---
node: spot_sapporo_odori_park
type: spot
slug: odori_park
destination: dest_sapporo
title: "Odori Park"
lead: "Odori Park is a strip of green 1.5 kilometres long and one block wide, cutting Sapporo in two along a line drawn as a firebreak in 1871. It is where the city holds its snow festival, its beer garden and everything in between."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_sapporo_odori_park.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odori_park_at_Sapporo_TV_tower.jpg"
image_author: "LR0725"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The grid plan of Sapporo was laid out in the 1870s by planners who had studied American cities, and this central avenue divides the address system into north and south. In February the Snow Festival fills it with carved snow sculptures several storeys high, made with snow trucked in and packed by the Self-Defence Forces. In summer the same ground is a beer garden of several thousand seats, run by the breweries in blocks.

## Highlights

The TV Tower at the east end gives the length of the park in one view for a small fee. In festival week, come at night: the sculptures are lit and the queues are shorter than during the day. Sapporo's grid means addresses are coordinates — the park is the zero line, which makes navigation trivial once you see it.