Shiroi Koibito Park Review: Cookies and Chocolate in Sapporo
Last Updated on September 21, 2024 by Kay
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If you’re a fan of sweets like cookies and chocolate and are visiting Sapporo, Japan, I highly suggest going to Shiroi Koibito Park. Here you can indulge in desserts, make some personalized sweets yourself, learn about chocolate, and take in whimsical European surroundings.
In this article, I’ll share my experience visiting this park with my family and my honest thoughts. Hopefully, by the end, you’ll have an idea about whether you want to make the trip as well!
Table of Contents
History of Shiroi Koibito
The name Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人) means “white lovers” in English and was inspired when Isao Ishimizu saw snow falling from the sky and thought it looked like a couple. He then named a sweet he was developing, white chocolate sandwiched between two buttery square cookies, after this and history was made.
The cookies, Shiroi Koibito, were originally only sold in Hokkaido so they were a must-buy whenever people visited the prefecture and incredibly famous. Now you can find them throughout Japan, so they’re not as unique but still delicious.
When Shiroi Koibito Park was conceptualized by Ishimizu, he wanted it to be like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. And although there are no Oompa-Loompas, it’s absolutely a great place to take kids. When my family visited, there were also plenty of adults without kids, so don’t think this is a kiddie-focused park!
Opening Hours and Tickets
Shiroi Koibito Park is open daily from 10 AM to 6 PM. The outside area in the park is free but if you want to explore the Paid Area, which is a building containing various shops, experiences, and factories, you have to enter before 4:30 PM.
You can buy tickets for the Paid Area in advance from their website or simply purchase them at the park.
An adult ticket (16 years old and up) costs 800 yen, children between ages 4 to 15 cost 400 yen, and children ages three and under are free!
Make sure you keep your ticket on you so that you can enter other areas like Gulliver Town POKKE. (We had a brief moment of panic when we thought we had lost ours!)
If you want to do any of the chocolate experiences at the DREAM KITCHEN in Shiroi Koibito Park, I highly recommend making a reservation in advance. You can buy a ticket set that includes an entry ticket as well as an experience, although the overall cost doesn’t change.
Note that some of these experiences only accept reservations until the day before and have limited spots, which I’ll talk about later in this article.
How to Get to Shiroi Koibito Park
Shiroi Koibito Park is located in the Nishi Ward of Sapporo, Hokkaido.
The park is a 10-minute walk from Miyanosawa Station. They have a parking lot as well so you can drive if you have a car and the parking fee is only 300 yen every three hours.
Free Outdoor Area of Shiroi Koibito Park
About half of Shiroi Koibito Park is free and consists of gardens with little houses that kids can explore.
Make sure to wait for the bubbles under the small bridge to appear, it’s magical, and young kids love it!
The outdoor area has lots of fun photo spots, such as near the Rose Garden and Shiroi Koibito Railway (which no longer runs but you can still sit inside and walk along the railway if you want). My family had a lot of fun snapping tons of photos while we explored.
There are small stalls selling various desserts and drinks as well, such as crepes and coffee.
Paid Area of Shiroi Koibito Park
The Paid Area of Shiroi Koibito Park mainly consists of one building that has four floors. There is an elevator for those who need it due to having a stroller or other accessibility reasons.
The first floor of this building is free with a bakery and a souvenir shop called PICCADILLY. PICCADILLY contains lots of Shiroi Koibito merchandise but also has items that are only sold there.
When we had finished exploring the other two floors of the building, we made sure to pick up a few of these limited items as souvenirs for our neighbors in Japan. I also had to stop myself from buying all the cute Shiroi Koibito magnets!
You can get original Shiroi Koibito tins that have your picture on them!
The Paid Area is on the 2nd to 4th floors and consists of the following:
CHOCOTOPIA HOUSE (2nd Floor)
This consists of several rooms where you’ll learn about the history of chocolate making via projected images on a screen. Everything is in Japanese but there are English subtitles.
My daughter, age five, wasn’t particularly interested in watching any of this but she liked looking at the displays of pots and cups. I didn’t find it especially riveting either so if you’re limited in time, you may want to consider skipping this.
Study Base CACAO POD
This costs 500 yen and requires a reservation, which you can do in advance on the Shiroi Koibito Park Website or on the day (note that spots are limited).
Here you can taste different kinds of chocolate and learn about tasting methods.
We decided not to do this because my husband thought it was a little expensive for all three of us and our daughter was too young to fully understand the lesson. I kind of wish we had done it, though!
CHOCOTOPIA FACTORY (3rd Floor)
Here you can have a bird’s eye view of the Shiroi Koibito production line as well as see cute interactive dioramas of little cat-like figures making chocolate on the Shiroi Koibito Farm.
My daughter loved turning the handles to make the little figures move.
MAGICAL MARCHE (4th Floor)
This is a trick-art-like photo spot where you can pretend like you’re sitting on a cup of hot chocolate or sit with your travel partner on a bench that lights up and brings characters on a screen closer together.
My family had fun taking photos here.
Sweets Workshop DREAM KITCHEN (4th Floor)
The DREAM KITCHEN consists of various fun chocolate experiences that you can partake in. You can either purchase tickets for a course in advance online or on the day from the counter pictured above.
My Shiroi Koibito Baking Course
Bake a giant heart-shaped Shiroi Koibito cookie and then decorate it using chocolate pens!
Cost: 2000 yen
Reservation: Online reservations only. Reservation can be made up until the day before, but it’s quite popular so I recommend grabbing a spot as early as possible.
Chocolate Pie Sandwich Course
Decorate chocolate pie sandwiches using sprinkles and flavored decorative flakes.
Cost: 1500 yen
If you want to do one of these experiences, I highly recommend purchasing a ticket set in advance on their website, which consists of the entry fee plus the course.
My Shiroi Koibito Drawing Course
Decorate a giant heart-shaped Shiroi Koibito cookie however you like using chocolate pens!
Cost: 1200 yen for two chocolate pens (brown and white), 1500 yen for five colors of chocolate pens
Reservation: On the day possible as long as spots are available
We participated in the drawing course because there were no spots for the baking course, which had been my top choice. If only one member of your party wants to participate, the others can enter the room as well and watch them decorate the cookies. This is a good option if you have kids so you can save some money! There were lots of parents who just paid for their children and then watched them decorate the cookies.
Everyone in my family of three decided to do the drawing course so it was a little costly. We paid for one five-color chocolate pen course for our daughter and two of the cheaper courses for us parents.
We were told to arrive a few minutes before our allotted time slot and everyone picked up a paper baker’s hat and apron. They only have one size so both were a little big for our five-year-old but we made it work.
After washing our hands, we lined up to get Shiroi Koibito paper bags filled with what we needed for our drawing course experience.
You can choose any table you like to work at and up to three parties can use a table. If you have a child with you like we do and need a step stool, they have those as well.
The steps were pretty easy and straightforward, as expected. After checking that our giant Shiroi Koibito cookies were intact and that there was nothing wrong with them, we could freely decorate them using the chocolate pens.
We took about thirty minutes to decorate ours and although I am absolutely awful at drawing, it was a fun family activity. I saw a couple next to us and theirs were amazing, so if you have mad drawing skills and want to create something unique, I would recommend this. My daughter also had a blast so needless to say, it’s a great experience for kids.
(Can you guess which one is mine? Actually don’t 🤣)
At the end, the staff will kindly take a picture of you with your creation if you ask them.
When you’re done decorating your cookie, close the box and seal it with a sticker so you can take it home to eat. Note that the cookie must be eaten within a few days, so make sure you eat it as soon as possible.
ISHIYA MUSEUM (2nd Floor)
This is where you can learn about the history of the founder of Shiroi Koibito and their company. It’s not that interesting for kids but I found it fascinating.
I especially loved looking at all the retro Shiroi Koibito packaging. Unfortunately, the descriptions were only in Japanese.
Gulliver Town POKKE
A short walk from the main area of Shiroi Koibito Park is Gulliver Town POKKE. Just like in Gulliver’s Travels, this area makes you feel like you’re a giant in a land meant for tiny people. However, everything is just the right size for kids.
I will say straight out that this area is pretty much meant for younger kids. I think anyone above age ten would find this place too childish and boring. However, it’s free to enter using the ticket from the Paid Area so it’s worth taking a quick look if you have time.
My daughter is five so she loved this place. Kids can rent costumes for an additional charge but it was hot outside so my daughter wasn’t interested. You can purchase a ticket to rent a costume from a vending machine at the entrance and if you’re wondering about the selection, you can look at the costumes before you rent.
They also have events where you can create things but they weren’t holding any when we visited.
Gulliver Town POKKE consists of lots of little houses and buildings that form a town. For instance, there’s a glasses shop where kids can try on different funny glasses, a police station (my daughter made me go to jail), and lots of houses with various toys in them.
There’s also an area where kids can ride tricycles and stuffed animals with wheels, so lots of kids were going wild here while their parents sat on benches and rested.
If it’s hot outside, escape to the blue house pictured below. This is the only one I could find that had an air conditioner and two small stools inside. My husband and I sat in cool bliss while our daughter played with the toys, and it was perfect. I imagine in winter they must use the air conditioner to heat the house.
Now, if your kid is like mine, it will be really hard pulling them away from here. There are so many different buildings to explore and toys to play with! We spent 40 minutes here but I know my daughter could have easily stayed for at least another 30 minutes.
Photo Spots
There are tons of photo spots at Shiroi Koibito Park so make sure to keep your eyes peeled!
For instance, you can pose with massive Shiroi Koibito cookies. My daughter enjoyed pretending to eat those.
Where to Eat at Shiroi Koibito Park
There are a few places in Shiroi Koibito Park where you can sit down and enjoy a meal or something sweet. The following restaurants two are in the free area of the park:
- Cafe BUTLERS WHARF
- Currey Restaurant ENTREPOT
We ate at the Chocolate Lounge OXFORD, which is on the 4th floor of the paid area. As implied in the name, they serve a lot of chocolatey goodies and I had a hard time deciding what to get!
They have seasonal menus as well (the Halloween one looks AMAZING), so you can enjoy something new and special if you go during different times of the year.
Our family got the ISHIYA Sweets Enjoy Set to share, which consisted of a tower of three small plates with different desserts — ice cream, a roll cake, cookies, a Baum cake, and Shiroi Koibito cookies. I loved being able to try a little bit of everything (the roll cake was my favorite) and it was great for sharing. It also came with a drink, so my husband ordered coffee.
My daughter got an iced chocolate drink (I had a sip and it was so good) and I got the Shiroi Koibito white wine, which was a little too sweet for me.
We also really enjoyed watching the automatons coming out of the mechanical clock tower from the window — the Chocolate Lounge provides the perfect view!
Free Birthday Goodies
If you visit on your birthday, the day before your birthday, or the day after your birthday, you’ll receive a free serving of soft cream!
You need to show your ID at the ticket center to receive this freebie.
Seasonal Events
Shiroi Koibito Park holds a number of seasonal events for guests.
From September to October, they have different Halloween-themed desserts. On October 27th, 2024, kids who say trick-or-treat after finding witches can get candy! And on certain days, kids dressed in costumes get free entry to the park! There are also tons of other fun Halloween activities.
For older guests, there’s an escape-room-type experience where the park transforms into a haunted house on certain days in October from 6 PM (you need to purchase a ticket in advance to enter). However, children aged 6 and under cannot participate, and elementary school and junior high school-age children must be with a guardian.
Wrap-up: Is Shiroi Koibito Park Worth It?
Our family had a great time at Shiroi Koibito Park, especially because our daughter had a blast. There is so much for kids to do and when including Gulliver Town POKKE makes the entry fee worth it. We definitely got our money’s worth since we ended up spending three hours here!
I personally don’t think I would do the My Shiroi Koibito Drawing Course in the DREAM KITCHEN again, mainly because I am awful at drawing (especially with chocolate pens) and I have no need for a giant Shiroi Koibito cookie (I ate half of mine and then threw away the rest). But I might consider letting my daughter do the baking course on her own while my husband and I watch her.
Is the park worth it if you don’t have kids? As mentioned at the beginning of the article, I did see couples and other groups of adults at the park. I think adults can have fun with the various photo spots and eating sweets at Chocolate Lounge OXFORD. If I were going without my daughter, I would go again just to eat at Chocolate Lounge OXFORD! Their chocolate drink was so good.
Despite this, I would say that if you’re limited on time and don’t have kids, Shiroi Koibito Park isn’t a must-visit spot in Sapporo.