Umeda Sky Building

Just 15 minutes walk from our hotel, with a few diversions along the way, we encountered the Umeda Sky Building – an interlinked skyscraper with a height of 173 metres.  After yesterday’s experience with the ferris wheel, Jules was pretty confident that she could cope with the Open Floating Garden Observatory on the top of the building.  However, a 35 floor ride in a glass elevator to the entry floor soon made us a little wary of what we might encounter.  That wasn’t as bad as the 3 floor escalator with glass sides that traversed the space between the buildings to gain access to the roof-top observatory walk.  It was a pity that the day was overcast, because the view would have been incredible and the building is renowned for amazing sunsets on a clear day.  Another amazing, unforgettable experience!

The last shot (below) is the escalator stack inside the Hanshin Department Store, Sunday afternoon and the place was packed.  There are dozens of these department stores in the city and each one would be the floor-size of Chadstone and every one of them is packed, particularly on the weekend.  Two floors of restaurants and 8 floors of shops – we couldn’t believe the amount of money being spent in this city, although Kyoto and Tokyo were the same.  Big name fashion stores from all around the world have a spot and a company such as Zara (amongst others) have their own buildings!  And this doesn’t include the market places and stores in the station buildings!  Almost impossible to comprehend!