Shiroi Koibito Park — Attraction in Sapporo

What an amazing and unforgetable experience I've had here! Especially with me, one who's so dedicated to chocolate that bursted out crying right at the moment the tour guide just said "Why does chocolate make people so happy?" 😂 I purchased a Premium Factory Ticket and was provided with a ticket with time that I should show up for the tour, a guide book and an infamous Shiroi Koibito cookie indeed (which I noticed that had the two mascot cats Pirumi and Purumu on the pack instead of ice crystal like of normal packs). I've wandered around the pretty fairytale-like garden for a while before the ticket timed, and it was like the most magical garden in the world. Such a snow wonderland, and the mountain from afar did make me feel like seeing the symbolic Rishiri mountain of Shiroi Koibito for real. Really nice decorations, both out and inside. Then I went in for shopping a little and ended up buying some candies at Candy Labo for my colleagues, the candies were so well-made that you'd hesitate to eat! After that was the Factory Tour, in which I was guided by a story-teller to go around the "castle" finding out chocolate's history, made interesting by the character Ishimitty. Not only watching explanation videos but also observe the real Shiroi Koibito cookies-making chain from above a factory! The tour fulfilled my expectations and after that comes lunch! I grabbed mine at Entrepot, the restaurant was all crowded with people wanting to taste its famous curry dishes. I've ordered Hokkaidō Ezo venison leg steak curry - a special limited dish for this season only, and that tasted like heaven! Also not to miss the best part of this park - chocolate, I had snowman hot chocolate drink with marshmallow at the ice-cream house and white chocolate-flavoured popcorn at Brighton. The chocolate drink was really hot it melt my poor snowman bar even before I was able to take a picture so if you want a snap, better do it fast! The popcorn was unbelievably delicious, who would jave thought popcorn would go THAT well with white chocolate? Wish I'd bought more 😭 And there's also free photo-taking by the staff at the garden, don't miss the chance! Just a little walking from the train station and you'll reach this...

We love Shiroi Koibito Park!

We are a family with 4 young children (that includes a baby)

Although some of the place in the park was under maintenance, but there was loads of fun activities to do!

This place does not have entrance fee.

First, the kids get inside some small houses. The mini houses are very small, only our 3-years old fit perfectly. Nevertheless, the older kids find it fun to play around the mini houses.

Then, we explore the inside building.

There was a mini play space with charge. This mini space charged ¥200 for 30 minutes play, for each kids and companion adult.

I recommend you to let your kids spend at least 1 hour at this mini play space. There was lots of fun toys, as well as few fun virtual games for kids!

Next, we went for biscuit decorating. The kids love this!

This session charged ¥800 per biscuit decorated. The kids first got their biscuit set with some decoration items, and hot chocolate in small piping syringe.

Then, the shop assistance helped them to put on their apron and gave a photo of biscuit design.

The kids love the idea of getting to decorate their own biscuit with chocolate.

Everyone got the biscuit. Even more special, after everyone has done decorating, the shop assistant helped pack the biscuits nicely in a small box and put it into a small bag.

How exciting!

After biscuit decorating, we went to have some ice cream. Because it was a bit cold, and we prefer to eat ice cream in a cozy and warm place, we found ourselves a spot in the London Bus next to the ice cream shop.

The London Bus is a place to sit in and it have heater inside.

Oh the kids love this! The idea of having ice cream in a bright looking bus. The space in the bus was quite spacious for the 6 of us.

Luckily for us, there wasn't that many visitors in the bus at that moment.

There was also some free shows at specific time, such as theater show and open area show-a show which also includes bubbles floating in the air.

We wrapped our day with watching the candy making process inside.

Bring your kids here. You don't have to be a chocolate lover to...

TLDR: overcrowded, staff is kinda terrible. Avoid (unless you’re into that type of thing.)

While it is flattering to have your own handmade stuffed animal mistaken for a famous character, being told repeatedly that you don’t have the copyright to your own creation is quite a hurtful experience.

The weirdest part: The staff chose to communicate this copyright issue for my chocolate box by repeatedly handing me a Chinese pamphlet. Again, fam, it’s very flattering that you think that I’m smart enough to read Chinese and my handmade stuffed animal is famous, but it’s slightly demoralizing by the third time I’ve flipped the copyright notice over to the English side from the Chinese side. I think that’s when I realized that the staff was not interested in communicating with me.

I just needed a simple sign upfront that says “no characters, real people only.”I totally understand if you just don’t wanna print certain things, but can you please just list the things instead of telling me repeatedly, “your beloved personal stuffed animal is famous, but, also, you don’t own the copyright to it?”

(Because, man, that really hurt me somewhere deep, in a place I didn’t even know I could hurt.)

Stepping back a bit: I wanna tell you why you, reader of this review, should care about this absurd stuffed animal anecdote. This park, like many other beautiful places, is severely overcrowded. I think if the staff stopped to think a bit about why copyright exists as a concept, they might have found the situation ironic, but they had like N other people to go through after me, a fact they made clear to me repeatedly.

I can see how being in an aggressive environment like that everyday can make a person very desensitized, and I feel sad that they have been put into this situation.

Nevertheless, I think you should skip this place. Leave some room in your stomach and go somewhere more authentic.

In this day and age, white chocolate is much too...