My plan when I left the hostel was to go to Moerenuma Park. However, the sun was out today. As I passed Sapporo TV Tower, it looked good. So, I decided to go to the top of it for the panoramic views of Sapporo. I saw the length of Odori Park, which I walked along a few days ago.
It took about an hour to get to Moerenuma Park after I left the TV Tower. The grounds of the park were once a rubbish tip. It was a waste treatment plant. Then Sapporo decided to turn it into something useful. They commissioned American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. He created a design based on the concept “the whole park being a single sculpture”.
Isamu Noguchi went on to design an overall blueprint and a miniature model of the park. He died shortly afterwards. Nonetheless, his blueprint was used to begin construction in 1989. The park opened in 2005.
As you walk around the park, you see fountains and hills. The hills reminded me of the burial mounds in Gyeongju. There are also various geometric shapes that appear in various sections of the park: the central glass pyramid, which has a gallery and viewing platform; a pyramid-frame sculpture; a playground; and in a park being used by some parkour athletes.
The highest hill in the park is Mount Moere. It’s the focal point of the park. There are several sets of steps up to the top, from where you have a panoramic view of the park and the city. When I was walking up, there was a bird (buzzard, kite?) hanging around! At times, when I thought it had disappeared, it would appear, suddenly and worryingly, right above my head! The hilltop was a good spot to survey potential prey.
