Travel Hokkaido – Maruyama Park

Maruyama Park 円山公園 is by far one of the most popular parks in all of Sapporo region, and for good reason.  Located on the western side of the city, Maruyama Park is a great one-stop-shop for a great outdoors day with family, with friends, your partner, or just by yourself.

It’s kind of hard to know what’s there exactly, so we’ve put together a list of things to do at Maruyama Park to make any first time visitor feel like they can take on all the wonders here like a local.

I’m going to start with my favorite thing to do at Maruyama Koen, and it was actually the initial reason why I first visited the infamous park – to enjoy the hike and see the beautiful view at the top of Mt. Maruyama which looks over Sapporo city.

The entrance to the beginning of the hike up can be kind of tricky to find, as it’s not well signed for foreign/English readers.. BUT I can tell you now the best way to find the entrance to Mt Maruyama hike 🙂  From the eastern side of the park (ie. from the bus and/or train station side), when you walk in you want to walk along the footpath that heads left to a road on the left.  On that road you should see some baseball pitches and signs pointing to the zoo.  Cross at the pedestrian crossing and continue walking up along the road.  You’ll know you’re on the right footpath when you see the zoo animal drawings on the ground.  Now keep your eyes to the left, in the direction of the woods.  After about 50~100m you’ll find yourself looking into a rather flat area of grass (still in the woods) and an entry to a shrine in the distance.  There’ll also be a big wooden sign, and perhaps some bikes parked up along the fence side.  This is where your entrance to Mt Maruyama is.

From here there are 2 pathways for you to choose from for your hike – one is through the shrine itself, and the other is along the wooden path and Maruyama river, which you’ll see just to the right of the shrine.

The second path also has an entrance from behind the zoo and actually goes along the bottom of Mt Maruyama so is therefore slightly longer (by perhaps 10mins).  But what I will say is that this path seems to be at a nicer gradient than the pathway through the shrine.  Don’t get me wrong, they can both be quite steep in places, but the hike through the shrine side is steeper for longer meters than the other.  The shrine pathway is usually the busier one of the 2.

Once you reach the top you’ll be rewarded with the most gorgeous view of Sapporo city, which resembles pretty closely the view at the top of the ropeway (which you have to pay for if catching the ropeway itself!). There are large rocks at the view point where you can sit with the other ‘survivors’ (lol) and enjoy before the walk back down.

A very popular choice for our families with little travelers as well as couples.  We love seeing or animals in the wild, so we do not support the capturing and displaying of these animals in the zoo, but we do want to acknowledge that the zoo is here for the sake of giving an accurate article..

Instead of heading left into the woods for Mt Maruyama, continue straight along the road until you see the entrance to Maruyama Zoo.

One of the most famous Hokkaido animal here is the red crowned crane, which can sometimes be spotted out in the wild on our eastern Hokkaido tours.  If you’d like to see one of these magnificent creatures in the wild, get in contact with us now and we can figure out a tour for you when you visit.  Hokkaido is so well-known for it’s nature and wildlife experiences, I really urge you to see animals this way with us instead!  The reward of seeing them in their own natural habitat is U-N-R-E-A-L.

A lot of people say that Sapporo (and just Hokkaido in general) doesn’t seem to be like other prefectures of Japan because it hasn’t been occupied and developed on by Japanese as long.  So travelers looking for tradition, deeply cultured experiences, architecture, traditional shrines etc. tend to overlook Hokkaido as a destination.  But Hokkaido Shrine is just ONE of the MANY beautiful spots where traditional Japanese culture and architecture can be seen.

There are tons of beautiful Japanese shrines dotted around Sapporo, and all of Hokkaido, but Hokkaido Shrine is arguably the most popular and is definitely the biggest in Maruyama Park.  As you walk through Maruyama Park, you’ll come across many beautiful shrines, but none as big as this.

It’s located on the Northern side of the park, with two entries located right on the main road.  If you’re coming by public transport, take a stroll right through the middle of the park and you’ll pass most of the smaller shrines in the park on your way to here.  If coming by car there is a carpark (paid) on that side of the park right next to one of the entrances for you.

A long and wide pathway lined with beautiful cherry blossom trees leads the way to your destination.  Every season is beautiful, but visit during spring to see the trees really burst with wonder from the blooming sakura.

The shrine itself, and just being in the midst of the trees and park really reminds me of Tokyo’s shrine in Yoyogi Park – the experience is very similar.  Sometimes when you are there you may see a wedding party, a special ceremony or hear beautiful music playing from.. somewhere, lol.  Take time to buy a charm or to look upon the historical photos on the right-hand side of the shrine.

This is of course a give in, but if you haven’t visited a park before then sometimes it can be hard to know just how big and good a park is for taking a stroll in.  Maruyama is great for a walk, with many little pathways and points of nature, such as the river and the seasonal flower gardens.  A walk through here can take from half an hour to an hour.

Some extra ideas:

• Take a bike and through the park.  This is a common activity for locals because biking is a common mode of transport.  This is super nice during summer.
• Take some outdoor activities – things like a skipping rope, a ball, a frisby etc.  There is plenty It is a PARK after all!
• Have a hanami picnic/BBQ.  This is a seasonal activity, usually kept for just Spring when he cherry blossoms are out.  But if the weather is nice then take some food & a blanket and enjoy the day away.