[dederick]

Not sure how big a city you want to live in, but if you prefer a smaller place like Nagano, you might consider a city called Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture. Like Tokyo, it's in the Kanto area, so quite a few people commute from Ibaraki. Mito is a nice-sized city (you can walk everywhere), but it is also the capital of Ibaraki, so it's got just about everything you'll need. Ibaraki also had very good "sake" and local beers.

One other possibility is Sendai. A little farther away from Tokyo (2 hours by Shinkansen), and quite a bit bigger than Nagano or Mito, but the locals are VERY friendly. The population is around 1 million, but the city is very clean, easy to get around, surrounded by loads of nature, lots of good places to eat (very famous for grilled tongue!) and again, the people there are very kind and cheerful. They also got themselves a pro baseball team 2 years ago! Go Eagles!