After living there for a year a number of years ago, I returned recently, and walking around in Sapporo after a week in Tokyo was enough to make me breathe a huge sigh of relief (and to contemplate the near miss I had in almost accepting a job in Tokyo.)
While nowadays most/many young people go to work in Tokyo etc for a few years, it's probably fair to say that they prefer Hokkaido - the food's better, summer is cooler, winter is warmer (inside, anyway) things are less expensive and the atmosphere is very different. Odori Park in summer in Japan has a very special atmosphere of friendly community and relaxation that I have never found elsewhere (although some of the less trendy, local night markets in backstreet Taipei and southern Taiwan come close.) Unfortunately nowadays many of the jobs are in expensive, overcrowded Tokyo.
Honshu people probably miss the size of Tokyo etc (Sapporo is around 2 million, which aint bad but isn't limitless like Tokyo.)
With regards to spreading out and transport, while Sapporo has reasonable public transport, if you want to go anywhere in the weekend, or if you live somewhere else, cars are more or less a necessity, unfortunately.
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Right on
Date: 2005-02-04 10:49 pm (UTC)While nowadays most/many young people go to work in Tokyo etc for a few years, it's probably fair to say that they prefer Hokkaido - the food's better, summer is cooler, winter is warmer (inside, anyway) things are less expensive and the atmosphere is very different. Odori Park in summer in Japan has a very special atmosphere of friendly community and relaxation that I have never found elsewhere (although some of the less trendy, local night markets in backstreet Taipei and southern Taiwan come close.) Unfortunately nowadays many of the jobs are in expensive, overcrowded Tokyo.
Honshu people probably miss the size of Tokyo etc (Sapporo is around 2 million, which aint bad but isn't limitless like Tokyo.)
With regards to spreading out and transport, while Sapporo has reasonable public transport, if you want to go anywhere in the weekend, or if you live somewhere else, cars are more or less a necessity, unfortunately.