Hokkaido is blessed with an abundance of agricultural and fishing prodcts. Its many farms are famous throughout Japan for potatoes, onions, asparagus, melon, rice and more. Its seas are swimming with salmon, squid, scallops, and of course crab. When visiting a department store in Tokyo or Osaka, you might see displays exhibiting local produce from Hokkaido. You might see a lot of customers crowded around those displays, too. Department stores across Japan use food from Hokkaido to attract customers to their store.

Today, I'd like to tell you about the Sapporo Jyogai Ichiba, or Sapporo Street Market.
About a ten minute car ride from the center of the city is the Sapporo City Central Wholesale Market, and next to that the Street Market. The Street Market has about 80 stalls lined up carrying various produce and fresh fish for sale to general consumers. Every day it replenishes its stock from the nearby wholesale market, and every day locals and tourists line up for its great deals.

Looking out over all the delicious items assembled in the market, the crabs immediately draw attention! Swimming along in their tanks, I saw a lot of different kinds of crabs. There were red king crabs, blue king crabs, horsehair crabs, snow crabs, and more, all for sale based on type and weight.

　　　　

Inside the Street Market there were also several restaurants and sushi shops. Piled high with slices of the freshest raw fish, I had a delicious sashimi rice bowl. This is exactly the kind of taste that you can only get at a market like this!

A mountain of shrimp, salmon, ikura (salmon eggs), sea urchin, and more in my sashimi rice bowl. I had a special large portion of the sea urchin!

The workers inside the market are a lively group, and they're always happy to offer advice to customers on what to buy. It can be fun to try and haggle their prices down, although it's not guaranteed to work!

If you ever have a chance in Sapporo you should definitely make the short trek over to the Sapporo Street Market!

Two big frogs in Sapporo's Odori Park?

Sapporo City Market access
By train:From Odori Station, take the Sapporo Municipal Subway Tozai Line about 9 minutes to Nijuyonken Station, 6 minute walk to the City Market

From Sapporo Station, take the JR Hakodate Main Line or JR Gakuentoshi Line about 2 minutes to Soen Station, 10 minute walk to the City Market

By taxi:From the center of Sapporo, about a 10 minute ride to the City Market