Built in 1929 as Musashi Senior Engineering School, and then Musashi Institute of Technology until 2009, Tokyo City University is one of more than 75 universities in Japan’s capital. A private institution best-known for its engineering heritage, its courses include mechanical engineering, medical engineering and architecture. But it also offers degrees in liberal arts, sociology and media studies and child studies, and urban life studies and environmental and information studies are among its postgraduate programmes.

Its main Setagaya and Todoroki campuses are both in the city of Tokyo. Its third campus is in Yokohama, roughly 25km away, where the university’s Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Informatics can be found. Students’ entire courses take place in the same campus, but a reliable shuttle bus links them so that those at the university are free to visit friends or use facilities elsewhere.

Tokyo is one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. Though hardly short of traditional Japanese culture, it is the archetypal modern city, diverse, technologically-advanced, served by first-rate train, bus and metro networks, full of new fashion trends, and never stagnant or still. Clean, secure and full of green spaces, its restaurants have the most Michelin stars of any city worldwide, and it truly is one of the cities that never sleeps, with a varied nightlife that provides all kinds of options for students.

Although it is home to more universities than some entire countries, it is far from student-dominated, and those studying in the city tend to immerse themselves in local culture rather than fall into student bubbles.