Umeda Sky Building

If you are ever in Osaka, you should check out the Umeda Sky Building. It's near the JR train station, but since Mike and I were no where near there we had the hardest time trying to find it. You would think that a tall building would be easy to find in Osaka right? Think again cause this is Japan. A country where there are no street signs (only signs that tell you what area you are in...geez thanks), north is not always pointing up on maps, and some maps are only in kanji...ugh! So after some time of trying to find this building, I decided to just ask someone at the nearest convenience store. In my best Japanese I asked, "Sumimasen Umeda Sky Building wa doko desu ka?" The clerk showed us a map, but that didn't help at all. I then was trying to ask where was the convenience store on the map in relation to the Umeda Building. Of course he didn't understand me when I asked him that because it was in English. I then tried pointing to various places on the map while saying "koko" (here) while pointing at the convenience store we were at. He could tell that we were going to get lost the minute we stepped out that door again so he put on his jacket and we followed him for 15 minutes until we were able to see the Umeda Building. Remember that this guy was working, yet he left work just to walk us to the building so we wouldn't get lost. I have found that a lot of Japanese people are more than willing to go out of their way to help foreigners. Once we finally got there, I was impressed with the building itself. I thought the architecture was really cool. Then when you get to the top of the building there is an open observatory. It was really nice to feel the wind against your face plus it offered an amazing view of downtown Osaka.