Seeing Sapporo City

Sapporo has some nice city details, a few things owing to its location in northern Japan. Whether it's climate or local food, Sapporo has adapted to its environment.

Crab is king, no doubt. A giant, animatronic beast mounted above the entrance of a restaurant.

A cartoony sign for something that looks quite un-cartoony. In Japan, everything is given the animated treatment. Getting meta with a vending machine. A picture on a vending machine of a vending machine using a vending machine. When will it end?

Cute colors and adorable lettering make anything cuddly in Japan.

Back to cartoon signage. Evidently Sapporo has quite a winter with lots of snow. Time to call in the adorable kids to show you how to dump salt.

Perfectly wrapped building, so normal in neat Japan.

Drinking Up The Sapporo Museum

There's no way you can go to Sapporo and not visit the Sapporo beer headquarters. A tour, a museum and beer, seem mandatory. Let's pour.

Old brick building, smokestack, beer barrels, a tractor, the scene is well set.

On the beer tour. Gotta get your ingredients right.

And then your cool bottle.

It's really the sexy marketing that moves the suds. The museum had plenty of ad examples. The more recent ones were interesting, full of Japanese machismo. Someone was studying American Bud ads.

Ending on a good note, the sample room. 乾杯! Kanpai! Cheers!

Over-Exposed In Sapporo

There's something about gray days and Japanese environments. First Tokyo, now Sapporo. The clean lines, the spare feeling. Dial the exposure around, soak up the white and get some lovely results.

Something Fishy At Nijo Market In Sapporo

Every city in Japan has a long running fish market area and Sapporo is no exception. Its market is tiny compared to the behemoth in Tokyo, as expected. For charm, high marks.

The seafood walk.

Crab is king and it's in abundance, the bigger, the better. Haggling by cell phone.

You can also eat there, plenty of nice options in resin on display.

Other items, packaged in boxes with adorable graphics. Stopping for an ice cream, more resin on display. Who doesn't know what ice cream looks like?

Time for a measurement. Sarah's head as standard reference.

The Sapporo Train Set

Sapporo is a real Japanese city. Or is it a just a train set model for some giant species? It's hard to tell, the place is so well laid out and neat.

Looking East, down Odori Street.

The South plaza of the train station.

The city landmark, the TV tower.

Everything in its place.

The lovely urban park that runs down the middle of Soseigawa Dori.

Sapporo's Old Clock Tower

Sapporo is a typically modern Japanese city, filled with international-style urban buildings. One of its landmark structures is a curiosity, a yee olde clapboard clock tower that would be more at home in a New England hamlet than an Asian industrial giant.

The clock tower was built in 1878, originally used as a drill hall for the Sapporo Agricultural College. A clock was added in 1881.

The cute building, surrounded by modern society.

It's now a museum. Inside, various exhibits about the building and a bit of history of the city. A model of another building constructed during the same period and a display of original materials used for the clock tower.

Upstairs, looking like a Quaker meeting house.

The red star, another symbol of Sapporo. What did they eat back then? Glad you asked, see it all, in plastic.

A cute display of the clock tower as background element in various pop music records and other media.

Marveling At Moerenuma Park In Sapporo

Outside the city center of Sapporo, Japan is a great park that marries grand art statements with swirling green space. A beautiful place to experience the best of man and nature. Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi designed the layout. Time to walk around and through a giant work of natural art.

The park was built on an old waste treatment plant and some of the hills hide its past use. Trash to triumph.

Giant sculpture dots the park. A bandshell and pole pyramid.

Athletic field house.

Playground as sculptures and another pyramid, a theme of the park.

Heading up another pyramid, half turf, half stone.

Getting graphic with the nice vistas at the park.

Massive beauty.