Hokkaido · Day Tour
A city laid out on a grid in 1869, which makes it the least Japanese city in Japan.
From
¥30,000 per person
approx. US$190
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Instant confirmation
A private Sapporo tour with a local guide. The Clock Tower, Odori Park, Hokkaido Shrine, the Sapporo Beer Museum and the Mount Moiwa ropeway are the usual candidates. Sapporo was planned from nothing in the nineteenth century and it shows in every street.
Sapporo did not grow, it was planned. In 1869 the new government set out to develop Hokkaido and laid the city on a numbered grid with foreign advisers involved. That is why the streets are wide and straight, why addresses are coordinates, and why the Clock Tower is a New England-style wooden building rather than anything Japanese.
Founded at the same time as the city, in woodland that is now Maruyama Park. It enshrines the deities of the development of the island alongside the Meiji emperor, which makes it a shrine to a project rather than to antiquity. In late spring the park around it is the city's cherry blossom ground.
Sapporo brewed the first beer in Japan, and the museum occupies the original brick brewery. The exhibits cover the German-trained brewer who started it, and the tasting at the end includes a beer that is not sold outside the site. Next door, lamb is grilled on domed skillets in halls of several hundred people.
Mount Moiwa's cable car goes up from the edge of the city to a view over the whole grid and the bay beyond. Sapporo invented miso ramen, and the Nijo market sells crab, sea urchin and scallops from the surrounding seas. Your guide will fit whichever of these matters to you into the day.
Meet your guide at the North Square.
The centre of the planned grid.
In the woods of Maruyama Park.
The original brewery, and a tasting.
The cable car, and the city from above.
Sapporo Station North Square, Kita Ward, Sapporo. Your guide will contact you on WhatsApp beforehand to agree the plan.
The price covers your private English-speaking guide. Entry fees, transport and meals are paid as you go, and by convention you also cover your guide's. Bring cash.
Early February, in Odori Park and elsewhere in the city. Accommodation is scarce and expensive then, so book well ahead.
Otaru is around forty minutes away and works as a half day. Noboribetsu, for the hot springs, needs a full one. Ask when you book.
It is the busiest season and the reason many people come. It is also genuinely cold, so come equipped.
Nijo Market and the surrounding streets. Your guide will steer you away from the tourist-priced stalls.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time. Bookings are confirmed instantly.
Hokkaido · Day Tour
6 hours · From ¥30,000
