Above you can see a night view of the Osaka downtown area. When people think of big cities in Japan, Tokyo is the first thing that comes to mind. Osaka is much less famous and often forgotten by tourists. However, the greater Osaka area is host to one of the largest urban economies of Asia. Osaka is very much the industrial capital of Japan and therefore essential to the economy of the entire country. With a population of no less than 5 million, Osaka is also one of the larger urban areas of east Asia.
Dotonbori district at night
Although Osaka was the first capital of Japan, it is not known for its historical architecture and culture. Osaka is home to the historical Osaka castle, but that is a 20th century concrete copy of the original. The original Osaka castle was built in 1583 but it was destroyed and rebuilt several times during the past 400 years. The current Osaka Castle was built in 1931 and was luckily not seriously damaged in world war II. Despite the lack of important historical buildings, Osaka is far from unpleasant to visit.
Osaka is host to numerous luxurious shopping malls and it has an impressive skyline featuring the spectacular Umeda Sky Building.
The Dotonbori district (see picture above) is one of the finest places to have a Japanese dinner anywhere in the world.
Osaka is also a perfect starting point for trips to nearby Kyoto and Nara. These famous cities provide you with more than a handful of Unesco listed historical buildings. Furthermore, Osaka is home to one the most famous and spectacular aquariums in the world. So Osaka is well worth a visit!
Here is another clip of Mumbai. As you can see, fairly modern towers are being erected next to the highway. On the other hand there are still many residential buildings to been seen that look as if they are in a rather poor state.
Here you see the Mumbai skyline, taped from a high-rise on Walkeshwar Road on Malabar Hill. You can see Marine Drive and Chowpatty Beach, two of the most important places of the largest city of India. (more…)
The video above I shot during a 2004 trip to the USA westcoast. During that trip I visited Los Angeles, the city that is host to magic places like Beverly Hills and Hollywood. The most significant thing that struck me was the neverending uglyness of Los Angeles. In fact, Los Angeles is so ugly that it becomes beautiful again. (more…)
Earlier this year we had the opportunity to visit the famous Milan Cathedral. The Milan Cathedral is a building of amazing beauty and size. With 14.000 square yards, the Milan cathedral is the third largest cathedral in the world.
Some of the thousands of statues and ornaments of the Milan cathedral. (more…)
In 1989 HRH the Prince of Wales wrote a remarkable book. It was called “A Vision Of Britain” and it was about the architecture, urban design and landscape design in England, and especially in its capitol city london. One of the most curious things about the book of HRH was not to be found in the book itself, it was the criticism. Britains most famous and distinguished architects stumbled over one other to tell the public HRH was not educated as an architect, nor had he ever made an architectural design of any significance. Therefore his views should be regarded as irrelevant to the development of British architecture. (more…)
