With a population of some 1.75 million, Hokkaido's booming capital SAPPORO is the fifth largest city in Japan and, as it's the transport hub of the island, you're almost bound to pass through it. Despite its size and bustle, this is a pleasant and vibrant city, dominated to the south by the mountains that served as the location for the 1972 Winter Olympics, it is less than thirty minutes from the coast. It's also generously endowed with parks and gardens and is laid out in an easy-to-follow grid plan.

Sapporo is perhaps best known for the beer brewed here since 1891: a visit to the handsome, late-nineteenth-century Sapporo Brewery is a must, as is a stroll through the gardens and museums of the Botanical Gardens , which date from the same era. After dark, the bars and restaurants of Susukino (pronounced "suskino") spark to life and you'll be hard pressed to find a livelier nightlife district outside of Tokyo or Osaka.

Pleasantly cool temperatures tempt many visitors to Sapporo's Summer Festival (July 21-Aug 20), which features outdoor beer gardens and other events in Odori-koen , the swathe of parkland that cuts through the city centre. This park is also the focus of activity during the fabulous Yuki Matsuri , a "snow festival" held every February , which draws over two million visitors to the city.

There are some good day-trip possibilities around Sapporo - top of the list is the Historical Village of Hokkaido , a huge, landscaped park featuring over sixty restored buildings from the island's frontier days. The nearby port of Otaru , one of the entry points into Hokkaido, has some appealing nineteenth-century architecture and can be easily visited in a half a day from the capital. Just about possible as a day-trip, but better experienced over a longer stay, are the ski slopes of Niseko , some 100km south of the city.

Sapporo's name comes from the Ainu word for the area, Sari-poro-betsu , meaning "a river which runs along a plain filled with reeds". The city's layout was designed in the 1870s by a team of European and American experts engaged by the government to advise on the development of the island. Statues of these advisers can be found around Sapporo; the most famous is the one of the American Dr William S. Clark , who set up Hokkaido University and whose invocation to his students - "Boys, be ambitious!" - has been adopted as the city's motto.