If you had to live in one of these Japanese cities where would you live? Why?

Question:

Nagasaki, Nara city, or Kagashima?

Answer:

Depends very much on why you're there and what you do for a living and what you like. They're all smallish cities with their own characters.

If I were working or looking for work, I would live in Nara because of easy access to the much larger city of Osaka by train in well under an hour. As a visibly non-Japanese person I'm more likely to find work there In contrast Nagasaki is separated from the big city Fukuoka by a minimum two hours' train ride, and Kagoshima is pretty much on its own.

If I had less of a work pressure I'd think about the other two. An advantage of the other two is nicer weather overall. The humid summers suck, but at least you can go and hang out by the sea. It takes a big effort to get to the sea or lake nearest Nara.

Then, think about the local character. I have lived in Kansai region, which includes Nara, before and I like the way people tend to act. Others might not get along with them so well. I'm not sure of the typical character of the other two. My only friend from Nagasaki is more restrained than most Kansai people and has a different sense of humour, but that's just an individual.

On the whole, if I had to pick one to live for, say, the next 5 or 10 years, I would pick Nara. I love big cities so I would enjoy accessing Osaka whilst being able to see the countryside whenever I want. Losing the sea is a trade-off I could accept :)