Full-day tour from Sapporo: Hill of the Buddha & Moai Statues & Jozankei Town
Last updated: August 26, 2026
Sapporo's icons and its strangest masterpiece in one loop: the day sweeps from the cedar-shaded grounds of Hokkaido Jingu to Shiroi Koibito Park's storybook chocolate factory, the seafood stalls around the Central Wholesale Market and the red-brick Sapporo Beer Museum, then heads south to the Hill of the Buddha — Tadao Ando's great lavender-planted dome, where a 13-metre stone Buddha sits ringed by hillside, flanked improbably by an avenue of Moai and a Stonehenge replica. Jozankei's gorge-side onsen town winds the day down before the coach loops back to the TV Tower.
Itinerary
Departure
- Start point: Sapporo TV Tower
- Stop at: Hokkaido Jingu
- Stop at: Shiroi Koibito Park
- Stop at: Sapporo Central Wholesale Market
- Stop at: Sapporo Beer Museum
- Stop at: Hill of the Buddha
- Stop at: Moai Statues
- Stop at: Stonehenge Replica
- Stop at: Jozankei Town
- Stop at: Futami Suspension Bridge
- End point: Sapporo TV Tower
Frequently Asked Questions
Architect Tadao Ando's answer to a cemetery commission: a 13-metre stone Buddha sunk to the shoulders in a man-made hill, so only the head shows above a ring of lavender — you approach through a concrete tunnel and meet the statue framed against open sky. The lavender blooms purple in July; in winter the hill turns white and the effect is just as strong.
The same cemetery park commissioned them: an avenue of Easter Island-style Moai and a full Stonehenge replica stand minutes from the Buddha, built as monuments meant to stir the same quiet awe as the originals. Together they make Makomanai Takino one of Japan's most surreal photo stops.
Sapporo's own hot-spring town, folded into a river gorge less than an hour from downtown — steam rising among wooded slopes, free foot baths by the bridges, and some of Hokkaido's most famous autumn colours in October. The stop is a stroll and a soak-scale visit, a gentle close to the loop.
From the Sapporo TV Tower at Odori Park, and the coach returns you to the same spot in the evening — the city's easiest landmark to find from any hotel downtown.