Picking a place to live: Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto?

[keatonatron]

Rounin T wrote:
That way you could be living in Osaka with easy access to Kyoto

Living anywhere in Osaka gives you easy access to Kyoto. By Shinkansen it takes 15 minutes, and costs about ￥２０００.

[Kagemaru]

Rounin T wrote:
If you go for Kansai, though, you may actually want to try a nothern suburb of Osaka, like Hirakata, Takatsuki, Suita, or Ibaraki. That way you could be living in Osaka with easy access to Kyoto, and I personally think day trips to Kyoto would be enough to see its major "attractions."

Exactly why I chose Nara.

All within a hop, skip and a jump of Osaka and Kyoto, whilst retaining a deep and proud history, not to mention an opportunity to mix it with a few friendly country folk if that be your desire.

[logindenied]

Should it turn out to be the Kansai region: could you name any good language school over there? Kyoto and Nara would be the most interesting places to me, however Kobe and Osaka might do it as well. So far, only the Kansai Gaidai was mentioned, which has a good reputation yet bears a couple of minor drawbacks.

In fact, there're lots of sites listing Japanese language schools throughout the country, but few comment on the quality or the major nationalities of its students. And just like mentioned in the previous post: I'd prefer not to be in a class with 1 Western and 18 Chinese students.

[creativity]

I've also been trying to choose a place to live at (for about 9 to 11 months) in Japan. I came across this site: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/regions.htm
It seems really good, but can anyone comfirm what is said? Nagano really sounds nice. Has anyone ever been there? If so, could you tell me (and anyone else reading) a little more about it?

[two_heads_talking]

the olympics were held there a few years back..

[firescorpy]

Nagano is a bit rural I think.. if you are gonna go to Nagano, might as well take the jump and go to Yamagata or something.

[sexyjunko]

I think Tokyo is best for gaijin because there is alot of support and other gaijin.

[keatonatron]

sexyjunko wrote:
...and other gaijin.

:@

[coco]

keatonatron wrote:

sexyjunko wrote:
...and other gaijin.

:@

[clay]

sexyjunko wrote:
I think Tokyo is best for gaijin because there is alot of support and other gaijin.

Actually I think that would be a good reason to AVOID Tokyo - if your goal is to learn Japanese. Go to the 田舎 and flee from as many English speakers as possible.

There were many JETs in my area who hung out only amongst themselves. Predictably their Japanese was very poor even after several years.

[lilaznmonkee]

i,myself, would prefer tokyo but i guess since you were there b4 already..maybe you should check out osaka or kyoto..and maybe make visits to tokyo if you feel the need for big city life...but, the language barrier is just big in osaka or kyoto bcuz of the kansai region thing >_<

[suhui]

What about Yokohama? How's Yokohama? I heard that Yokohama is the only place flooded with most foreigners, or erm Chinese maybe?

[keatonatron]

The only place? It has a famous Chinatown, and so there are many Chinese people here. But I see many more white (non-Japanese-speaking) people in Tokyo.

At least the Chinese people here usually speak decent Japanese.