SAPPORO · ODORI & TANUKIKOJI ROUTE

Odori & Tanukikoji Route

A midday-to-evening route through Odori Park, which runs east-west across central Sapporo, and the covered Tanukikoji arcade. From GARAKU's soup curry and Daruma's jingisukan to the corn of Odori Park to finish — the gifts of the northern field and pasture, shop by shop.

🚇 Odori Stn, all metro lines🚶 ~150 min on foot🍽 3 dishes

What Odori and Tanukikoji are

Odori and Tanukikoji are two axes running east-west through central Sapporo. Odori Park stretches long and narrow west from the TV Tower in the east, a place of rest for the city and a stage for seasonal events like the Snow Festival and beer gardens. About two blocks south runs Tanukikoji, a long arcade shopping street lined with restaurants, souvenir shops and drugstores. If Odori is an open park, Tanukikoji is a covered common street. Around here gather many shops of Sapporo signatures — soup curry and jingisukan among them.

Soup curry and jingisukan

The two plates that stand for this area are soup curry and jingisukan. Soup curry was born in Sapporo around the 1970s: a thin, spiced soup with big vegetables and chicken thigh sunk in it, eaten by dipping separately served rice. Jingisukan is a Hokkaido regional dish of mutton grilled on a round iron pan — the history of raising sheep for wool remained as a culture of eating their meat. Both were born in a cold land and took root. Add the corn of Odori Park and soft-serve made from Hokkaido milk, and the gifts of field and pasture are pillars of this city's food too.

How to walk this route

Start at Odori station. Begin near Tanukikoji at the soup-curry shop GARAKU, dipping rice into the spiced soup for one plate. It draws crowds, so go off-peak or aim for opening. Then, toward Susukino, grill raw lamb on an iron pan at Jingisukan Daruma. Finally, cross to Odori Park and, from summer to autumn, buy a grilled ear of corn from a wagon, closing on a park bench with a view of the TV Tower. From Tanukikoji to Odori Park, the way runs south to north; allow about two and a half hours on foot to be safe.

Route map

Tanukikoji → soup curry & jingisukan → Odori Park (south to north)　·　numbers match the dishes below

The dishes on this route (3)

Tap through to each shop and dish

飯1RiceSoup Curry GARAKU×Soup CurryThis is not the thick roux curry — it is a thin, spiced soup with lightly deep-fried vegetables and soft-stewed chicken thigh sunk into it. You choose the soup, the heat and the toppings, and dip the separately served white rice in a little at a time: that is Sapporo soup curry. GARAKU is known for a deeper soup carrying Japanese dashi, with cubed vegetables and chicken that slips from the bone. Sweating a little, you spoon rice and soup together to your mouth.Nearest Odori StnPrice ~¥1,400 肉2MeatJingisukan Daruma×Jingisukan (grilled mutton)Jingisukan is mutton grilled and eaten on a round, helmet-shaped pan. Daruma uses unseasoned raw lamb, set on the crown of the heated pan to grill as its fat runs off. The cooked meat you dip through a sauce mixed with garlic and chilli before it reaches your mouth. In a narrow shop thick with the smell of mutton fat and charcoal, you face the meat under the smoke. The gaminess is less than you expect, and the flavour deepens the more you chew. It goes well with beer, or with rice to close.Nearest Susukino StnPrice ¥2,500–3,500 串3SnacksOdori Park Tokibi Wagon×Grilled Corn (tokibi)From summer into autumn, wagons appear in Odori Park selling grilled tokibi — what Hokkaido calls corn. Soy is brushed over the boiled ear and charred on charcoal, and the smell of scorched soy drifts to the park lawn. The kernels are plump and sweet, and spit juice when you bite. You can choose boiled or grilled, and eat an ear in hand while you look at the fountain and the TV Tower. A plate that lets you taste the produce of Hokkaido's fields in its plainest form.Nearest Odori StnPrice ¥300 an ear

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