All things bright and beautiful: 6-days Hokkaido Japan self-drive. Day 5 -- Sapporo

The blue sky returned on Day 5 of our Hokkaido trip, after the rather miserable weather on the previous day. This was our first full day to be spent entirely in Sapporo. Expecting that we would be travelling around by subway in the city (with a day pass), we had returned the rental car the day before.

Our plan for the day was to start from the more distant places and make our way back towards the city centre. So, the first place that we visited was Shiroi Koibito Park (白色戀人公園). While the park features as a big attraction in the guide books, we did not have much expectation of the place. As it turned out, we absolutely loved it! Maybe by coincidence, we arrived there at just the right time. There is a musical clock tower at the entrance of the park. On every hour, music is played from the tower, with a moving parade of instrument-playing mechanical animals and a band of chefs. As we arrived right at the hour, the music just began to play when we stepped through the entrance! That made the park look all the more magical. Apart from the factory where the hugely popular Shiroi Koibito cookies are manufactured, the park also includes a beautiful rose garden and a Tudor house which contains a toy museum with a sizable collection of classical toys.

Chocolate factory in the Shiroi Koibito Park

Let the music play

Tudor House with a toy museum and cafe

Inside Tudor House --- cafe and gift shop on the ground floor, and toy museum on the upper floor

Rose Garden and Tudor House

Shiroi Koibito factory line

Make your own cookies

Reminder of Furano

The second time we saw the parade of music-playing animals. One can never be tired of this.

We so enjoyed the park that we stayed there much longer than we had intended. But that is the point of a leisurely tour, spending time on what we like, with no rushing and no rigid schedule to keep to.

The next place that we wanted to visit was Sapporo Maruyama Zoo (札幌市圓山動物園), which can be reached by a walk through Maruyama Park (圓山公園 / 円山公園).

Maruyama Park (圓山公園)

Sapporo Maruyama Zoo

After our visit to Sapporo Maruyama Zoo, it was already nearly 5pm when places like museums would be closed. So, we just made use of the day pass of the subway to go to a couple of places to take a look as well as some touristic photos. These included the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art 北海道立近代美術館 and the nearby Hokkaido Governor's Official Residence 北海道知事公館.