The Umeda Sky Buiding is one of the landmarks in Osaka, Japan. It was designed by Hiroshi Hara, and its construction was completed in 1993. 

My aunt took me out to this building when I visited Osaka for the first time. We got to the bottom of the building after a ten-minute walk away from the central station. From there, it looked like a regular office building complex.

 The building consists of two towers connected at the top. As I went up the elevator, I noticed that the diagonal structures between the towers are actually escalators to the observatory at the top. 

Ascending inside a tube structure in the air was probably the most dramatic escalator experience I had. The top floor is an open-air observatory, where I could see the entire city of Osaka. 

The floor below the observatory had an exhibit about the construction techniques used for the Umeda Sky Building. First, the two towers were constructed. Then the observatory was pre-assembled on the ground and pulled up to the top by four cranes attached to the two towers. I was very surprised and impressed by the precision and control they had to lift such a large structure, especially after feeling the strong wind on the 560ft – high observatory.