Osaka Museum of History

 

The Osaka Museum of History is located to the SW of Osaka Castle.

It occupies the top floors of an elliptical tower 83 meters tall.

It was completed in 2001.

It shares an entrance in a shared atrium with the NHK building next door.

Both buildings were constructed at the same time.

It is said to have been designed by Cesar Pelli, though I can find no reference to it on the Pelli Associated website.

Pelli is more well known for his design of the Osaka Museum of Art. I will be posting on oy a little later.

My favorite Pelli building in Japan is the Kurayoshi Park Square in Tottori.

From the Museum of History there are great views across to Osaka Castle.

The previous post in this seriers on maodern architecture of Osaka was on Umeda Sky Building.

Floating Garden Observatory at Umeda Sky Building

 

The observation deck on top of Umeda Sky Building in Osaka offers full 360 degree views over Osaka and beyond.

An elevator takes visitors most of the way up, but the final section is by a glass-enclosed escalator that crosses the circular open space high above the ground.

In Japanese it is called Kuchuteien, "floating garden".

The 39th and 40th floors have views but the best are from the open-air rooftop, 170 meters above the ground.

The previous post was on the Umeda Sky Buildings itself.

The view across the Yodo River towards Kobe.

The view towards the Northeast

Not sure what this bridge carries.... maybe utilities of some kind... certainly not any vehicles, trains etc as it just connects to two structures, one of them an NTT building I believe.

Another iconic Osaka building, the Gate Tower Building is a 16 storey office building with an off-ramp of an expressway passing though the building.

The view looking East...

The Osaka Hilton in front of Osaka Station to the SE of Umeda Sky Building.

Below is another iconic Osaka building, the perfect replica of a 14th century Belgian chapel, part of the hotels wedding facilities.

The descending escalator from the observatory.

Umeda Sky Building

 

Umeda Sky Buildings is one of the iconic modern buuldings of Osaka.

It is located between the Yodo River and Osaka Station and Umeda Station.

Though the area around it continues to be edevloped, there are no other high-rise structures around it.

It was designed by Hara Hiyoshi and opened in 1993.

It is 173 meters tall and has 40 floors.

It consisites of two towers connected at the upper floor.

The design is said to have been partly inspired by La Grande Arche de la Drfense in Paris

These two shots are taken looking up from inside some of the modern sculptures outside the building.

It is a multi-use building with many companies having offices in it.

many festivals and markets take place under it and in front of it.

The most popular feature of the building is the rooftop observation deck known as the Floating Garden Observatory accessible via the glass-enclosed escalators that cross the open central space.

I will post photos of the observatory, escalators, and views from later....

These last two shots are off the building immediately next door.

Crossing the Yodo River

 

As day 2 of my walk along the Kinki Fudo Myo pilgrimage winds down it was time to head west after visiting the cluster of temples in central Osaka.

I crossed the Yodo River on the bridge that carries Route 2, a non-descript low, concrete bridge, one of 70 that crosses the Yodo.

At this point the river is about 600 meters wide. It starts 70 kilometers away inLlake Biwa and there it is called the Seta River. When it crosses into Kyoto it becomes the Uji River, and south of Kyoto it is joined by the Katsura and Kizu rivers and changes its name to Yodo.

Before the advent of the railways in the modern period it was the main transportation artery between Osaka and the capital in Kyoto.

Looking back, the high-rise landscape of downtown Osaka dominates.

The previous post in the series was on the Yasaka Shrine on the East bank.