Discover the bounties of nature and tradition #3 :Experience Hokkaido’s Local Food Culture – 4 Recommended Day Trip Plans from Sapporo in Early Autumn 2024

With its magnificent natural splendor, Hokkaido is full of captivating allure. It has long claimed the top position in Japan’s Most Attractive Prefecture rankings, drawing admiration from people in Japan and abroad. This land of beautiful scenery is a treasure trove of natural bounties, including vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meat, and seafood. Throughout the region, you can savor exquisite culinary delights, and it is also renowned for crafting alcoholic beverages like wine, sake, and beer. Hokkaido even offers a wide array of activities, such as professional and winter sports. Welcome to the great northern island of Hokkaido! Enjoy an exceptional trip as you explore the bounties of nature and traditions here.
This tour will take you on an engaging tour of Sapporo city and its surrounding areas popular sightseeing destinations where you can feel the unique nature of Hokkaido just a short distance from the city center.

Savor the freshest seasonal tastes in Hokkaido
Outer Market of Sapporo Central Wholesale Market

For many, the primary attraction of visiting Hokkaido is its cuisine. The Sapporo Central Wholesale Market sources the freshest fruits, vegetables, and seafood from Hokkaido, catering to the culinary needs of approximately 2.3 million people in Sapporo and its surrounding areas, as well as supplying these products to other regions across Japan. Surrounding the wholesale market is a bustling outer market, home to numerous retail shops selling fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood, as well as restaurants.

    The outer market comprises around 60 shops spread over 10 blocks. Here, you can choose from among freshly sourced fruits, vegetables, and seafood while chatting with knowledgeable vendors. The market provides ice packs for takeaway and also offers shipping services. Popular with not only tourists but also local residents and restaurateurs, the market ensures high quality and freshness. In addition to retail shops, the market hosts numerous dining establishments, including sushi and seafood restaurants known for their freshness, as well as Japanese, Chinese, ramen, and curry eateries.

    Among them is Kita-No-Gourmet, a long-established and renowned seafood vendor now in its 76th year. The first floor houses Seafood Market Kita-No-Gourmet, which offers live crabs and scallops, dried Atka mackerel, frozen seafood, and more. Part of the first floor and the entire second floor are home to Seafood Restaurant Kita-No-Gourmet-Tei, which serves dishes featuring fresh fish, shellfish, and crabs.

    The most popular dish is the seafood rice bowl, topped with 15 different types of seafood. While the selection may vary depending on availability, it typically features a Botan shrimp with its head still attached, surrounded by large cuts of tuna and salmon, firm surf clams and whelk, king crab legs, and more. The restaurant takes great pride in its original soy sauce-marinated salmon roe. The large roe is seasoned with a slightly stronger soy sauce flavor to pair perfectly with rice. Many customers enjoy this bowl so much that they buy the soy sauce-marinated salmon roe at the market downstairs to take home as a souvenir or to enjoy at home.

    The warm rice is an original blend developed in collaboration with the HOKUREN Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives. To perfectly complement the seafood bowl, the blend combines the sticky and slightly sweet flavors of Nanatsuboshi and Fukkurinko rice varieties, both of which are ranked either the highest grade, Special A, or A. Although the portion of rice generously matches the abundant seafood toppings, many customers find it so delicious that they finish the entire bowl.

Discover the production processes, histories, and deliciousness of beer and chocolate
Sapporo Beer Museum and ROYCE’ Cacao & Chocolate Town

Hokkaido, renowned for its culinary delights, offers must-try experiences in beer and sweets. Understanding their histories and production methods makes them even more enjoyable. The Sapporo Beer Museum is in the Sosei East area, located in the eastern part of central Sapporo, considered by some to be the birthplace of beer production in Japan. The museum offers a premium paid guided tour. ROYCE’ Cacao & Chocolate Town is an interactive facility adjacent to one of the factories of the popular confectionery company ROYCE’, known for its smooth truffle bars called Nama Chocolate and chocolate-covered potato chips that perfectly blend sweet and salty flavors. Here, visitors can learn about various processes such as the cultivation of cacao trees, the production and processing of cacao beans, and the manufacturing of chocolate.

    The Sapporo Beer Museum is housed in a building constructed in 1890 and later repurposed as a malt factory. It is designated as a Hokkaido Heritage Site. Visitors to the museum first see a wort kettle used for boiling wort during beer brewing. This kettle was in use until 2003 and could process up to 85 kiloliters of wort, equivalent to 240,000 cans of 350-milliliter beer. The exhibit area covers 12 topics, including the construction of the brewery, the production and shipping of beer, and the brewery’s dedication to beer ingredients, explained through videos, panels, photographs, beer bottles, and more.

    After the tour, be sure to visit Star Hall on the first floor. Here, you can enjoy Sapporo Draft Beer Kuro Label, Sapporo Classic, and Kaitakushi Beer, among others, for a fee. The taste of beer served under optimal conditions can’t be beat.

    ROYCE’ Cacao & Chocolate Town has a georama of ROYCE’ Cacao Farm in Colombia. Visitors can learn about the cultivation, harvest, and shipping processes of cacao beans, as well as various trivia facts, through interactive displays and quizzes. The facility also has factory tours and areas for chocolate-making games, enjoyable for visitors of all ages.
    You can also experience making a large 23 cm x 12 cm chocolate bar and view a collection of chocolate packages and tableware from around the world.

The shop on the first floor offers over 200 types of chocolate and baked sweets, including exclusive “farm-to-bar” chocolates. The shop’s exclusive soft-serve ice cream is also a big draw.

A long-established opulent hotel reflecting Hokkaido’s once-flourishing herring fisheries
Ginrinsou

In the springs of the 19th to early 20th centuries, large schools of herring would swarm the Sea of Japan coast of Hokkaido, bringing prosperity to fishing magnates. Ginrinsou was a private estate built in 1900 by Mr. Yasunojo Inomata, a prominent fishing magnate in Yoichi, who invited a specialist in the construction of shrines and temples from his hometown of Echigo (now part of Niigata Prefecture) to construct the estate. High-grade wood such as Sakhalin fir and ash was used as building material. The estate features a grand hall of approximately 120 square meters with a household Shinto altar about 4.6 meters wide.

    In 1938, the estate was moved to the high ground at Cape Hiraiso and reconstructed on that cape, offering views of Ishikari Bay and the cityscape of Otaru. This former main building and the adjacent Grill Ginrinsou are now collectively designated as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan.

    The hotel offers a total of 17 guest rooms in the main and new buildings. Guests can also enjoy large communal baths and open-air baths filled with clear, colorless hot spring water. Day visitors can also access these baths along with a multi-course lunch featuring authentic French cuisine at Grill Ginrinsou.