{"id":12679,"date":"2010-12-30T23:00:30","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=12679"},"modified":"2010-12-31T07:53:18","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T23:53:18","slug":"day-9-osaka-umeda-sky-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/12\/30\/day-9-osaka-umeda-sky-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 9: Osaka – Umeda Sky Building"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our last stop for the Day 9 evening was the Floating Garden Observatory at the top floor of the Umeda Sky Building. This is the seventh tallest building in the city, and actually comprises two skyscrapers that is interconnected with an observatory at the 39th floor. This observatory offers a spectacular 360\u00b0 view of Osaka, and I was really looking forward to this experience with the memory of going up the Prudential Tower in Boston<\/a> for the roof top photo shoot still very fresh in mind.<\/p>\n

The Floating Garden Observatory itself is a covered and sheltered compound, with a few cafes and couple-seat viewing areas. The real prize though is the roof top that you go up a level more where you can get full 360\u00b0 views in the open. According to Ling\u2019s itinerary, we had a choice of going up during the day or evening time, but I chose the latter. I\u2019ve done enough day time roof top shoots, and was looking forward to a night shoot instead. The views at least didn\u2019t disappoint, but the photography wasn\u2019t quite so easy! Didn\u2019t have a tripod, and it was freezing cold up top in the open. Shot around 184 exposures and 16 panoramic compositions. I\u2019ve just processed these panoramas, and it\u2019s amazing that even half of them turned out well. Bits of camera shake here and there at the very slow shutter speeds I was using, handheld LOL.<\/p>\n

Admission fee is 700\u5186. Worth every yen! All the pictures were taken using the D300 and Sigma 18-250mm.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4797-osaka-floating-garden-observatory\"
The Building has an iconic '173' marked everywhere - the building stands at 173 meters tall. I took a series of shots at the ground level to capture the height of the building, and have aching necks to prove it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4782-osaka-floating-garden-observatory\"
The Floating Garden Observatory. Plenty of use of down lights, but these show up as reflections regardless if you try to take pictures of the skyline, though you get fully uninterrupted views. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There are security personnel at the roof top patrolling the grounds to make sure that no one gets any funny (i.e. suicidal) ideas. Also, the circular pathway is lit like this that makes it easy to watch your step.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4682-osaka-floating-garden-observatory\"
Lots of bridges for vehicular traffic and trains connecting the Osaka districts together over the river.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Osaka City by night!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4764-osaka-floating-garden-observatory\"
Street views from the top. This was taken at the Observatory; it's impossible to do this down pointing angle at the roof top. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Absolutely spectacular views!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The height of the Umeda Sky Building is at 173m; lower compared to Boston’s Prudential Tower’s Skywalk Observatory’s 228m, but no less impressive. Recommended for Osaka visitors! :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our last stop for the Day 9 evening was the Floating Garden Observatory at the top floor of the Umeda Sky Building. This is the seventh tallest building in the city, and actually comprises two skyscrapers that is interconnected with<\/p>\n

Read More Day 9: Osaka – Umeda Sky Building<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[463,137,503,363],"class_list":["post-12679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography-cameras","category-traveling","tag-japan-2010","tag-d300","tag-osaka","tag-sigma-18-250mm","wpcat-13-id","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}