Which city to choose? (Language School)

Hey. I'm planning to study in a Japanese language school for about 1 year after I've finished high school here in Sweden (I'm 19).

I realize there is no definite answer to this but I'm having trouble deciding where to live and which language school to choose and I want to hear of your opinions!

My top choices at the moment are;
Fukuoka
-NILS Language School (Situated in Ogori-shi)
-Fukuoka Foreign Language College (Fukuoka-shi)

Kyoto
-Nihongo Center (Shijo-Kawaramachi)

I'm particularily interested in Fukuoka as I hear/read so many good things about it. The downside however is that it's far from everything (except Korea).

I also read a lot about how Kobe is a nice city, however I haven't looked into Kobe and its schools yet. Sendai looks nice but doesn't interest me as much as the other cities.

Tokyo is ofcourse an alternative and is probably a very exciting place to live in, however I fear of the living costs and that it is sooo big and crowded.

Which do you prefer? How would you compare the people, nightlife, transportation, culture, ease of finding jobs/part time jobs etc? Should I look into Yokohama as a candidate?

Has anyone studied in a language school they can recommend?

Japan is a very mountainous country. And I mean very very mountainous. Crazily mountainous. Geography in Japan works kind of like that in Norway/western Sweden, though two places may look close together on a map they may actually be hours away from each other whilst places that look far away may have good rail links to each other.
Fukuoka looks pretty out there but it actually has very good connections to other cities. Osaka is very convenient from Fukuoka and IIRC there are now super cheap flights to Tokyo.

I wouldn't pick Kyoto. It is a beautiful place but it is so full of tourists. It feels far more crowded than Tokyo and you won't get much chance to speak Japanese.

Tokyo isn't as crowded and expensive as you might have heard. There's all kinds of neighbourhoods. That being said though it is a bit generic and as a capital isn't really representative of Japan. Too many foreigners around too, too easy to fall back on English even if that isnt your intention. It may be easiest to find a job there though.

Kobe is a fantastic city. One of the few cities in Japan that actually feel like a real city in the European sense as opposed to an American style sprawling mess.

Yokohama is good. Pretty much part of greater Tokyo so most of the same things apply though. Yokohama and Tokyo should be considered together since greater tokyo is so big you dont just choose 'tokyo', you choose a particular neighbourhood, which could be in tokyo, kanagawa, etc...

Fukuoka...I've never been though I do hear a lot of good things. Big city, not overflowing with foreigners. Also apparently has the hottest women in Japan if you're into that sort of thing. It rains a lot though.

Sendai is OK. Perfectly livable. Doesn't really compare to the other options though.

Micaela on youtube studied at NILS. She has tons of youtube videos and probably discusses it on there or you can try contacting her directly.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ciaela
https://twitter.com/#!/ciaela
http://ciaela.wordpress.com/

Good Luck!

Thanks a lot for the detailed answers. That was more than I hoped for!

I found another school to add to my list, located in Takadanobaba, Tokyo (a few mins from Waseda University).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duFfUrQoFEk
It looks like a very professional school.

Yeah, I have checked Micaela's channel. That's where I originally found NILS. (Apparently I get 500 bucks discount because I watched her vids, says the schol haha).

Call me crazy but, I want to go to Tokyo even more after reading there's gonna be a big earthquake there sometime in the future, haha.

Tokyo is by far the most exciting city. Yes, it's packed but you'll get used to it after a while. Since youi're so young, I think Tokyo is the best choice. Fukuoka, Kobe, Yokohama, and Kyoto are all nice too but they pale compare to Tokyo.

I have been in tokyo for 3 months, as well osaka. There is a lot of people who speak english and tons of tourist.

I'm also moving to japan (1 year japanese School) And i have chose Jli Sapporo. More for price and less expensive city to live ( i'm at a very tight budget ).

Anyway, after finishing i plain to move to Osaka for a while. Great city, great people, best schools.

good luck!