梅田

Northern hub of the Japanese city of Osaka, served by the Hankyu and Hanshin railway lines as well as JR (Osaka Station/Kita-Shinchi) and the Midosuji, Tanimachi, and Yotsubashi lines of the Osaka City Subway. It is full of department stores, underground shopping malls, pachinko parlors, bars, and other shady establishments that make it a great yakuza movie setting. In fact, the Hankyu station in Umeda was where Michael Douglas' partner had his coat ripped off by a cycle gangster in the movie Black Rain.

Attractions in Umeda include the Sky Building, a tall, hollow building with an awesome observation deck and a glass escalator running twenty stories above the ground, and Hep Five, a seven-story mall with a fiberglass whale hanging in its lobby. Sam and Dave's is a blissfully seedy expat nightclub.

The Hankyu, Hanshin, and Daimaru department stores are all located here, as are the Kinokuniya and Junkudo bookstores, and the Weston and Hilton hotels.