Tanuki Koji Shopping Arcade

Looking for a shopping place in Sapporo? You should not miss out Tanuki Koji Shopping Arcade. It's Sapporo's oldest shopping area built in the late 1800's. So some shops have been in business for more than 100 years dee!

It consists of a long street that runs all the way from West 1 at the Soseigawa River Park to West 7, which is closed to vehicle traffic and covered by an awning.

Every block is intersected by a north to south running road with vehicle traffic, controlled by a traffic light and zebra crossing for pedestrians.

Tanuki Koji is super popular for groups of tourists as there are many souvenir shops selling Hokkaido delicacies and locally made gift items at every block. So no doubt my tour guide will sure bring us here also la since its a one stop shopping house. Everyday you can see many buses dropping off groups of tourists which will then spend hours shopping and eating throughout the arcade

Dunno what's the shop name..but our tour guide brought us here to buy most of our souvenirs. Price wise..hmm..I find airport cheaper la actually to be honest :-P. But compared to outside shop, here is still much cheaper

What shops do they have here?
1) Pachinko - It's the famous Japanese's mixture of slot machine and pinball. You can checkout here or here for more details.

Pachinko

2) Hotel in here too.

Richmond Hotel

Website: http://richmondhotel.jp/en/sapporo-odori/
From the link looks like not bad too. Can consider staying here since you can shop till you drop and go back sleep :-P

3) More Hokkaido souvenir and delicacies shops

4) Ramen shop! And got Ippudo ramen!

Ippudo Ramen

Let see the pricing: JPY850 which is about RM26+, almost the same price like here also

Yumm...a bowl of hot ramen during winter is superbly delicious and so warm!

5) And guess what I spotted in here too? My fav MOS burger!

What's on the Mos menu?

6) Don Quijote department store, which is a discount chain store that has over 160 locations throughout Japan and it carries wide range of products from basic groceries to electronics and clothing. The store is well known in Japan as Donki. This store open till very late hours (to 3 to 5am, or even 24 hours too)

There is an entrance here to the Chikaho underground walkway, from which you can walk to Odori Subway station in about 3 minutes or Sapporo Station in about 7 minutes. In fact, with the covered awning it’s possible to shop the entire area from Sapporo Station, through the Chikaho underground walkway to Poletown and Aurora Town, and into Tanuki Koji without ever being exposed to the elements. This is a great bonus in Sapporo’s snowy winter.

Spot the Poletown walkway entrance at the far away opposite?

See there is another Pole town entrance here that is sheltered too

And another entrance outside too

How to get here?
Address: 3, Minami3-jonishi, Chuo-ku Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido, 060-0063
Via Public transport: 
5 minutes walk from Odori Station on the Sapporo Municipal Subway Namboku Line (N07), Tozai Line (T09), or Toho Line (H08)

Opening Hours: Varies according to the shop / facility
Website: http://www.tanukikoji.or.jp/

For the full itinerary of my Hokkaido trip, checkout here.