SAPPORO TRANSPORT

Sapporo Transport

Most unusually for a Japanese city, Sapporo is painfully logically organized thanks to its strict grid system. The main thoroughfare, the leafy Ō-Dōri (大通り, lit. "Big Street"), runs east-west across the city and divides the city into North and South, while the Namboku subway line divides the city into West and East. The address of every block in the centre is thus of the type "North X West Y" (prominently signposted at all intersections), making navigation a snap.

By subway
Sapporo has three subway lines, all converging at Odori station at the center of the grid. The Namboku Line ("North-South") runs north-south, the Tōzai Line ("East-West") runs along Odori west-east, and only the Tōhō Line breaks the mould by running in a C-shaped curve from northeast to southeast. Single fares cost ¥200 and up, or you can buy the oddly named With You stored value card (lowest denomination ¥1000).

Sumikawa Station, Sapporo Subway, Japan. Picture by Kinori

By streetcar
A streetcar (of little utility to most visitors) trundles around the south-western side of Sapporo, connecting to the subway at Susukino.

(Article based on Wikitravel article by Wikitravel users Jpatokal. Based on work by Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. Article used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0.)