NC86 wrote:
> > I'm biased because I'm an outdoors person. I'd prefer to live someplace
> > where I can hop on my bike and ride or go hiking/rock climbing without
> > spending a good part of the day just getting to the place to do the
> > activity. When I lived in Kobe I was a few minutes walk from great
> > restaurants and bars, ten minutes from the main Sannomiya rail station,
> > and only five minutes walk from some great trails and scenery. For me
> > it was ideal.
>
> Coming from a smaller city (pop 1.5 mil) with a very outdoor lifestyle I
> am more interested in a huge metropolis like Tokyo.

Sounds like you are from Adelaide or Perth. If you can't find a good
school in Tokyo but want to experience the big smoke Japanese style
your only other search options would be Kansai (Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto/Nara)
or the urban part of the Chubu (Nagoya/Toyota/Toyohashi etc). Sapporo &
Fukuoka are basically large country towns, though they feel more like
cities than most parts of Tokyo.

> I have been outside Tokyo - I spent a week in Gifu-shi - but last time I
> visited Japan I got almost no opportunity to explore Tokyo.
>
> Nature and scenery are not major novelties to me because I live amongst
> it every day.

A month is pretty short but should be enough time to explore Tokyo, or
at least those parts you are interested in. I only lived there for
about 18 months but saw pretty much most of what I wanted to.