Uni of Sheffield vs Uni of Manchester for BA Japanese and Linguistics

I’ve applied for both Sheffield and Manchester’s Japanese and Linguistics courses. I’ve also visited both twice, and sat a taster lesson for each respective course. I was very impressed by the scope of content covered in Manchester’s taster session; however, this was because they were focused specifically on the Japanese course, whilst the Sheffield course focused on East Asian Studies as a whole (covering the Japanese aspect in less detail). I have been in discussions with someone who got their BA in Japanese at Manchester around a decade ago and later went onto translation (which is the field that I am interested in entering) and they echoed my sentiments about being impressed with the units such as translation and more of the social and political background of the country and its history. However, I feel as if I do not know enough about Sheffield’s course to choose it over it. I have heard that Sheffield is well-known for their Japanese course, and have been running it for a long time now (longer than Manchester has, though whether that holds merit now vs. forum discussions from almost 2 decades ago is yet to be said). The other thing that is making me not completely disregard Sheffield is its affordability as a city; it is one of the most affordable cities for students, vs. Manchester which is one of the most expensive. If there are not that many substantial differences between the two universities’ courses I think economically I would prioritise Sheffield. Its reputation for its student union also impresses me. With all of this being said, which out of the two would you think is the best for me? Any alumni able to weigh in on their own personal experiences?

I would love to know what conclusions you came to with this too if you don't mind updating.
In a very similar position for next year (same reasoning, especially re better costs in Sheffield) and visiting both Open Days in the next couple of weeks.