To feel like a Japanese movie star for a night...

...was a great deal of fun. My wonderful Mitsui V-net tutor gave me and early Christmas present. When he was an employee of the Mitsui corporation, one of his later jobs was the associate manager of the Shinjuku Mitsui Lounge on the 51st floor of the Mitsui building in downtown Tokyo. Being a former Mitsui man, he is provided membership in this this exclusive lounge, and he was generous enough to take me there for dinner.

First lets start off with the view.

Oh my science.

It was amazing. Imagine if you took Las Angeles, and then stuck little San Francisco Business districts as unique high rise clusters. Thats what Tokyo looks like. To the west you see the sun setting over mount Fuji and the mountains the surround Tokyo, and in every other direction you can see what looks like endless cyberpunk-esque urban landscape. All of the really tall buildings have bright slowly flashing red lights on top of them, moving neon signs are everywhere, and you can see extra bright glows from centers of the different districts like Shibuya, Harajuku, etc.

Now the food.

Dad... you would be jealous. It was a five course meal, small courses, but AWESOME courses. First we had a vegetable compote thing with a little bit of cheese on top
, then we had a fish and cake thing in some sort of cream sauce, then we had steak / salad / cream gratin, then we had tea. Mmmm ever so tasty.

The steak was juicy, rare, and meaty. I haven't had steak since I have been in Japan, and wow was that satisfying. I could have another one... or seven.

Check out the photos in the pictures section. You can also see a picture of my lovely tutor.

-Colleen