Taste your way through Sapporo’s creative food scene with soup curry (a spicy soup with fall-off-the-bone chicken) and jingusikan, aka Genghis Khan, a hearty dish of mutton cooked in a skillet that resembles a traditional Mongolian soldier’s helmet! At the fish market, you could buy kegani crab from a vendor and take it to be prepared at a nearby restaurant, or try rich, creamy, buttery uni (sea urchin) if you’re feeling adventurous. At your host’s favorite izakaya bar, crunch on crispy zangi (fried chicken), slurp up Hokkaido’s miso ramen with corn and butter, and wash it all down with ice-cold Sapporo beer or local Chitosetsuru sake. And for dessert? Hokkaido is known for its ice-cream, and the sweet cream flavor is out-of-this-world. 

Just south of central Ōdōri Park, the city’s most famous food districts are ready to be explored. Walk through the tightly-packed Tanukikoji covered shopping arcade, a one-stop-shop for all of Sapporo’s most popular dishes and home to a Kit Kat store where you can stock up on 100’s of unique Japanese flavors, like cough drop and baked potato (yes, really!), before ambling 10 minutes east across Sōsei River to the traditional Nijo Market for Sapporo’s freshest seafood and a couple of intriguing local delicacies. When you’ve had your fill, the neon-lit Susukino entertainment district 10 minutes south is the perfect place to be swept up with salarymen moving between tiny restaurants and izakaya to end the day with a draft of Sapporo beer.