Kamakura or Sapporo?

Kamakura has a beach, if a modest one. Yuigahama and Zaimokuza are a short walk from the station, the beaches facing Enoshima are along the Enoden line, and Sagami Bay gets warm enough in high summer for a proper swim. The sand is dark and the water is rarely clear, but the beach is close to where you stay.

Sapporo is inland. Its nearest swimming, at Ishikari or near Otaru on the Sea of Japan, is a trip out of town, and the water is cooler and warm enough for only a few weeks. Neither city makes a beach vacation. In Kamakura the sea is part of everyday life, while in Sapporo it is a summer afternoon out.

Sapporo is worth travelling to for the food. Hokkaido's seafood, dairy and lamb have given it dishes of its own: miso ramen, soup curry and jingisukan. Nijo Market serves bowls of sea urchin and roe in the morning, and whole crab is the meal to have in winter. The old brewery has its beer halls, and Susukino's ramen counters stay open late into the night.

Kamakura's food is simpler and lighter. It has shirasu whitebait on rice near the beach, refined shojin ryori by the Zen temples and snacks along Komachi-dori. It is good for lunch, but for a choice of places in the evening most visitors go to Yokohama or Tokyo.

Kamakura still shows its history as a medieval capital. It has the open-air Great Buddha, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, the shrine of the Minamoto clan, and the Zen temples of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji. Smaller places such as Hase-dera and the bamboo grove at Hokoku-ji are enough for a second day.

Sapporo is a grid city laid out in the 19th century. Its landmarks are the Clock Tower, the red-brick former government building and the pioneer houses of the Historical Village. The highlights are the Ainu galleries of the Hokkaido Museum and Noguchi's Moerenuma Park, which are interesting but tell a much younger story.

Sapporo has a real night out and Kamakura does not. Susukino's neon towers hold thousands of tiny counter bars, izakaya and karaoke rooms that stay busy past midnight, even in winter. The evening is about moving from bar to bar rather than clubbing, and the side streets are easier places to start than the main corners where touts work.

Kamakura winds down once the day-trippers leave. A few izakaya near the station and the beach are all there is, and a late night means taking the train to Yokohama or Tokyo.

Both cities sit against wooded hills, but Sapporo's outdoors are on a much bigger scale. Its reliable deep snow brings skiing at Teine and Kokusai within the city, and Niseko's powder is about two hours away. In summer, the caldera lake and volcanoes of Shikotsu-Toya are about an hour south.

Kamakura's outdoors are gentler. Ridge trails such as the Daibutsu and Tenen routes link the temples, there is surfing and paddling in Sagami Bay, and on clear winter days Fuji appears across the water. For real mountains you go to Hakone or the Tanzawa range.

Kamakura is very well placed for day trips. Tokyo is about an hour away and Yokohama less than half an hour, Enoshima is a short ride on the Enoden, and Hakone's hot springs and Odawara's castle lie further west. In one stay you can see Japan's biggest city and a mountain resort as well as the temples.

Sapporo's day trips are good but fewer: Otaru's canal, the Yoichi whisky distillery, the Ainu museum at Shiraoi and the onsen at Noboribetsu. Beyond those, most outings lead to lakes and farmland rather than other towns.

Both cities are safe and clean and easy with children, and Sapporo is a little easier. Its flat grid, the underground walkway, the polar bears at Maruyama Zoo and beginners' ski slopes inside the city make it simple to manage, as long as children are dressed for a hard winter.

Kamakura's attractions for children are smaller in scale: climbing inside the Great Buddha, riding the Enoden along the sea, Enoshima's caves and the aquarium at Katase. The drawbacks are long stone staircases, weekend crowds and small hotel rooms.

Neither city needs a car, but they work differently. Kamakura is a small town you cover on foot, with the Enoden and one stop on the JR line reaching the outlying temples. At weekends, though, traffic slows the buses and many temples sit at the top of steps.

Sapporo is far larger but easier to find your way around. It has a numbered street grid, three subway lines, a streetcar loop and an underground walkway that keeps you off icy pavements in winter. Only places on the edge of the city, such as Jozankei, need a bus.

Sapporo is the better place to shop. It has department stores above the station and around Odori, and the long covered arcade of Tanukikoji. The food halls are full of Hokkaido chocolate, cheese and dried seafood, and Ainu woodcarving is the craft to bring home.

Kamakura is good for an afternoon of browsing on Komachi-dori and Wakamiya-oji. The thing to look for is Kamakura-bori lacquered woodwork, along with ceramics and good knives. For fashion you go to Yokohama or Tokyo.

Your money goes further in Sapporo. Business hotels are good value, ramen and soup curry cost little and many sights are free. Costs rise mainly for crab dinners, ski passes and hotel rooms during the Snow Festival.

Kamakura's day-to-day costs are fair, with small temple fees and reasonably priced soba lunches. The problem is that it has few hotels, and Tokyo weekenders compete for the rooms. Many visitors avoid this by staying in Yokohama or Fujisawa and coming in by train.

Sapporo has a regular programme of performances. The Kitara concert hall is home to the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra and hosts the Pacific Music Festival every July. A large theatre takes touring opera and ballet, and there are jazz bars in Susukino.

Kamakura has occasional Noh in a small private theatre and its shrine festivals, with traditional dance in spring and yabusame horseback archery in autumn. These are memorable if your dates match, but on an ordinary evening there is little to see.

The two towns offer different kinds of rest. In Kamakura you find it on foot, and timing matters: an early walk up one of the Kita-Kamakura valleys, seated meditation in a Zen hall, or a tea pavilion before the trains bring in the day-trippers. The mild, bright winter months are a good time for this, because the blossom and hydrangea crowds are gone. There is no hot bath at the end of the day, though, and the nearest onsen are in Hakone.

In Sapporo rest is easier to come by. Soaking in hot water is how people there recover, and a bath fits round any day, whether after a morning on the ski slopes or a long walk over frozen pavements. Winter makes sightseeing hard work, but it is the best season for the outdoor baths in the Jozankei gorge, with snow on the rocks around the water and the baths about an hour by bus from the centre. Unlike Kamakura's temples, a good soak does not depend on catching a quiet weekday, and between baths the city itself is spacious and slow.