Tanukikoji Shopping Street

Tanukikoji Shopping Street stretches under a continuous arched roof for seven blocks in central Sapporo. Its name comes from the tanuki, or raccoon dogs, that local merchants jokingly claimed roamed the area in the eighteen seventies when the street first formed. In eighteen eighty-five, the neighborhood association officially adopted the name, and they eventually installed a shrine to the mythical creatures near the middle of the arcade. Businesses here have operated under this single covered canopy for over a century.