Although this magical trip was coming to a close, none of us smelled the barn, eager to return home. We made one last stop in Osaka, walking to the Umeda Sky Building, a remarkable architectural achievement at the edge of the Umeda built-up area. Although the building is “only” 40 stories tall, making it the nineteenth tallest building in Osaka, it is recognized as a signature feature of the new Osaka because of one feature: its two large towers are connected at the top by a sky bridge that features a huge open space in the center, what the architect Hiroshi Hara calls a “crater.” This is what the crater looks like from ground level.
As we walked up to the building, we were confronted with yet another “only in Japan” experience: they were setting up a letter-perfect version of a German Weihnachtsmarkt, complete with little huts selling Glühwein at the base of the towers.
You reach the observatory at the top by riding a glass elevator to the 37th floor and then taking an open escalator that hangs over space as you ride up through the center of the crater. Connie just about tolerated the elevator, but the escalator was a bridge too far and she waited for us below.
You walk up a flight of steps to the open-air observatory level at the top; as I came out and looked down through the crater, I felt slightly sick to my stomach–and I have no fear of heights!
The deck of course also offers sweeping 360• views over Osaka and out to sea.
Having looked our fill, we rejoined Connie and made our way down. The Bans returned to the hotel for some last minute packing while we ran a last sake glass errand, having verified that the glasses we found were indeed the lost siblings of Sue’s Takayama purchase.
The Shinkansen brought us to Tokyo in no time flat, and we made our connection to the Narita Express with a few minutes to spare, having negotiated the vastness of Tokyo Station. Our last hotel, the Narita Hilton, exceeded expectations. The hotel is built around a large central rock garden with a waterfall; it features four restaurants and a nice bar. We ate one last, surprisingly good Japanese meal in the hotel: Kobe beef for the boys, seafood Nabe (Japanese hot pot) for the girls. Our charming, enormously solicitous older waitress helped with the preparation of the mountains of raw ingredients that go into the boiling broth; there was so much food that we left a fair amount in the pot!