Sapporo
札幌43°04′ N 141°21′ ECityPop. 1,954,588Sapporo
Hokkaido's capital has five ski hills inside its own city limits and the island's deepest bench of ramen and soup curry.
Photo by Nao Takabayashi on Unsplash and others, credited in the gallery
Who should base here
Base here if you want variety and a real night out, with Teine and Kokusai as day trips and Kiroro or Niseko on the bus. It suits mixed groups where not everyone rides every day.
The name
sat-poro-pet / sari-poro-pet
サッ・ポロ・ペッ／サリ・ポロ・ペッEither the dry, great river (sat-poro-pet) or the river with the vast reed beds (sari-poro-pet)
ainu
Sapporo City gives both readings. Matsuura Takeshirō favoured sat-poro-pet, since the old Toyohira River ran almost dry in the dry season; Yamada Hidezō proposed sari-poro-pet. The name first appears in writing as さつほろ, a settlement three ri up the Ishikari River named in a Tsugaru domain report from Shakushain's War (1669). Katakana and then the characters 札縨 and 札幌 replaced the kana spelling through the late Edo and Meiji years.
SourceEat · 食べる
663highland / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.5 Sumire Nakanoshimaすみれ 中の島本店ramen¥
The original shop of the family that defined modern Sapporo miso ramen in 1964. The bowl is rich and garlicky, and a layer of lard keeps the soup scalding to the last mouthful. It is a subway ride south of the centre in Nakanoshima.
Menya Saimi麺屋 彩未ramen¥
Menya Saimi draws some of the longest miso ramen queues in the city, out in Misono. The bowl is cleaner and sweeter than Sumire's, with grated ginger on the side to stir in halfway. Closed Mondays, and the evening session takes Tuesdays and Wednesdays off.
Daruma Honten成吉思汗だるま 本店yakiniku¥¥
Genghis Khan since 1954. Fresh mutton goes onto a domed iron pan over charcoal with onions and leeks, then gets dunked in the house sauce. Expect a line on weekends and a short, smoky meal.
Soup Curry Garakuスープカレー GARAKU 札幌本店curry¥¥
Garaku builds its soup curry on Japanese dashi made from dried fish flakes and tops it with deep-fried vegetables and a tender chicken leg. The flagship has moved to a basement at South 3, East 2; check the address before you go.
Suage+すあげ+curry¥¥
Skewered chicken and charred vegetables stand up in a bright, spicy broth. A Susukino classic that has spread across Japan, and still the one locals send friends to.
Sugi no Meきょうど料理亭 杉ノ目fine¥¥¥¥
Crab and Hokkaido country cooking in private rooms inside a 1915 warehouse built from Sapporo soft stone. Open since 1963 and a good choice for the one big dinner of the trip. Closed Sundays.
Sushi Sekiguchi寿し関口sushi¥¥¥¥
A sixth-floor Susukino counter where you give a budget when you book and the chef cooks to it. Simmered kinki rockfish is the house speciality. Closed Sundays.
Parfait, Coffee, Sake, Sasakiパフェ、珈琲、酒、佐々木cafe¥¥
The place to try the Sapporo shime parfait at midnight. Pistachio and salted caramel is the bestseller. It opens at 18:00 and runs to 1:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.
Drink · 飲む
Bar Yamazakibar
Susukino's most storied cocktail bar sits on the fourth floor of a building at South 3, West 3. Tatsuro Yamazaki trained generations of Japanese bartenders here. Jazz plays on a valve amp. Open 18:00 to 0:30; closed Sundays.
Tsuki to Taiyo Brewingbrewery
This brewpub by Sosei River Park keeps ten house beers on tap and serves Hokkaido food to match, including a cold dish of local venison.
Beer Cellar Sapporobar
A small craft beer bar run by an importer that brings in Oregon beer and brews its own label. Tasting flights of four are the move.
t-konno / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 Sapporo Beer Gardenbrewery
Old red-brick beer halls in Higashi-ku where you grill lamb and drink factory-fresh Sapporo by the litre. Touristy and fun with a group.
Do · 遊ぶ
Ominae / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 Sapporo Snow Festivalculture
The 77th festival runs 4–11 February 2027 in Odori Park and Susukino, with a family site out at Tsudome. Huge snow sculptures by day and ice carvings lit up in Susukino at night.
Wing1990hk / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 Nijo Marketmarket
A covered fish market a short walk from Odori, where some shops have traded for over a century. Come early for a uni and ikura bowl before the bus to the hill.
掬茶 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 Mt. Moiwa Ropewaysight
A ropeway and mini cable car climb to the 531 m summit, where the whole lit grid of the city spreads out below. Bring a jacket; the top is properly cold after dark.
Ermell / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 Sapporo Beer Museummuseum
A red-brick building in Higashi-ku tells Sapporo beer's story from the colonial brewery of 1876. It reopened after a refresh in July 2026, and paid guided tours finish in a tasting hall.
禁樹なずな / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 Sapporo Pirka Kotanculture
The city's Ainu culture centre sits in Koganeyu on the road to Jozankei. Exhibits cover Ainu daily life and history, and staff run guided explanations.
t-konno / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 Sapporo White Illuminationsight
Light installations along Odori Park and Ekimae-dori from 20 November 2026 to 14 March 2027. The Munich Christmas Market runs in the park from 20 November to 25 December.
Most riders treat Sapporo as the place between the airport and the mountains, and most of them leave a day too early. Close to two million people live on a grid the colonial government laid out in the 1870s, so addresses read like map coordinates. South 5, West 3 puts you in the middle of Susukino. On a snowy night the plows grind down the avenues and the side streets fill with steam from ramen counters and charcoal grills.
Teine, Bankei, Moiwayama, Fu's and Kokusai all sit inside the city boundary. Teine looks straight down on the Sea of Japan from the northwest suburbs and still has the runs from the 1972 Olympic slalom. Kokusai is the one to chase on a storm day. It sits up past Jozankei where the snow piles deeper and drier than anywhere near the coast, and its gondola gets you into it fast. Bankei and Moiwayama keep their lights on into the evening, and plenty of locals ride a few laps after work.
Eat miso ramen at least once. Sumire has been serving its garlicky, lard-sealed bowls since 1964, and cooks who trained there went on to open shops like Menya Saimi out in Misono. Daruma has grilled mutton on little iron domes in Susukino since 1954; you sit at the counter, the ladies light your charcoal and you leave smelling of lamb fat for a day. Soup curry was born in Sapporo, and a bowl at Garaku or Suage+ will thaw your fingers after a cold session at Kokusai.
The city has a late-night habit called shime parfait, where people finish a night of drinking with a tall glass of ice cream and fruit at a bar that opens at six in the evening. Try it once. If you are here for the Snow Festival in early February, book rooms months out and ride on the weekdays, when the hills empty and the city fills. Sapporo Pirka Kotan means the beautiful village of Sapporo in Ainu. The city's Ainu culture centre sits in Koganeyu on the road to Jozankei and Kokusai, and it is worth an hour on a flat-light afternoon.
Quick answers about Sapporoよくある質問
What does the name Sapporo mean?
Sapporo comes from the local name sat-poro-pet / sari-poro-pet, meaning either the dry, great river (sat-poro-pet) or the river with the vast reed beds (sari-poro-pet). Sapporo City gives both readings. Matsuura Takeshirō favoured sat-poro-pet, since the old Toyohira River ran almost dry in the dry season; Yamada Hidezō proposed sari-poro-pet. The name first appears in writing as さつほろ, a settlement three ri up the Ishikari River named in a Tsugaru domain report from Shakushain's War (1669). Katakana and then the characters 札縨 and 札幌 replaced the kana spelling through the late Edo and Meiji years.
Is Sapporo a good place to stay?
Base here if you want variety and a real night out, with Teine and Kokusai as day trips and Kiroro or Niseko on the bus. It suits mixed groups where not everyone rides every day.
How do you get to Sapporo?
Rapid Airport trains reach Sapporo Station from New Chitose Airport in about 40 minutes. Three subway lines and a streetcar loop cover the centre. Buses run to Teine and Kokusai in winter, and Kiroro and the Niseko resorts have their own winter shuttles from the city.
Ride from Sapporo近くの山
Stay in Sapporo宿
Hot springs nearby温泉
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