The clock face of the Sapporo Clock Tower floated in the shadows

There are times when I visit a tourist attraction and am disappointed. Sometimes it is because the guidebooks I have read in advance have described it too well, and sometimes it is because the photos are more beautiful than the actual place. In any case, it was not as great as I had imagined. It is what is called a "disappointing sightseeing spot."

In my travels, I have visited many tourist attractions that were not as great as I had expected. My most memorable "disappointing tourist attraction" was the Lion of Hamadan. Hamadan is the capital of Hamadan Province in Iran, and was once the capital of the Kingdom of Media, Ekbatana. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and this disappointment is quite high because it has a stone statue of a lion that is said to be either Achaemenid, Parthian, or made by Alexander the Great in memory of his close friend Hephaistion. The stone statues, which should have been listed in guidebooks as a major tourist attraction and have high historical value, are quite weathered, and to the uninitiated it is hard to tell whether they are lions or not.

If I had to name a disappointing tourist attraction in Japan, Sapporo Clock Tower would have to top the list. The photos I see in guidebooks are all very well taken, and the fact that it is surrounded by buildings and not very big is well concealed. I tried to take a good picture of the clock tower, and the above picture is the result of my trial and error. I think I succeeded in hiding the inconvenient facts, but what do you think?

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