For those like me with a strange interest in seeing the actual places on which anime backgrounds are based, there is a page found through 2channel that is posting photos of them episode by episode, along with caps from the anime (the photos are apparently the actual photos used by staff in making the backgrounds):
http://haruhi.sonnabakana.com/file.html
The images for episode 2 are on the following two pages:
http://haruhi.sonnabakana.com/img/Lv.1_up31282.jpg
http://haruhi.sonnabakana.com/img/hikaku2.jpg
I believe all the images are from a city called Nishinomiya, between Osaka and Kobe.