23 September 2026
After yesterday’s long day trip, we decided to keep today deliberately easy. There was still some shopping we wanted to do in Sapporo, but most of the major sights had already been covered, so we left the day open for walking around the city, eating and browsing.
In other words, this was more of a city day than a sightseeing day.
An Autumn Food Festival for Breakfast
We started the morning at the Sapporo Autumn Festival, which we had actually visited before during our time in the city. This time, however, we decided to take our time and explore it properly.
The festival is held in Odori Park, right in the centre of Sapporo. The park stretches for about 1.5 kilometres through the middle of the city and is one of the defining spaces of central Sapporo. It was originally planned as part of the city’s early modern grid, functioning as a broad open space and firebreak between the northern and southern parts of the city.
During the autumn festival, though, Odori becomes something quite different.
Instead of simply being a park to walk through, it turns into a long series of food stalls and temporary dining areas showcasing food from around Hokkaido. Each section has its own selection, so rather than stopping at one place for a proper meal, we ended up eating a little at each station.
We had yakitori, seafood skewers, ramen, potatoes, ice cream, grilled scallops and various other things along the way.
We had initially thought we would just have breakfast and move on. Instead, we spent about two hours walking through the different sections, stopping whenever something caught our attention.
It was a very Hokkaido way to spend the morning. The region is particularly associated with agricultural and seafood production, and autumn is an especially good time to see that reflected in food. Potatoes and other farm produce are central to Hokkaido’s agricultural identity, while the surrounding seas provide an enormous variety of seafood.
Rather than trying to have one big meal, the festival gave us the chance to sample a little bit of everything.
And by the time we finished, breakfast had turned into a fairly substantial food tour.
Transport tip: Odori Park is extremely easy to reach from central Sapporo. The park sits above Odori Station, where the Sapporo Subway’s Namboku, Tozai and Toho lines meet. Depending on where you are staying, it can also be easier simply to walk there rather than transfer between trains and buses.
Daimaru and Stellar Place
After finishing our food tour, we took the bus towards Daimaru Sapporo and Sapporo Stellar Place, around Sapporo Station.
Sapporo Station is one of the city’s main commercial centres, and the area around it is almost a small city within the city. Daimaru, Stellar Place, JR Tower and the surrounding underground shopping areas are all connected, so there is plenty to explore without necessarily having to spend the day walking outside.
I was particularly looking for some local Ostok salt, and eventually found it at the shop inside the tourist information centre.
That was one of those small things that had been on my shopping list, so finding it was quite satisfying.
After that, we wandered around and did some light shopping.
We also stopped at La Maison for a tart and tea. After several days of moving around Hokkaido, sitting down somewhere for a proper cup of tea and dessert was a welcome change from constantly being on the move.
One More Unexpected Shopping Stop
By this point, we had already visited most of the malls we wanted to see, so we decided to head back to the hotel and get some rest.
We were walking towards Tokyu Department Store to catch the bus when we noticed Big C Camera and decided to take a look inside.
That turned into another browsing session.
Big C Camera is the kind of place where it is quite easy to spend more time than expected, especially when travelling. Even though we had not planned another shopping stop, we ended up browsing through the different floors and eventually managed to buy something at the Tokyu department store as well.
So much for heading straight back to the hotel.
Eventually, we narrowly caught the bus just as it was about to leave and finally made our way back for a proper rest.
After yesterday’s long day out, it was probably what we needed.
Conveyor-Belt Sushi for Our Last Sapporo Dinner
Later that evening, we went to Katsuissenn for conveyor-belt sushi.
This restaurant usually has quite a long wait, but because we arrived relatively late at night, the queue was much more manageable. We waited for roughly 30 minutes, which was not too bad considering how busy the restaurant normally gets.
Once we were seated, we had a proper sushi dinner before heading back to the hotel.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel, did some laundry and finally called it a day.
Tomorrow, we are leaving Sapporo.
This was not a day packed with major attractions, but perhaps that was exactly what we needed after several days of travelling around Hokkaido. We had already seen much of the city, so instead of trying to squeeze in another attraction, we simply walked, ate, shopped, rested and enjoyed our last full day here.
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