Umeda Sky Building

Just northwest of Osaka Station, the Umeda Sky Building is Osaka’s most dramatic piece of architecture. The twin-tower complex looks like a space-age version of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. It has two observation galleries: an open-air one on the roof and an indoor one on the floor below. Getting to the top is half the fun, as you take a glassed-in escalator for the final five storeys (definitely not for sufferers of vertigo). Tickets for the observation decks can be purchased on the 3rd floor of the east tower. In the basement of the towers, you’ll find Takimi-kōji Alley, a re-creation of a Showa-era market street crammed with restaurants and izakaya (Japanese pubs/eateries). The Umeda Sky Building is reached via an underground passage that starts just north of Osaka and Umeda Stations.