Umeda Tsutaya Book Store

Authentic awesome vibes and very comfy space… This is absolutely the place for you to chill all day long if you are book nerd! However, just make sure, afternoon crowd is as hell, lol There was literally no single space to sit down when I went there on Tuesday 4pm even though this floor has tons of spaces. Fortunately I could find a place in front of «kitamura» where you can bring your broken apple product and they will fix it. This place is more like book art museum than normal bookstore. Check here out :-)!

A giant bookstore & café facility on 9^th floor of LUCUA1100 building.
(NOTE: This review is based on my recent experience in Aug of 2015. They seem to be experimenting with paid space, so things many change)
Awesome features
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Undesirable features
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Three Star Review
Awesome features: As some of you may know, Umeda (Osaka Station area) is very busy and space is at a premium. Finding a place to chill is often challenging. Many coffee shops are crammed with people and often very smokey. TSUTAYA is an oasis within the middle of the city; an elevator ride away from Osaka station! Within TSUTAYA, you will find a restaurant/​café, Starbucks, Apple product showcase, Microsoft product showcase, etc. You could spend hours here, reading books, drinking coffee, etc. The best part is that they open at 7AM, everyday!!! Not too many places open that early, so this is my favorite place to come for breakfast.
Undesirable features: Starting August 2015, they started to shield off premium seating areas, charging customers fee for use of this space. What?!? I know, it is hard for many foreigners to comprehend. Can you imaging going to Barnes & Nobles, finding out that certain sitting areas require a fee to enter? Yep, their Garden Lounge charges 2000 Yen per 2 hrs of use. They were running a special 50% OFF discount, reducing the price to 1000 Yen per 2 hrs. Note that you don’t get any free coffee or anything. It is just for the honor to sit in this space. The same was true for their 4^th Lounge, which is my favorite area, where you get seating that overlooks Osaka Station.
STATUS as of Aug 2015: Absolutely NO ONE was using these paid space. It appeared that this revenue generation idea was not working. The worst part of this was the fact that all the customer migrated to the free space, making the place quite crowded. Perhaps during the weekend, please will become so desperate for seats, some will start paying money to sit in these spaces, but I doubt this format will last for long.