Bike tour around Nopporo Forest Park from Sapporo

It was opened as part of Hokkaido’s Centennial Project in 1968 to protect and enhance the precious natural forest and to give residents a recreational area for getting closer to nature. It has been designated a Prefectural Nature Park.The majority of its 2,053 hectares are national forest, parts of which have been designated as Showa no Mori recreational use forest and a wildlife sanctuary.Walking paths crisscrossing the park let visitors enjoy nature observation, therapeutic forest walks, and in winter, cross-country skiing. In the natural forest inside Nopporo Forest Park, there is a comparatively large amount of forest remaining that is situated in a transition zone between temperate forest and subarctic forest.It is a mixed conifer and broadleaf forest. Its broadleaf forest contains Mongolian oak, Japanese Judas tree and Japanese linden, and its subarctic conifer forest consists mostly of Sakhalin fir.Small and medium-sized mammals inhabit the park, including foxes, raccoon dogs, varying hares, Hokkaido squirrels, Pteromys volans orii (subspecies of Siberian flying squirrel) and small Japanese field mice.

Sapporo ("important river flowing through a plain" in Ainu language) is the capital of Hokkaido and Japan's fifth largest city. Sapporo is also one of the nation's youngest major cities. In 1857, the city's population stood at just seven people. In the beginning of the Meiji Period, when the development of Hokkaido was started on a large scale, Sapporo was chosen as the island's administrative center and enlarged according to the advice of foreign specialists. Consequently, Sapporo was built based on a North American style rectangular street system. Sapporo became world famous in 1972 when the Olympic Winter Games were held there. Today, the city is well known for its ramen, beer, and the annual snow festival held in February.