The view of Osaka city from Umeda Sky Building

Do you like to visit tall buildings, bell towers, Ferris wheels or architectural sites to take a bird’s eye view of the whole city that you visit? I think I did this in most of the cities I visited for the past few years. The view from tall structure always gives me the estimates of how big or small of the cities. And sometimes it accompanies with the explanations of how the cities grow from small towns to what they are now. So, that’s why I pay a visit to Umeda Sky Building to enjoy the view of Osaka.

After visiting Osaka Museum of History, we took the subway train from Tanimachiyonchome station to Higashi-Umeda Station.

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Umeda Station

Umeda Sky Building, like its name suggested, is located in Umeda, one of the big transport hubs and shopping area in Osaka. One could easily get lost in this gigantic concrete jungle. Yup, I have to admit we did get lost in Umeda Station, trying to find our way to exit the station and towards our destination.

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Christmas Market

What a relief when we finally reached the Umeda Sky Building. Because it was December, there was a Christmas market just outside of the building entrance. I could feel the jovial Christmas spirit in the air. People were busy checking out the pop-up stores, eating delectable finger food and children were waiting patiently for their turn to get on the carousel. At the Christmas market, the centre of attraction was the tall Christmas tree.

After exploring the Christmas market, we headed to the entrance of Umeda Sky Building.The ground floor of the building was sparse, with no shops or information counter. Just elevators and escalators. We took the elevator from the ground floor to the 35th floor.

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Umeda Sky Building Osaka and Floating Garden

On the 35th floor, then things got interesting. That was where we took the long, glass tube-like mid-air escalator to the 39th floor. My family enjoyed the spectacular view while riding up the mid-air escalator. We could see the people at the Christmas market, the centrepiece Christmas tree and the carousel. All those people and things that we saw earlier became miniatures as the escalator climbed higher and higher.

My kids were excited to get to the top so they could get an even better view of Osaka.

However, I did not share their excitement though. I was suddenly hit by the fear of heights. Looking down through the transparent glass while riding on the escalator made my knees weak and feet shaky. So the only solution I had was not to look down but look forward or look up at the top of the escalator. I could not wait for the escalator ride to end…

Once I was on solid ground on the 39th floor, the feeling was gone. Phew…

On the 39th floor was the ticketing counter for the Floating Garden Observatory. Ticket for an adult is 1,000 Yen and 500 Yen for an elementary school child. If you interested to see more of the admission tickets, please click here. After paying for the admission tickets, we took the stairs to go up to the floating garden. It had an elevator for the people who have mobility difficulties.

The view from the Floating Garden was breathtaking. It was a good day to see the whole Osaka city. The weather was not too cold, just a little winter breeze and some clouds covering only less than half of the sky. We could see the massive city including the far mountain areas at the end of the horizon.

We stayed about 20 minutes at the Floating Garden to enjoy the wonderful panorama view of Osaka.

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Of course, going down to the ground floor, we had to go through the terrifying glass tube escalator again. But this time, I came prepared. But my kids just could not stop mocking my phobia and tried to persuade me to look down. Haha…

Overall, the experience was amazing. All of us enjoy the aerial view. I did read about a review that said the person did not enjoy the Floating Garden because the view was obstructed by the railings on all side. The railings unintentionally hindered people from taking nice photos without the railings showing on those photos. Look at the photo below.