This is Mito city from the twisty tower.  My hotel is towards the upper right corner, just to the left of the bridge next to the lake.  The tower itself was really cool.  There weren't any large windows, but a variety of portholes on each side.  Because of the way it was made, you could feel the tower sway back and forth when at the top, 26 floors.  Although you can't easily see it in the picture, the Pacific Ocean was slightly visible.  According to the sign on the other side, on a clear winter day, it's possible to see Fuji-san even at 120 kilometers. The city population is around 250,000, but it seems a little bit more crowded than that, perhaps because of how everything is so compressed.  On the opposite side were an equal an equal amount of buildings, but more residential. (mansions)  It only cost 200-yen to ride the elevator up and here this, you get a free postcard.  I felt bad though for the girl working there who has to stand inside the windowless structure for hours at a time. 

Inside the tower.

  To me the most unique locations are the little alleyways between the larger roads.  This one to the left of the main street, east of Mito station.  We ended up wandering around for about 4 hours that day.  On the way back I purchased a new electronic dictionary for around 150000. The important feature being the kanji write-in search mode.  （手書きに引く）