Mito is the perfect Japanese little, big city, close to Hitachi-naka, where I lived.  Mito is situated in the southeast of Honshu Island 125 km north of Tokyo.  It is the capital of Ibaraki prefecture and has a wonderful mix of old and new. 

It is well known for its "Natto" (A food incidentially that most foreigners hate...  Took me 6 months to stomach it!).  The above picture is Natto wrapped in the traditional manner.  You can find it not wrapped like this easily in stores.

Natto is sort of a stringy bean food.  Nothing good in texture, but add some soy sauce and you might ONLY hate it.  (Again...  6 months)

Scenic spots worth seeing include the imperial park.  It looks stunning during the cherry blossums.  In the off-centre of the park lies two rather beautiful Go boards.

Go is currently a very popular game within Japan.  One I personally love and live for.  Think of it as Chess, if Chess were complex and hard while being simple to grasp.

Also within Mito is the "Art Tower".  Personally, I was never really taken by it.  It is merely an interesting looking building, that reminds me of the falic CN tower.

In all, my second home is Mito.  A beautiful city.  LOTS to see and do, without the problems of a big city.  The people are friends and understanding.

(added on 5/1/2005 )
Mito is the largest city at the Ibaraki prefecture (population; 263,748(April 2005)), and a capital city governed by Tokugawa lords (="Mito Tokugawa ke") in the Edo era. Lord Mitsukuni Tokugawa (17th century) is a nation-wide famous person in the Japanese history and is called as "Mito Koumon".
Mito has a world second largest city park called as "kairakuen". In March, there are a lot of plum blossoms ("ume") and a must see.