eat it every evening! You can choose your soup spice level (1-10). I chose level two spiciness which was not very spicy ( I wanted level three!) The meat was so tender and juicy and the vegetables really crunchy. I loved the dish.

Japanese Potato Croquettes (3 Flavors!)

Japanese potato croquettes are street food in Otaru and are a speciality in Hokkaido because the potatoes are grown in Hokkaido. There are 3 flavours, beef and cheese, crab cream and of course, potato. I really liked the beef and cheese croquettes because the beef tasted a lot like wagyu. I also liked the crunchy texture of the batter. Our family ordered loads of them because we liked it so much.

Crepes Overloaded

Crepes in a cone was another treat we enjoyed in Otaru, which comes in a cone and is loaded with fruits, cream and whatever you want to add to it. I made sure mine has lots of chocolate syrup and cream.

Accommodation in Sapporo

There are many options in Sapporo since it is a city - hotels, apartments and small houses aslo. Since we were a big family, we rented the Entire home in Higashi-ku, Sapporo-shi, Japan.

This house is a surprisingly large two storied, townhouse right in the city. What I liked most about staying here is that the city is always busy in the morning and I can look out of the window to see what people are doing unlike an apartment where you can only get a view from the top