Well thank you for your replies. I would certainly like to visit a lot of the places mentioned while I'm in Japan. Experiencing the culture is one of the main reasons I'm going.

I would still like to know if anyone has any thoughts about finding a place to live or finding a job if possible. That's one of my main concerns right now which is why I posted this. Anyway, I'll PM some of you also to get some further ideas and a little more detail.

Thank you.

I just watched Honey & Clover and I'm now obsessed with it. This one just hit me as so close to home. The characters are quite realistic and the main character reminds me a lot about me so I suppose that's why really. And I've always been a real sap for love stories or romance/comedies.

Most anime I watch I like to learn about from Forums usually, see which ones are the most liked. I have watched a few just because of the name attracts me, sometimes surprised by how good or how bad it is, but usually the former. I'm usually overwhelmed by the amount of anime coming out every year, boy do I love forums. :)

Well the very 1st anime I watched I think was a VHS dubbed version of Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor I think was the name, but it didn't really get me into Anime. The 1st one I tried knowing it was anime and in Japanese was Love Hina. That anime really changed my life. I started getting my hands on anime that a lot of people said were really good and it has just been going and going from there. I suppose I've been watching anime for about 4 years now. Can't seem to get enough :).