Is this Japan’s most sustainable city? Getting your green on in Sapporo

Japan’s ‘capital in the north’ has always been a hub for rural activity on Hokkaido, but in recent years it’s upped its game to become one of the world’s leading sustainable cities, writes Lucie Grace

Green metropolis: Sapporo incorporates eco design and a respect for nature (Lucie Grace)

Almost unbelievably, soup curry tastes as good as it smells. It’s something I didn’t think possible as the enticing waft of masala stewed vegetables hit my nostrils – my mouth watering before I’d even picked up a spoon.

Coined soul food by the handful of Sapporo restaurants who’ve been serving these bowls since the 1970s, soup curry is fresh as food comes and as spicy as you request. “These vegetables are all from Hokkaido?” I ask my waiter in Soup Curry Treasure, who smiles kindly. “Yes, all of our ingredients are from Hokkaido.” A few days later I realise just how naive a question that was; Sapporo, the capital city of Japan’s north island, Hokkaido, has had a farm-to-table food ethos since inception – the city is enveloped by agriculture and mountains, with the sea within reach too.

Taking the train here from Tokyo was an excellent flex of my Japan Rail Pass – the handy ticket that makes train travel in Japan cheaper for tourists – and the route was surprisingly easy. The shinkansen bullet train whizzes through the Seikan Tunnel to Hokkaido  (the 33-mile long underwater link is the second longest tunnel in the world) and on re-emerging, I see snow on the ground, yet to melt in Japan’s chillier north island. Time to get the thermals on.