Umeda is the main northern hub of Osaka, where Osaka Station (JR) and Umeda Station (Hankyu, Hanshin, and the city Subway) converge in a complex of underground passages, shopping malls, and department stores so extensive that first-time visitors routinely get lost in it. The station complex handles over 2.5 million passengers per day, making it one of the busiest transit points in Japan.
The shopping above and below ground is exceptional: the Hankyu Grand Building and Herbis Osaka cover luxury retail; Lucua department store fills the space directly above the station platforms; and the Osaka Station City redevelopment added a wave-roof plaza above the tracks. The bar and restaurant floors of the various department stores are dense and excellent, particularly the basement food halls (depachika).
A few minutes' walk north of the station is the Umeda Sky Building — the city's most striking modern architecture, with a "Floating Garden Observatory" 173 metres up that bridges its twin towers. The Hep Five red Ferris wheel rises above the surrounding shopping centres on Sumitomo Building's roof. East of the station, the Ohatsu Tenjin shrine sits incongruously among the shopping streets — one of Osaka's oldest, dating to the eighth century.