Sapporo · OdoriNo.717★★★Open in map →

Odori Park

localThe classic — done right

A 1.5-kilometre band of green cutting east to west through central Sapporo, laid out in 1871 as a firebreak rather than a park. Twelve city blocks long and one block wide, it is the ground the snow festival is built on every February.

FromSapporo Station
~5 minSubway, three lines
Get off atOdori Station (Namboku, Tozai and Toho subway lines)
On foot
Odori Park

Directions ↗

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Sapporo TV Towerthe red lattice tower that closes the eastern end of the strip
The fountainswater set along the middle blocks, running in the green season
The flower bedslong seasonal beds tended block by block, a tradition on this ground since the colonisation office
The rose gardenplanting toward the western blocks, at the quieter end of the park

How to actually get there

Sapporo Station → Odori Station (Namboku Line, one stop, or walk the underground concourse).
Odori Station exit 6 → block 3, then walk east to the Sapporo TV Tower at the end of the strip.
Turn back and walk west along the middle of the park, past the fountains and the flower beds.
Carry on to the western blocks for the roses, and leave from Nishi-juitchome Station at that end.

One subway stop from Sapporo Station: Sapporo Station →(Namboku Line, one stop)→ Odori Station, which sits directly under the park. In winter you can also walk the entire way underground, through the concourse that links the two stations, without stepping outside.
Back from Odori Station: Odori is on all three subway lines — Namboku, Tozai and Toho — so most of central Sapporo is a single ride away. The park itself never closes, but the subway does not run through the night, so check the last departure if you stay for an evening illumination.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Odori Park runs from block 1 to block 12 through the middle of Sapporo, about 1.5 kilometres end to end and roughly 7.8 hectares in all. Being a corridor rather than a square changes how the city uses it: everything staged here is laid out block by block, in a line, instead of gathered in one place. Sapporo's address grid counts north and south from this strip, so the park is also the line the whole city is measured against. Three subway lines meet directly beneath it.

How to enjoy it

In February the Odori site of the snow festival occupies blocks 1 to 11, and because it is a public park you can walk through it at any hour, with the sculptures lit until 22:00 and no ticket at any of the three festival sites. The rest of the year the same strip turns over: lilacs in May, the Yosakoi Soran dance festival in June, beer tables through July and August, and the white illumination from November into January.

Background & history

The strip was cleared in 1871 as a firebreak, dividing the new city into an administrative quarter to the north and a merchant and residential one to the south. Flower beds appeared on the third and fourth blocks from about 1875, planted by the colonisation office with Western species. In 1909 the city brought the landscape gardener Yasuhei Nagaoka from Tokyo to lay the ground out properly as a park. The snow festival began here in 1950, when local school students built six snow sculptures on the site.

Before you go

Cash: The park is public ground with no gate and no admission, and all three snow festival sites are free to enter as well. Carry cash or an IC card for the subway; the food and drink stalls that appear for the seasonal events are separate.
Good to know: Sapporo is a snow city, and the strip is open but exposed from around December into March. The fountains and the beer tables belong to the warm months. The snow sculptures stand for roughly a week in early February and not beyond it.
Another way: From New Chitose Airport, take the train to Sapporo Station and change to the subway. The Tozai Line also stops at Nishi-juitchome Station at the far west end of the park, which is the better door if you want to start at the quiet end and walk east.
After you get off: The exits at Odori Station open straight into the park rather than onto a street: exit 2 comes up at block 5, exit 5 at block 4, exit 6 at block 3. There is nothing to cross — you surface inside the strip.