Himeji's monorail building to be demolished
The 10-storey Takaocho Apaato building in Himeji will soon be demolished. The building is jointly owned by the Urban Renaissance Agency (UR) and Himeji City.
It's unusual design was considered ground-breaking for its time. While it was under construction, the city purchased the first four floors in order to build a monorail platform for the Daisyogun Station on the 4th floor. The 3rd and 4th floors were opened up to allow the Himeji Municipal Monorail to pass through the building. As it turns out, the station wasn't used by many passengers as it was only 500 meters from the station at Himeji. It was subsequently closed in 1968. Read more