Sapporo Clock Tower — Meiji-Era Icon

The Sapporo Clock Tower (札幌市時計台, Tokeidai) is a white wooden building from 1878, originally built as a drill hall for Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University). The tower is one of Hokkaido's oldest buildings and a symbol of Sapporo's Meiji-era modernization. The clock mechanism, imported from Boston in 1881, still functions and chimes every hour — one of Japan's few 19th-century mechanical clocks in continuous operation.

The building now houses a museum explaining Sapporo's history from Ainu lands to frontier settlement to modern city. The interior preserves the original wooden hall (used for lectures and drills), and the second floor has exhibits on the agricultural college's role in developing Hokkaido. The clock tower is Japan's most 'disappointing' tourist attraction (according to local jokes) because it sits incongruously amid modern office buildings, but its historical significance is genuine.