Although there isn't much to see in central Sapporo, it's a pleasant place simply to stroll around. The single best attraction is the compact and pretty Botanical Gardens (April 29-Sept Tues-Sun 9am-4pm; Oct-Nov 3 Tues-Sun 9am-3.30pm; ¥400), at North Three, West Eight, a ten-minute walk southwest of Sapporo Station. Immediately to the right as you enter is the small but interesting Ainu Museum , which is also known as the "Batchelor Kinenkan" in memory of Reverend John Batchelor, a British priest and author of The Ainu of Japan , considered to be the definitive work on Hokkaido's aborigines. The museum has a collection of around 2500 Ainu artefacts (though only a fraction are displayed at any time), ranging from clothes made of bird skins from the Kuril islands to a sacred altar for performing the ritual slaughter of a bear cub - there are English-language explanations.

Following the red-gravel pathway around to the right of the museum will lead you to Miyabe Hall , with its intriguing displays of letters and journals belonging to Professor Miyabe Kingo, the first director of Hokkaido University, who established the gardens in 1886. Miyabe's descriptions of his travels abroad, written in English and illustrated with photographs, make fascinating reading.

The gardens themselves are very attractive, with a long pond, a greenhouse, a rockery, shaded forest walks and neat flower gardens, including a collection which shows the plants and flowers used by the Ainu in their daily lives. In the centre of it all stands a natural history museum , housed in a pale-green wooden building dating from 1882. Inside you'll find a staggering collection of stuffed animals, paintings and other bizarre objects, including snarling wolves, huge sea lions, and a dog sled from Sakhalin.

On the way to or from the gardens, check out the Old Hokkaido Government Building , at North Three, West Six. This palatial red-brick building is a fine example of the Sapporo-style of architecture that fused the late-nineteenth-century European and New World influences flooding into Japan. You'll see the same style on the campus of Hokkaido University at North Eight, West Seven, and at Sapporo Brewery . Directly in front of the Sapporo International Communication Plaza is the Tokeidai , a wooden clock tower that attracts hordes of Japanese tourists. You'd be right in thinking that this newly renovated building, which is a symbol of the city, would look more at home in somewhere like Boston, because that's where it was made in 1880. One block south lies Odori-koen and the contrasting 147-metre red steel TV Tower . There's no need to fork out ¥700 to go up to the viewing platform; the vista from the nineteenth floor of Sapporo City Hall opposite is free and just as good.

The neon-illuminated excess of Susukino , the largest area of bars, restaurants and nightclubs north of Tokyo, begins on the southern side of Odori-koen, and is best explored at night. If you've not yet had your fill of parks, Nakajima-koen , at West Four, South Nine, is the third of central Sapporo's large-scale green spots and is only worth visiting to see the Hasso-an, an early Edo-period teahouse, virtually the only traditional Japanese building in the city. A better use of time is to head to West Seventeen, North One, to the large, white Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; ¥250 for permanent exhibition), which holds a modest but absorbing collection of paintings and sculptures, some by Japanese artists. The nearest subway station to the museum is Nishi Juhatchome, on the Tozai line.