2 Best Sights in Hokkaido, Japan

Stretching for more than a mile through the center of the city, Odori Park is one of the defining landmarks of Sapporo. Buy roasted corn on the cob and potatoes from food vendors and feast on them as you watch the skateboarders and street performers. In winter, enjoy the famous Sapporo Snow Festival with its massive snow sculptures. There's the energetic and loud Yosokoi Soran Festival every spring, and for three weeks in July and August the park hosts a bacchanal called the Sapporo Beer Festival. Every block becomes a biergarten for a major Japanese beer manufacturer (the foreign and microbrews, naturally, are the farthest walk away), with Sapporo Beer smack in the middle of it all. Last orders at 9 pm, then everyone stumbles home or out for more partying in Susukino. Not to be missed if you're in town.

This green oasis is a 10-minute walk beyond Susukino's lights and contains Hoheikan, a white-and-blue Russian-influenced 19th-century imperial guesthouse; Hasso-an Teahouse, an Edo-era teahouse moved here in 1919 and located in a Japanese garden; a boating lake; and the Kitara concert hall, home of the Pacific Music Festival, started in 1990 by Leonard Bernstein. It's a pleasant stroll during the day.