Odori Park (sometimes called Odori Koen) is a long park in the centre of Sapporo that divides the city centre into north and south.

Odori Park is boarded in the east by the Sapporo TV Tower and in the west by the Sapporo City Archive Museum, 12 blocks long by one block wide the park is home to many events throughout the year from summer beer gardens to the winter snow festival.

Odori Park and the Sapporo TV Tower are probably the best place to start when visiting Sapporo as the TV towers observation deck gives you a spectacular view of the city. The tower was built in 1957 and is modeled after France's Eiffel Tower, underneath the TV tower is an underground shopping center that connects to the Odori subway station.

Several Festivals are held throughout the year at Odori park like February's Sapporo snow festival (Yuki-matsuri) where huge ice carvings are built out of the snow, May's Lilac Festival, June's Yosakoi Soran Festival and during July summer kicks off with the Sapporo Summer Festival marking the start of various food and beer garden festivals that are held at Odori Park through to September.

Odori station connects to the Toho, Tozai and Nanboku Subway lines that run across Odori park while Nishi-Juitchome subway station on the Tozai line is at the other end of the park not far from the Sapporo City Archive Museum.

Sapporo TV Tower website
http://www.tv-tower.co.jp/en/index.html

Related pages on Happy Jappy

Sapporo TV Tower
About Sapporo
Getting around Sapporo