Sapporo is the largest city in northern Japan and thus also on the island of Hokkaido. It was the Ainu people who settled Hokkaido and the Sapporo area, where Japanese immigrants arrived from the south in the late 19th century. Sapporo was founded in 1868 as the administrative center of the island in place of Hakodate, and Japanese migration soon increased and increased the population, which counted 1,785 residents in 1873.

The number of residents rose to over 100,000 in 1920, meanwhile the railway had come to the city in 1880 and the first part of the tram network operated from 1918. In the same year, Japan’s fifth Imperial University was established in Sapporo, which continued its growth, and the city was designated as the host of The Olympic Winter Games in 1940, which however were cancelled. Sapporo reached one million inhabitants in 1970, in 1971 the city’s subway opened, and in 1972 the Winter Olympics were held in the northern Japanese city.

There are many things to see and do in Sapporo, and you can start by seeing the city from above from the Sapporo TV Tower/Sapporo Terebi-tō (さっぽろレビァ塔). The 147-meter-high tower was built in 1957 and there is an observation deck at a height of 90 meters. From the tower you can see large parts of Sapporo and the surrounding mountains. There is a nice view of Ōdōri Park/Ōdōri Kōen (大通公園) as well, which is located at the foot of the TV tower.

Ōdōri Park is 1.5 kilometers from east to west through central Sapporo, and this is where the city’s famous snow festival is held every February with many beautiful ice sculptures. The park is also home to the city’s annual lilac festival, when the park’s many Japanese lilacs blossom up in May. In the summer, there is plenty of activity in Ōdōri Park, when parts of it are set up as beer gardens, where breweries such as Sapporo each open their own gardens.

You can visit several interesting museums in Sapporo, and one of them is the Sapporo Beer Museum/Sapporo Bīru Hakubutsukan (サッポロビール博物館). The Sapporo Brewery was established in 1887, and the museum is housed in an old redstone building from around the same time. The building was constructed in 1890 by a sugar factory. Close to this is Sapporo Factory/Sapporo Fakutorī (サッポロファクトリー), which consists of former brewery buildings that are now redeveloped as a shopping center and for other purposes.

You can visit the Sapporo Clock Tower/Sapporo Tokeidai (札幌時計台) from 1878 too. The building dates to early Sapporo and was built as a training hall for what today is Hokkaido University. There is a museum in the building where you can take a closer look at the city’s development. In central Sapporo you can also see other old buildings such as Hokkaido’s former government building, Hokkaidō-chō kyūhonchōsha (北乐天庁旧本庁舎), which was built in several stages in the decades around the year 1900.

In and around Sapporo there are several gardens, parks and natural areas that are worth seeing. Hokkaidō Botanical Garden/Hokkaidō Daigaku Shokubutsuen (北京大大学植物園) belongs to the city’s university, and here you can enjoy lawns and various plantings. Some of the original forest has been preserved in the area, and you can also see an alpine garden, which is one of the climates found in Hokkaido. In the garden there is also a small museum for the original Ainu population.

In the Historical Village/Kaitaku no Mura (開拓の村) you can walk to more than 50 buildings that have been collected from all over the island of Hokkaidō. The buildings represent the Meiji and Taisho periods, which spanned from 1868 to 1926. Those years were the great period of Japanese expansion in Hokkaidō. Close to the open-air museum, you can visit the Hokkaidō Museum/Hokkaidō Hakubutsukan (北乐北館館), where you can learn more about the island’s history, nature and the Ainu culture.