The Heights!

The cityscape

The view was breathtaking from the top.  No, I'm not talking about a plane or helicopter or even a building.  This was the Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel, which takes you up 112.5 m into the sky.  As we went up, we got a panoramic view of the Osaka Bay, and the city of Osaka from the very top.  There were ships chugging along, minute cars on the many bridges across the bay and high-speed trains going under the cars, on the same bridges.  The overall experience was simply amazing.

But I have to say I was a bit disappointed -  I expected the Ferris wheel to make high speed turns, but for whatever reason, it was quite slow.

The Yodo River

Next, we boarded a train going to a place called Umeda, where we went to the Floating Garden Observatory.  This was located at the top of the Umeda building, in Osaka's downtown.  From atop the 173 m tall tower,  surrounded by glass on 360 degrees, we gazed out.  The glass did a great job filtering out wind and noise, so we could get a bird's eye view of daily life in Osaka - planes ascending and descending, slow and super fast trains whizzing by every few seconds, and thousands of people walking endlessly in every direction.  It felt nice to sit back, relax and just look outside, which is what we did.  

Inside the Floating Garden Observatory

After about an hour of shopping in one of the underground malls, we went to yet another Ferris Wheel.  This was the HEP 5 Ferris Wheel and it offered a great view of the other parts of the city.


 To be continued...