Studying Japanese in: Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto?

[logindenied]

Hi everyone,

I'll be going to Japan next year in order to study Japanese at a language school for around 10 months. Since I'm free to choose where to go, I've spent the last few weeks gathering information on the different Japanese cities.
The best suited cities for my plan seem to be Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto , however I can't find a more detailed comparison between these places. So I wonder whether anybody could give me some tips.

A short outline of my results so far (highly subjective):
Tokyo pros:
tons of language schools, tons of everything else one needs to live, people speaking standard Japanese
Tokyo cons:
inhabitants supposed to be more distant and hectic, too big a city, no green or interesting places nearby, too international

Kyoto/Osaka pros:
people supposed to be more friendly and open (at least in Osaka), moderate dimensions with lots of green places and more "cultural life" (esp. Kyoto), interesting cities/places nearby
Kyoto/Osaka cons:
people speaking dialect,
small range of language schools, small range of goods for daily life, extreme climatic conditions (Kyoto)

I'd like to avoid Tokyo as I've been living there for a short while and found it to be too gigantic for 10 months. However, my top priority is, of course, to learn Japanese and I wonder how big an effect the Kansai dialect will be on my studies, especially as I'm planning to make contact with lots of 'aborigines'.
Any recommendations or comments appreciated.
Thanks in advance,

Gerd

 

[Nall-ohki]

Can I offer a 3rd option?

Try somewhere that's not a big city.

Big cities are great and lively, but if you're looking for pure language aquisition, they're nowhere near as good as a smaller town.

Couple reasons for this:
- Fewer foreigners in a smaller place (means you can't get by speaking English)
- Much cheaper to live

Just my thoughts. Don't get caught in a false choice.

 

[logindenied]

You got a point there. However, while being top priority, language aquisition is not my only concern. Since I'm going to live there for 10 months, I want a place that allows a great deal of different opportunities. For example, it would be nice to have an international community as a refugium once I need a break. The city should also offer more than just 4 department stores and I don't want to miss certain benefits like a direct JR access and a nearby airport.
I know, these things kind of contradict themselves, therefore I'm looking for a good compromise. But after all, it should at least be a city of the size of Kyoto. Maybe something like 'Tokyo light' or an 'international Nagoya'.
Did you have any specific small city in mind in your post?

 

[窶倪?吮?氾ｱ]

It seems like you're looking for a personal utopian megalopolis, and I don't think any city is going to fit your needs. I don't see why you can't stay in a small, comfortable city, town, etc. and travel a half-hour to an hour to a large, convenient city. Distance is rather relevant in Japan. Is it really important if the place has a lot of language schools? How many do you plan on going to? As far as dialect, that's something you pick up in about two weeks.

Why you would want to be around a lot of foreigners in Japan is beyond me, but can't you just go to Tokyo one night if you REALLY need to be surrounded by primarily desperate white guys? If being an international is a concern to you, why don't you just learn Japanese at a school in your own country?
The only place I can recommend based on your needs is Tokyo, but you find that too big. I honestly can't think of a place to accommodate all of your needs without making some serious compromises. Do you really need to be right next to an airport? As for Osaka/Kyoto/Nagoya lacking necessary goods for daily life, there are plenty of people living there just fine. Unless for you, dozens of department stores with overpriced Italian designer imports are necessary for your daily life, of course.

To be honest, I think you just need to expand your horizons. To me, it sounds like you are going over there more to have a fun time and enjoy being bombarded with stores than studying the language. Do more research, look on wikitravel and other websites, and examine more options.

As far as speaking with aborigines, good luck finding any Ainu outside of Hokkaido and then learning their near extinct language.

 

[MeAndroo]

While I don't have the obvious distaste for Tokyo the previous poster does, it does seem like you're looking for a city with all the benefits of a major metropolis without any of the drawbacks. A large foreign population is just more likely to be accessible in Tokyo. Period. If you don't want to deal with crowds, then you just won't be near areas suited to those crowds.

You can easily go somewhere like Kanagawa, Chiba, or Saitama if you want access to Tokyo without being IN Tokyo. There's an international airport in Osaka, which means you can live in any of the adjacent areas which seem to fit your needs. I doubt very much you'll be so inundated with Kansai-ben that it'll color your standard Japanese, but it'd provide a great opportunity to see how dialects can differ in Japan.

JR operates all over Japan, so that isn't really a concern. Airports are available in over 50 cities in Japan, but I believe there's only few mainly international ones.

I recommend Tokyo to everyone, but it's like recommending people visit LA or New York when they hit the States. It's an iconic, but by no means comprehensive sampling of what you'll find in the country.

 

[logindenied]

To the second last poster whose name I can't spell:
Your comment had some sharpness in it while you obviously misunderstood my general idea or the self-irony. It was probably my fault for not expressing it more clearly, however I in your place might have asked a bit further before jumping to such harsh conclusions like the 'narrowed horizon'.
Thanks anyway for some points you made.

MeAndroo:
Yes I'm looking for a city with all the benefits of a big city with little to no drawbacks and I'm aware it doesn't exist - that's so obvious I didn't even bother mentioning I was expecting people to write about their own or their acquaintances' experiences with above named cities, and in the best case: being able to make a comparison with pros and cons confirming or refuting my opening post that might help me for orientation. I've lived in Nagoya for nearly 7 months and a short while in Tokyo afterwards. Nagoya had great people allowing me to make lots of friends, but in general I didn't like the city itself all that much for not being 'green' enough and for the fact that even though appearing like a concrete sea to me, had some strange provincial character - this doesn't have anything to do with the 2 Mio. inhabitants, it's something about the city. Tokyo on the other hand was too gigantic - and I will most likely end up in Tokyo anyway later on, so for the language course I might as well pick something different. I was looking for something 'between' Tokyo and Nagoya.
As for the international community, it would be nice to have one - it's not a necessity. Total immersion into the language is a good thing, but during my 7 months in Japan I had some foreigners around who didn't hurt my language development nor my contacts to Japanese at all while giving me the opportunity to talk about different things in a different way once in a while. And while I prefer the city to be as Japanese-only as possible, inhabitants should have seen a foreigner before at least once in their life for that I'm just gonna appear as an half-alien life form, not a full one
You stated that the Kansai-ben won't have any important impact on language studies, which confirms the general consensus of other replies I've gotten on this subject.

If dialect as con can be dropped though, there's another interesting city I'd like to hear your opinions about, and that's Fukuoka. Certainly, Fukuoka is a bit way off, but it is international while not having too many Westerners wandering around (the focus seems more on other Asian people). I found a great language school over there (which drops the con of a low variety of schools) and the city itself does have a very attractive location. Any thoughts about Fukuoka? This is my first choice currently, beating Kobe and Kyoto.

 

[Kirirao]

>Tokyo cons:
>inhabitants supposed to be more distant and hectic, too big a city, no green or >interesting places nearby, too international

Distant and hectic? hectic maybe, but who's not when you're on your way to school or work. Distant?. Too big?. >.> no green? I'm curious what do you mean about about no green? does green = forest or jungle nearby that you can go camp, fishing and such for you? no interesting place nearby? >.> too international? I wouldn't know about this international thinggy so I can't comment.

yea definately highly subjective like you said and over generalized that its kind of unfair to Tokyo. Well since you already have this kind of image of Tokyo set in your mind then I wouldn't recommend Tokyo to you. But setting that aside, from what I read in your post, the standard you set, etc etc aborigines etc as you go on the only place I can imagine is Hokkaido ~ and Sapporo is a nice city to live, or so I heard (Peaceful and stuff). Akita-ken is nice too. apples~

But hey, best of luck with you endeavours. That's my 5 yen worth, don't have any more 5 yen left so I probably won't post in this thread anymore.

 

[logindenied]

> ... that its kind of unfair to Tokyo. Well since you already have this kind of > image of Tokyo set in your mind ...

Sorry, looks like I was really using the wrong words.
I'll try to clear this up:
As for Tokyo I didn't mean to offend anyone. The points I listed under 'cons' were aspects I collected from a lot of other people, so it does not necessarily have anything to do with my own opinion. I was actually just trying to make people here confirm or refute these points, as I myself have little own experience with Tokyo.
The 'green' aspect was referring both to the amount of parks and the surroundings of the city. For example I heard that Kyoto has more parks and open spots than Tokyo in ratio to the city size - and it takes less time from the city centres of Osaka and Kyoto to reach a rural area.
Lastly, the 'aborigines' part was just irony, (that's why there were ' signs) to state I'd generally prefer to make Japanese friends rather than foreigner friends.

Ok anyway,
I still wonder whether anybody has any thoughts about Fukuoka.
Additionally I'd be interested in a recommendation for a good language school around Kyoto, should Fukuoka not work out.

 

[eugene]

It is better to study in Tokyo since the slang you are learning from Tokyo is the official slang of the language used in Japan. If you study in the other areas you have the possibility to learn the dialects of the japanese language. And you are supposed to learn the official slang first before moving on to the wider areas.
Tokyo is still the major city in Japan, everybody around japan would also consider Tokyo the best place to learn the language. of course, you are also able to learn many things here in Tokyo including the japanese culture and lots of stuffs. Yes, and it is not easy to get resources especiallly for foreigners especially outside Tokyo. I had troubles trying to get the JLPT LVL 1 reference book in Sapporo while seeking for university information.

About the Kansai dialect it has so much different with the original. My boss was from Osaka, and i do not undesrtand all the words he said. My teacher also gave me a experience on the kansai slang, i realized that the slang is very heavy and it is not easy to listen especially to us as foreigners. To be frankly most japanese do not know the dialect too. The kansai slang makes the words much more shorter and harder to understand which i truly beleived is not the right material to learn the japanese language.

So, i suggested that studying in Tokyo is the best selection.