Umeda Shopping Arcade

An underground shopping mall with hundreds and hundreds of stores selling items such as, clothing, accessories, cosmetics, jewellery, and souvenirs of impeccable quality, the Umeda Shopping Arcade is seemingly endless and witnesses the maximum footfall in Osaka. A number of fancy restaurants and cheap eateries can also be found dotting its many sections and they have everything from Japanese fare to the usual coffee and sandwiches. While it was completed sometime in 1963, this outlet underwent some major renovations around 1987 to earn the new moniker of ‘White City,’ and also ‘Whity Umeda.’ This establishment is a little bit of Champs Elysees and a whole lot of Milan’s shopping centres rolled into one. While it might seem like an ambiguous maze, it is pretty cleverly designed with a dedicated North, South, Central, and East Mall. For a better sense of direction, Umeda has a fountain square towards its east, the Hanshin Department Store to its west, and the Hankyu Sanbangai right in the north.
The shops here are open from 10 in the morning till around 9 in the evening, and the arcade is closed on the third Thursday of every month. The JR Osaka Station is the closest to the Umeda Shopping Arcade, standing at a mere 400 m. It is also extremely close to Osaka’s most popular skyscraper, the Umeda Sky Building.