Wakkanai Centennial Memorial Tower / Hoppō Memorial Museum, Observation tower and history museum in Wakkanai Park, Japan.
The Wakkanai Centennial Memorial Tower is a reinforced-concrete tower rising 80 meters above a hill 170 meters high in Wakkanai Park. Its exterior is unpainted weathering steel, colored by rust. The two-story Hoppō Memorial Museum forms the base, and an elevator with a small television screen leads to the glass-enclosed observation room at 70 meters.
The tower and museum opened on 1 July 1978, marking 100 years since the Sōya village office was established in 1879, the date Wakkanai takes as its founding. The same year also marked 30 years since Wakkanai became Hokkaido's 14th city in 1949. The reinforced-concrete tower rises 80 meters above a hill 170 meters above sea level.
The museum displays the work of explorers and geographers who mapped this northern region. The exhibits tell stories of sailors and surveyors who studied the coasts and islands of these waters.
The tower is best visited between spring and fall when the weather is stable and visibility is good. The observation deck is at the top while the museum occupies the lower floors and is easy to reach.
The tower's exterior is unpainted weathering steel, its brown surface formed by rust rather than coating. The 80-meter shaft rises from a hill 170 meters above sea level, and the glass-walled observation room sits 70 meters up, with coin-operated binoculars inside.
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