Nijo Seafood Market in Sapporo Hokkaido
Nijo Seafood Market in Sapporo Hokkaido
We visited Sapporo earlier this month as we wanted to capture the Cherry Blossom or Sakura season in Hokkaido. The Sakura season in Hokkaido usually happens on the first week of May and it coincides the ‘Golden Week’ of Japan (similar to our week long festive season). From Malaysia, we flew direct from Kuala Lumpur (KLIA2) to Chitose International Airport with AirAsiaX and we reached Hokkaido in the morning. We put our bags in the studio we rented and the first place we went is Nijo Seafood Market in Sapporo.
We read many reviews on this seafood market before we went there like how you are reading our blog. There are positive and negative reviews on Njio Market but it didn’t stop us from visiting. This is the forth seafood market we visited as we visited Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Nishiki Market in Kyoto and Kuromon Ichiba Market in Osaka. Nijo Market is the smallest among the four but it is still worth the visit in our opinion.
Going to Nijo Market
Sapporo is a small city and you can walk to most attractions including Nijo Seafood Market. Nijo Market is 7 mins walk from the subway stations (Nishiyonchome Station or Nishiyonchome Station) and it is near the Sapporo TV Tower and Odori Park. Remember to download Google Map and it will be your lifesaver when you travel to places in Japan. Read here to understand more.
Nijo Market is a small seafood market. You probably need less than 20 minutes to cover the entire seafood market. You can find two popular types of crabs here, King Crabs and Hairy Crabs. The hairy crabs are the small ones.
Hairy crabs are priced from 3000 Yen while King crab is priced from 6000 Yen depending on sizes. You can order the crabs here and cook in one of the nearby restaurants.
If you are a the ‘uni’ (sea urchin) lover, Nijo Market is a must visit. Most of the stalls offer fresh sea urchins in packets. Prices are depending on quality and quantity. Good ones are over 4000 Yen per packet.
Sapporo is a popular tourist destination so most of the sellers here can speak simple English and Chinese too. The prices display is not fixed and can be bargained. Don’t start bargaining if you don’t intend to buy.
There are also fresh oysters, dried scallops, grilled scallops (on the spot) and other local seafood available in the market. If you plan to take it back, some of them do offer ice packs and packed it nicely in boxes for you to take it home.
Another popular food here is the seafood bowl or donburi. Most of the restaurants around Nijo Market offers seafood bowl with salmon, salmon roe, sea urchin, crab and more. Most of them offer English menu and they do speak simple English and Chinese.
We ate at the restaurant nearby called 札幌かに工房 and we had Small Crab Hot Pot and Salmon Roe Donburi as we are not a huge fan of sea urchin. For Small Crab Hot Pot and Salmon Roe Donburi is priced at 2,300 Yen + Tax. We enjoyed the Salmon Roe Donburi as you can taste the freshness of the salmon as well as the creamy and saltiness of the Salmon Roe.
We also order Fresh King Crab Sashimi Donburi at 3,300 Yen + Tax. The reason we didn’t order the whole King Crab from the market is we wanted to try more type of food. If you are a sashimi lover, you should try the fresh King Crab sashimi.
We spent over 6,000 Yen for our lunch in Nijo Market and that was our first meal in Sapporo. The reason we chose this restaurant than the rest because they offer King crab donburi. We have no complains on the food and the service.
Overall, we enjoyed visiting Nijo Market as well as having the King Crab lunch at 札幌かに工房. The size of Nijo Market is small but we felt it is worth visiting. The atmosphere and mood here might not be as busy and as noisy as the other big seafood market in the country, it still offers the charm of a local seafood market. Furthermore, you can check out the local seafood in this part of Japan. You can find Japan’s best scallops, oysters, crabs and many other seafood here in Nijo Market.
Nijo Market Address:
1 Chome-1-4 Minami 2 Johigashi, Chūō-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaidō 060-0052, Japan
