All through my thirties and forties I used to visit Montreal for two weeks every winter — not so much because there was anything in particular to see or do there, but because I found it was a terrific city in which to have a smart, snowy, cosmopolitan cafe-sit vacation. I barely even made it to the art museums or performing arts. Now I live in Cambodia, and Montreal is out of the question on account of the distance. I had thought Sapporo might scratch my itch, but I have a native-Japanese friend who frowned and said, “You’re looking for Pittsburgh with subtitles, Dave, and Sapporo is more like Buffalo with subtitles.” What say you all? Best city to visit in Japan for a snowy, smarty-farty cityscape, with lots of ground-floor coffee shops and a good cosmopolitan rhythm? TIA.
27 comments
If snow is necessary than your choices are limited, especially if you need a good cosmpolitan beat. It’s really down to Sendai, Sapporo, Kanazawa and I suppose Hakodate.
https://youtube.com/user/Tabinohoshi
Check out this channel to see if there’s anywhere in particular that fits your desired aesthetic. Plenty of small cafes and the like.
Sapporo is the obvious choice
Just hit up any little town. Not cosmopolitan, but you’ll be fine.
If you don’t need to have snow, I loved a few cafes along the river in Kyoto.
Hirosaki shi.
Not cosmopolitan exactly, but lots of great cafes, lots of snow, and lots of apple-pies.
The Venn diagram of Japanese cities that are snowy and those that are cosmopolitan is basically two separate circles.
If you’re looking for a city with great cafés and lots of them, Kyoto is really wonderful. But… while chilly, you’re only gonna get a dusting of snow a couple times a year.
As someone who lived in Montreal for most of my life, I found that Sapporo does have a lot in common with Montreal. About the same population. Sapporo is the northernmost large city of Japan and does have cold winter with snow, but Montreal is a bit further north and even colder. Both cities have a subway that run on tire (not on rail). Montreal is rally proud of it’s underground city, but when visiting Sapporo, I was really impressed by the long corridors linking some of the subway station and that also connect to many buildings on the way.
One thing that would be different is that Montreal is much more multicultural and multiethnic than Sapporo. Montreal is about 33% “visible minority” and 38% immigrant (and well… not all the visible minority population are immigrants). While Sapporo is like 98% Japanese and of the 2% that is not Japanese, half of them are Asian (Chinese or Korean).
I cannot speak much about coffee shop as I do not drink coffee.
In general, I also think that Hokkaido is Japan’s Quebec as they are a bid dairy producer
I spent some time in Nagoya while it was snowy a few years ago. It was nice.
Tohoku area for sure. It’s really nice in the winter, but not too cold (at least for those of us living in Canada).
There was a really nice cafe in Tsukuba out in the country side over looking farm fields. Place I think was an old shrine because it looked like a shrine until I saw the sign that said cafe. Garden was amazing. I would love to go back some time and chill in the winter over a hot cup of coffee. Menu was high class too.
Edit: Sorry, was an old farm house turned cafe/bakery/restaurant. Trying to find the name.
Edit: The place is called Kurabiyori.
https://goo.gl/maps/2mgQMmEiJN8mqGgU9 Kurabiyori
+81 29-857-4118
Doesn’t have the big city vibe, but Takayama does have a few excellent ground level cafes near the old town area.
How about Seoul? Even closer to Cambodia and it has nice coffee shops all over. Far better than Tokyo in that regard, leave alone smaller Japanese cities.
Sapporo? Oddly specific request tbh, is Japan even known for its cafes? But it’s a great city
I would say Sapporo has what you’re looking for. I visited in January 2020 right before Covid hit and one of the places I found absolutely charming is a spot called Morihiko Coffee on the western side of downtown. It was very snowy that day and the cafe is in a cozy little house and was lovely.
https://www.morihico.com/shop/morihico/
I lived in Tokyo in the late 90s/early 00s, I loved the districts of Jiyugaoka, Daikanyama and Shimo-Kitazawa for cafes, bars and general trendy and cool vibes. Tokyo is of course a huge city, but if you think of it as several cities in one, each with their own identity, then I’d always go for Tokyo. Outside of that, I’ve only been to Osaka (bit boring), Kobe (quite cool) and Kamakura, basically another suburb of Tokyo these days, but with lots of history and culture.
[deleted]
Sapporo, but if you want the hardest comfy snowed-in vibe possible, it would be Bar Gyu in Niseko next to Mt. Yotei. It’s a bar, but boy howdy the atmosphere is insanely cozy at night.
Maybe not so much cosy in its decor but the warmth and hospitality of the owner at Cafe Luonto in Kamakura was one of my favourite visits last time I was in Japan. Right next to the Enoshima railway. Also one of the best cheesecakes I’ve had!
I’m just going to add (because I didn’t see anyone mention it here) that although Japan cafes are building in popularity, they generally don’t open early. I toured every prefecture and generally had to do Starbucks before 10 or 11.
That being said, here’s some cafes I loved from my time in Japan if you care to pin them
Fukuoka: bills Fukuoka
https://goo.gl/maps/X99WdRvrpceRemqJ6
Tokyo: Blue Bottle Coffee Aoyama Café
https://goo.gl/maps/rch2bzC3BMeuPTkU7
Tokyo: Tsutaya Books Daikanyama
https://goo.gl/maps/j7R1Qhpr5JPyD1568
Takamatsu: Mini
https://goo.gl/maps/E68wUvZVDbJvFb3R8
Sapporo: RAW FOOD CAFE Lohas(自然食＆ローフードカフェ ロハス)
https://goo.gl/maps/yKpjChwiTC8f53CD6
Sapporo: Morihico Coffee
https://goo.gl/maps/a9BJZLaziZrtHnJH7
Kyoto: Blue Bottle Coffee Kyoto Cafe
https://goo.gl/maps/SSwJzePC1d7JgXLw5
If you go peak winter Japan has snow. Kyoto is great with awesome cafes and stuff. If you’re okay with smaller towns then Takayama, Kanazawa and Niigata would be cool places. Lots of Ryokans and winter scenery in Japan.
Sapporo is nothing like Buffalo! I have lived in/near both. You will love Sapporo, go for it!
I thought I would elaborate a bit more. It never gets really cold in Sapporo. It does, however, get VERY cold in Buffalo in the winter. Sapporo has awesome underground infrastructure where you could literally walk from one cafe to another all day without getting your feet it the snow. And the Sapporo Snow Festival in February is just fabulous! Sapporo, all the way :).
Yeah Sapporo is awesome. Hokkaido in general has a lot of great food. Nothing like having a miso ramen or a soup curry in a cold snowy day in Sapporo
Sapporo is the well known one, especially in February for the Snow Festival…
That being said, don’t overlook Hakodate (4 hours south of Sapporo) being a gorgeous town with lots of history…
Sendai is the next biggest city in Northern Japan… but it won’t get near the snow that makes for great pictures like Sapporo.
Sapporo, huh.. from what I’ve heard, it sucks to go there by train because the shinkansen has not been extended up to there yet
that being said, of all the cities with shinkansen access up north (Sendai, Morioka, Aomori, Hachinohe, Hakodate, Hokuto, etc.), which is the best one?
I’m really vibing with this post. If I tell people how much I enjoy sitting in cafes in Japan they act like “that’s boring you can do that in hometown” it’s totally different in Japan though.