Umeda Sky Building

This week I went with a few friends to the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka. My Japanese teacher told us about it a week ago; there's a German Christmas market in the plaza underneath the building at the moment and she very emphatically recommended the German beer.

First of all, though, we went up to the top of the north building of the JR Umeda station to see the sunset.

 The sky just suddenly turned golden as we were making our way up and it reflected in all of the buildings (everything's very reflective glass in that area). The big building on the right is the Sky Building.

 There was a small Christmas market offshoot outside the JR station, with mulled wine!!! I've never been a huge fan, but it was nice to drink something familiar and Christmassy. And warm. Lovely and warm (Winter has definitely arrived in Japan now, by the way).

THIS is the Sky Building. Looks like something out of Star Wars.

 The Christmas tree at the market, directly underneath the building.

 For such a swanky place, it has an... interesting English translation.

 This is the reflection of the Christmas tree's lights on the other side of one of the walkways. The market was full of lights and people, and then this side of the walkway is just an ordinary office building.

 When we bought our tickets for the viewing platform, they gave us a star each to write a wish on. Then you tie it to these larger stars on the windows. I don't know if there's a Shinto god that hangs about up top granting wishes, or if it's just a nice distraction from the fact that we didn't know we'd need to pay 700 yen to get in... But it was cute reading everyone's wishes, anyway.

 I tried to get some nice pictures, but my phone's camera doesn't quite to the city justice. It was really really beautiful. Just imagine that.

 The walkway was lit with different coloured stones, so it kind of felt like you were walking above small galaxies. This is the ribbon on my bag, lit up by the UV light.

 My favourite thing was watching the traffic and trains run across the bridges on the river.

If you're ever in Osaka, I really recommend this, only maybe not if you're afraid of heights! It's probably a good thing I don't live nearby, imagine if I could go up and do my homework in the cafe at the top every day -  I'd spend so much money... and I'd end up just staring out of the windows for hours... it would be a silly idea... (I'd still do it).