Umeda

Umeda (梅田) is a major commercial and business district in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, and the city's main northern railway terminus (Ōsaka Station, Umeda Station).

The area is notable for its comparatively high concentration of tall buildings, of which those in Nishi-Umeda, Dojima and Nakanoshima form a prominent skyscraper district. Four of the city's largest department stores (Hanshin, Hankyu, Daimaru, and Isetan) are located here, as well as popular shopping and tourist areas such as HEP Five, Osaka Grand Front, and Umeda Sky Building.

The district's name means "plum field". It was originally written as "buried field" (埋田), because the area had been agricultural and was filled in to accommodate the new train station in the 1870s. There are several theories as to why the kanji changed, although most people seem to believe that the old characters merely carried a negative connotation.

Railway stations

JR West

Osaka

Osaka (大阪市, Ōsaka-shi) (Japanese pronunciation: [oːsaka];  listen ) is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. It is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Japan and among the largest in the world with over 19 million inhabitants. Situated at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, Osaka is the second largest city by the daytime population after Tokyo's 23 wards and the third largest city by the nighttime population after Tokyo's 23 special wards and Yokohama in Japan, serving as a major economic hub.

Historically a merchant city, Osaka has also been known as the "nation's kitchen" (天下の台所, tenka no daidokoro) and served as a center for the rice trade during the Edo period.

History

Prehistory to the Kofun period

Some of the earliest signs of human habitation in the Osaka area at the Morinomiya ruins (森ノ宮遺跡, Morinomiya iseki) comprise shell mounds, sea oysters and buried human skeletons from the 5th–6th centuries BC. It is believed that what is today the Uehonmachi area consisted of a peninsular land with an inland sea in the east. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular.

Umeda Sky Building

Coordinates: 34°42′19″N 135°29′23″E / 34.70528°N 135.48972°E / 34.70528; 135.48972

The Umeda Sky Building (梅田スカイビル, Umeda Sukai Biru) is the nineteenth-tallest building in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, and one of the city's most recognizable landmarks. 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 is located in Kita-ku.

Summary

Located in the Umeda district of Kita-ku, the building was originally conceived in 1988 as the "City of Air" project, which planned to create four interconnected towers in northern Osaka. Eventually, practical considerations brought the number of towers down to two.

The 173 m (568 ft) building was designed by Hiroshi Hara. It was constructed by Takenaka Corporation and was completed in 1993.

The building features a rooftop observatory, The Floating Garden Observatory, as well as an underground market that attempts to recreate the atmosphere of Osaka in the early 20th century. At the base of the towers is an urban garden with walking trails and water features.

Umeda Station

Umeda Station (梅田駅, Umeda-eki) is a railway station located in Kita-ku in the northern commercial center of Osaka, Japan. It is the busiest station in Western Japan, serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005.

Umeda Station is served by the following railways:

The freight terminal of Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight) (Umeda Freight Branch of Tōkaidō Main Line), closed in 2013, was also called Umeda.

The nearby stations Ōsaka (JR West), Kitashinchi (JR West Tōzai Line), Nishi-Umeda (Osaka Subway Yotsubashi Line, Y11) and Higashi-Umeda (Osaka Subway Tanimachi Line, T20) are within walking distance and connected by a large complex of underground malls.

Hanshin Railway

The underground Umeda terminal of Hanshin Electric Railway (officially Umeda Station, but commonly called Hanshin Umeda Station) is located south of Ōsaka Station, next to underground of Hanshin Department Store. The Hanshin station first opened on December 21, 1906 as a ground level station and moved to the present underground location on March 21, 1939.

Ōsaka Station

Osaka Station (大阪駅, Ōsaka-eki) is a major railway station in the Umeda district of Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It forms the city's main rail terminal in the north.

Although it is officially served by only the JR Kobe/Kyoto Lines (Tōkaidō Main Line) and the Osaka Loop Line, Osaka is the starting point of JR Takarazuka Line service, and serves as the terminal for trains bound for the San'in region via JR Takarazuka Line and the Hokuriku region via JR Kyoto Line, while offering connections to trains bound for Nara, Wakayama and Kansai International Airport via the Osaka Loop Line.

Umeda Station (Hankyu, Hanshin, and Osaka Municipal Subway Midosuji Line), Nishi-Umeda Station (Subway Yotsubashi Line) and Higashi-Umeda Station (Subway Tanimachi Line) are directly connected to Osaka Station, and Kitashinchi Station on the JR Tōzai Line is within walking distance.

Osaka Station and Umeda Station, effectively part of the same complex, together constitute the busiest station in Western Japan, serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005, and the fourth-busiest railway station in the world.