Thanks for another reply
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The reason I created this new thread is that I noticed my questions were going really off topic. I appreciated all of your (and other posters') responses but they often had nothing to do with (anymore) where the lowest cost of living was anymore. I actually made the new thread because I thought it was the "right" thing to do, given my new questions
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One of the reasons I'm putting effort into picking a good place is because there are several things about me that would make me a good candidate. My concern is that if I don't put
any thought into this at all, put three random places in my preferences and
actually get one of them, I will be kicking myself for not having thought it through more. This would particularly be a problem if I want to extend for 2-3 years!
Regarding the "standardized" version of Japanese spoken in Tokyo, which other areas in the country are close to the standard language?
The reason I am focusing in on this particular question is because of my experience in Germany. I stayed in Souther Bavaria, where the Bavarian dialect of German was spoken among the natives there. The problem was, it differed so much from High German (the written and business language) that I had few opportunities to really practice with locals and instead spoke more often with German students from outside the area.
I heard that in Okinawa it is particularly bad because the language they speak there is not even a dialect, but separate all together.
Is the situation I described above similar in Japan? Can I expect very different dialects if I'm in Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu or in Kyoto that barely resemble the standard Tokyo/written language?
Thanks