Autumn colours of Nakajima Park, Dragonflies of Toyohira River, Sapporo (AJ Walks) (4K Virtual Tour)
Up early to see Odori Park without crowds, before the Autumn Festival opens for the day, and walked to Susukino for breakfast at the McDonalds there – you may laugh, but the quality in Japan is great, consistent, and open earlier than most other places to eat. Once shops started to open, I checked out some souvenirs in Don Quixote, and walked the length of the Tanukikoji shopping street – no pictures there as it was starting to get busy, and I was just appreciating the ambience.
Originally from there I was going to have gone straight to the riverside, but saw that there was a park nearby, so I continued my walk past the large temple complex to enter Nakajima Park from the north, finding a magical showcase of autumn colours, and picturesque reflections in the lake and ponds.
Eventually I did find my way to the somewhat iconic Horohira Bridge, which features an extra arch with steps to offer commanding views of the city and the river course. Being lucky enough to have such a clear day, I was able to see Mt Eniwa in the distance. Walking along the walkway besides the Toyohira River, I kept noticing the fast flights of dragonflies in courtship, and set my camera controls manually to give myself the best chance to catch them in flight – focus distance of around 3 metres, shutter of 1/3200, and slight zoom into 24mm (crop). With that I was able to catch several individuals and a few pairs – and then had an absolute poser as a reward.
Once reaching Mizuho Bridge I crossed back towards the city, to work my way back to the main sights, going via Nagayama Memorial Park and the adjacent Sapporo Factory mall – a great place for when the weather is worse, which gets to be the case in winter. I was able to see the Clock Tower (actually an old martial arts hall, originally) and the TV Tower again, this time with my better camera available, and walked through the festival grounds on the way back to my hotel.
Somehow, I still had energy in the evening, and took the tram around its full course to see more of the city, hopping off to have a selection of pastries for supper at Penguin Bakery, before seeing Susukino at night, when it is at its most iconic.
Recorded: 29 September 2024
Camera: Samsung S22, Nikon D7100 (Tamron 16-300)
GPS Plotting: https://gpx.studio/
Tour Editing: Google Earth Pro
Editing: ShotCut / ffmpeg
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