For more than a third of the year, Sapporo is buried beneath thick snow. During its warmer months, however, the city shrugs off its winter coat and bursts into life.

If winter is uncomfortably cold, then summer is refreshingly cool; Sapporo doesn't suffer from the extreme humidity and heat of the cities in the rest of Japan.

Perhaps it's for this reason that almost 2 million people call Japan's northern capital home, or perhaps it's the fact that despite the cold, the city has a bounty of opportunities for any traveler, whether you are there for a weekend, a week or longer.