Chayamachi is the Osaka Kita area's most popular downtown district for young people. There is an array of shops, including eateries, amusement spaces, variety shops, and boutiques. Most of the well-known high rises in Chayamachi, such as the variety shop Umeda Loft building, the musical theater Umeda Arts Theater building, and the Mainichi Broadcasting System building, provide open public spaces, based on the comprehensive design system by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, thus creating beautiful cityscapes in this urban center. Recently, following opening of some stylish restaurants and cafes under an elevated railroad, NU CHAYAMACHI also opened in 2005, turning Chayamachi to a trendsetting district for the youth culture. Called "Sanbamura" in ancient times, Chayamachi was once an Osaka's major amusement quarter with several chaya (teahouses), such as Tsuruno-chaya, Hagino-chaya, and Kuruma-chaya. The road on which the stone monument of Tsuruno-chaya stands once led to the ancient highway Saigoku Kaido, and was a transport crossroads, connecting Koraibashi in Osaka and Shimonoseki in the westernmost part on the Japanese main island Honshu. Legend has it that Sugawara no Michizane, a scholar and politician in the Heian period, dropped in to the nearby Tsunashikitenjinsha Shrine, to offer a prayer, on his way to Dazaifu in Kyushu.