Umeda

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Umeda (梅田) is a commercial district in Kita-ku Osaka, Japan, best known as the city's main northern railway terminus (Osaka Station, Umeda Station). Umeda is also known for shopping: three of the city's largest department stores (Hanshin, Hankyu, and Daimaru) are located there, as well as several shopping malls such as Diamor Osaka, HEP Five, HEP Navio, and Whity Osaka.

The district's name literally means "ume field." It was originally written as "buried field" (埋田), because the area had been agricultural and was filled in to accommodate the new train station in the 1870's. There are several theories as to why the kanji changed, although most people seem to believe that the old characters merely carried a negative connotation.