Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture

Until the upcoming August I'll be living in this mid-sized sea-side city of around 500,000k people. It is located in the Southwest portion of the Kyushu island. The weather is comparable to Northern Florida or Los Angeles (semi-tropical). Yes, there are palm trees here. Due to high energy costs in Japan, most people do not use air conditioning or heat. During the day it is hot here, but not intolerably so (although it may be in summer). The nights are cool enough. The actual size of the city is quite a bit bigger than one might think given that it is very mountainous. There are hundreds of small mountains within city limits and groups of buildings are found in between them. There are, of course, buildings on sloped surfaces as well (think San Francisco), most of which are not connected to the sewage line (they have septic tanks). The Japanese cut off the tops of mountains for land reclamation. The university I am attending was constructed on one of these half-mountains. The view from campus is AMAZING (pictures soon). Thankfully, my homestay family lives within walking distance of the campus, so I shouldn't have to take a bus. The catch: the walk is quite...verticle.