Parks and temples of central Sapporo

The river in Sapporo

Sapporo is dominated by quite a big number of parks which makes nice green oasis of the big city. In the very center of town is a long but quite narrow park which runs all the way from the TV tower and goes on and on for what seems as forever - of course this impression is helped somewhat by the many traffic lights you’ll have to pass which slow you down a lot on your way.

There are a bit of activity going on at the park - much of it is focused on selling flowers at different small flower markets in the park. Right at the end of the park is small area which is sort of a rose garden with lot of roses growing right in front of the former court of appeals. From Oderi Park I start walking towards a southern end of town where there is another park. On the way there I pass a few minor shrines. They are so small that they are not even marked down on my little tourist map - but I find them sort of interesting as a novelty for me never who have never seen something like this in Europe before. So even tiny little temples can still attract my attention - I doubt this will be the case when I leave the country.

I get down to the park in the south of town and down there is a lake and a few museums around the park area - plus some buildings which seem to have some importance but I just can’t figure out what they are. The park is pretty peaceful except from some really noisy crow flying around the place.

On my way back I find a temple it is not really where I thought it would be but I notice it immediately as I walk along the road. It is the Shiei-Ji shrine which appears to be open for visitors to the shrine for the moment. When I arrive there are a man there praying but even though this shrine is a lot bigger than the tiny shrines I have seen earlier today it is still pretty small compared to the big Hokkaido Shrine from yesterday.

I leave this one and notice one of the small shrines I had passed on my walk earlier actually was right next to this one - it might have been some sort of annex building but I am not sure about that. Right at the next block is the Chou-Ji temple and next blog from there are the Shin-zenko-Ji temple. I don’t quite understand the reason for putting up three big temples with two city blocks - but it is sort of convenient if people will have to transit from one of them to the next to call upon the deities at the different temples.

Unfortunately the two last temples appear pretty closed but it is still possible to go in and have a look at the main buildings from the outside - plus there is a bell tower at both temples which I can have a closer look at. I head away from the temples and leave this part of the city alone - I don’t think there are anymore temples in the neighborhood.