I'm looking into a foreign exchange program to Japan, and I was wondering what Sapporo is like.
when i went to Japan last march, i went to Tokyo and Kyoto , i loved Tokyo.
i know that Sapporo isn't as big as Tokyo, but does it have some of the qualities? Tell me your experiences.
and i also wanted to know if there is any game arcades, shopping streets and the like, and if there are any anime shops that you may know of.
I'm looking into a foreign exchange program to Japan, and I was wondering what Sapporo is like.
when i went to Japan last march, i went to Tokyo and Kyoto, i loved Tokyo.
i know that Sapporo isn't as big as Tokyo, but does it have some of the qualities? Tell me your experiences.
and i also wanted to know if there is any game arcades, shopping streets and the like, and if there are any anime shops that you may know of.
I went to Sapporo last xmas, in one word : GREAT!!
I really like Sapporo, because it's not that crowded like Tokyo.There are nice places and more green.If I could pick a place in Japan to live it would definitely be Sapporo Yes there are anime shops I'll look up the address if you like, they have a big collection of stuff There are tons of izakaya's, restaurants,sushishops, JRstation,different BIG malls inside of the station and my favourite store YODOBASHI KAMERA !! There are arcades also, been there...in the same building is a movie theatre also and a poolroom
Sapporo is a beautiful place but very cold and snowy in the winter. Alot of great skiing if you are into that. It is very much like the west/midwest in the US with alot of farmland. It sort of reminded me of Wisconsin.
Sapporo, like any Japanese city, will have most of the things that you are interested in. Almost anything you can do in Tokyo/Osaka you can do in Sapporo. I'm sure you'll have no problem finding anime shops. I think one of our members lives up there somewhere. I'm sure he/she can answer more fully.
Personally one of the first descriptions I read about Sapporo before I lived here was "Japan's most liveable city"... Well, not having lived in every major Japanese city, I'm not qualified to confirm that for sure. What I can say, is that you'd have to create something pretty fantastic to top it.
Sapporo is Japan's fifth biggest city, with a population of nearly 2 million. However it doesn't feel anywhere near as big as it sounds, mainly due to the fairly compact city center. This means that everything including the business district, nightlife area, shopping malls, main hotels, the central park area and government offices are all within easy walking distance of each other. Short walks are in some ways fairly essential given the fact that we spend at least 4-5 months of the year under a very heavy blanket of snow. In fact Sapporo has one of the highest annual snowfalls of any city in the world.
One thing that many guides don't tell you, is that a significant percentage of the center of the city is actually underground, which is again due to the severe winter. Although I live a fair distance out in the suburbs I can make my journey to work every day (including about 15 minutes of walking) without ever having to go above ground.
Good things to do include (obviously) skiing and snowboarding with a number of resorts a fairly short car, bus or subway ride away. Susukino (the main entertainment area) should really be considered the nightlife capital of Japan. Amazingly over 3,000 bars, restaurants and clubs are crammed into an area not much bigger than 10 city blocks.
The city government really should be applauded for trying to create a very active and varied programme of events and festivals throughout the year including the world famous snow festival, the beer festival, yosakoi soran dance festival, and even a film festival. Most of these take place in Odori Koen, which runs like a green ribbon through the middle of the city. It's fairly rare for there not to be some kind of major event happening during almost any given month.
We also have a resident baseball and soccer team, both of whom play at the state-of-the-art Sapporo Dome built for the last soccer world cup. Being a fairly big population center we also get a reasonable supply of bands and artists playing at the Dome. In the past year or so it has hosted Green Day, Avril Lavigne, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith (I think), and a wide selection of other concerts including all of the big Japanese acts.
The surrounding Hokkaido countryside itself is often beautiful and at times breathtaking and a drive or train ride to the other side of the island will take you to Shiretoko which has just been listed as a United Nations World Heritage site. There are also a number of active volcanoes and if you're feeling brave (and can stand the stench of sulphur) you can even go down into a steaming, bubbling crater. There are a huge and varied number of onsens and there is nothing quite like sitting in a piping hot outdoor bath in the mountains, surrounded by snow.
There is a healthy although not huge foreign community, and being a large city, foreigners are not usually treated with the wide-eyed surprise that might be more common out in the countryside.
To answer your specific questions:
Shops: yes, everything you need including a fantastic and huge new 7 floor mall called 'Stellar Place', a new designer outlet mall called 'Rera', and 'Sapporo Factory', a mall, cinema and entertainment complex in converted industrial buildings. Not to mention the hundreds of shop up and down the main streets.
Games Arcades: 2 SEGA Worlds, a large 6 or 7 floor Sugai, and a Namco Station in the city center and other arcades out in the suburbs.
Anime shops: Of course - this is Japan! It's not really a personal passion so I don't know names, but there are plenty of shops around.
There are a few pointers to get you started, but I think it's probably better if you ask burning questions you really want to know the answers to, rather than me rambling on at length, as I'll only really be telling you what you can already find in any tourist guide. Personally though, I can't think of anywhere else in the world I would rather live.
I love Sapporo. It's the first city in Japan I visited, home of my first host family, and the place in which I got a taste of Japanese high school life. I guess Tokyo is still a much more interesting place, but Sapporo is highly livable and offers just as many of the opportunities you asked about as Tokyo. In my opinion, as far as the average foreigner is concerned, there is no need to live in Tokyo (whereas Japanese might flock there for professional, educational, etc reasons).
I just put up a few Sapporo Pics on my website. Japannewbie.com
Soon I'll allso put up pics of the RAMEN and GENGIS KAHN food that we had there! Good stuff.
Funny thing was, I met a lot of Malaysian and Taiwanese tourists up there who were going to Hokkaido to "experience the snow". Seriously, two different groups of people told me the same thing.
Being from IOWA... traveling on a plane to experience snow is funny to me.
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I wish I could live there after graduation.I hope I hope 
