Umeda Sky Building

We met Shige at the Umeda Sky Building sometime after sunset. This worked out nicely, though because the view from the "floating garden observatory" is equally as incredible at night as it is during the day. I can say that because now I've been there at both times (coincidentally, the last time was with Shige, too).

The Umeda Sky Building is really two buildings, capped off at the top with the aforementioned "floating garden observatory". The observatory is round-shaped, and on certain days I've heard tell that they have some type of fogger device that makes it look like you are viewing Osaka from on a cloud once you are on the outside deck. It is well worth visiting if you ever find yourself on the North side of Osaka with seven hundred yen in your pocket. For that price, you can go up to the top and see for yourself what I'm talking about. If you happen to have more than that in your pocket, then check out the basement. Down there they've reconstructed an Edo-era street and filled it out with Japanese style restaurants. We didn't go, but I saw some photos and ads for it while we were on our way through.

On clear days you can see quite a few local landmarks, and on clear nights you'll see quite a bit too. We counted five or six ferris wheels, among other things. Osaka Castle seemed like a tiny plastic model of itself among the modern buildings. Here is what it looks like from between the towers, looking up from ground-level through the ring of the observatory.



Unfortunately, only one picture of the view turned out, but here it is: