At the base of Umeda Sky Building, Osaka

Why the base? Well, because we were too ‘chicken’(?!) to ascend the glass-enclosed escalator up to the Floating Garden Observatory :P


We arrived when it’s already dark

Yes, it gets dark rather early, by 5.30pm, but we were planning to see the night view instead (that was before we chickened out). AND, we took a looong way to walk there not knowing there is a pedestrian tunnel under the railway tracks.. (bish ourselves!)

---> suggested route on foot
___ the route we took (on foot!)

Anyway, we got there..

The Umeda Sky Building is the 7^th tallest building in Osaka City, Japan. It consists of two 40-story towers that connect at their two uppermost stories, with bridges and an escalator crossing the wide atrium-like space in the center. It costs 700 Yen (about RM 20) to go up to the observation area. With no roof covering the observatory, the first of its kind in Japan, visitors can feel the fresh air while enjoying the view.

Photos from top view are taken from
www.skybldg.co.jp/garden/e/index.html, as shown in leaflet too


Open rooftop observatory

Now comes the scary part.. both the elevator and escalator are see-through.

This is how it looks like..

Claimed to be the world’s longest escalator


The glass-tube escalators for ascending and descending the floating garden observatory

Ahem.. that was when we decided maybe it's not worth paying 700 Yen and risk dropping 36 floors to our deaths? hehe..

Ok, by then, we were also distracted by this little commotion happening at the courtyard at the base of the building. We strolled around a bit..

Some sort of drumming performance

Found out that a beer festival was going on! What excellent timing on our part. Beer and food from various countries, all congregated in this area. There is no entrance fee, just had to pay for the beer and food.

Stalls representing each country selling food




yummy!!!

Aren't we lucky after all? :)

Ok, before leaving the scene, took this photo with camera on floor and me almost lying on the ground to capture it as well! hahaa… (I seemed to do that quite often in other countries but not in KL, lest I bumped into people I know)