Les meilleurs hôtels à Sapporo

Sapporo is not your typical Japanese big city. There's elbow room up here in the main city of the north Japanese island called Hokkaido, owing in large part to the influence of American ties that date more than a century, when the area was first seriously settled. Hokkaido's governor is said to have liked what he knew about city planning on the other side of the Pacific, and had Sapporo laid out in a typically North American grid with wide streets and boulevards. It's also far more rugged up here than down on the big island. On Hokkaido, outdoor pursuits are big and people live through four very distinct seasons, with snow on the ground in late fall that stays there 'til April. That's one of the reasons why Sapporo makes the best of it with its famed Sapporo Snow Festival each year, which among many things brings together top snow and ice sculptors. The winter climate, combined with Sapporo's cosmopolitan flair and ambition, helped the city to land and serve as host for the 1972 Olympic Winter Games. But it's not all snow here. Come summer, there's the highly-regarded Pacific Music Festival. And year 'round, Sapporo residents can head down to Susukino, a restaurant and bar district rivaling even Tokyo's nightspots, or to the market to gnaw on specially-prepared cobs of Hokkaido's distinct corn.