I have used Nikon equipment for over 30 years (started with an FM).  My current camera is a Nikon D300 which I bought primarily because of the excellent noise reduction at high ISO settings.  My lens of choice is usually a Nikkor AFS 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 ED VR used in aperture priority mode or manual mode most of the time.  I often use an SB800 flash off camera for most of the pictures that need flash.  I sometimes enshroud the SB800 in a DIY beauty dish to gain better control of the light fall off. 

My reasons for going with Nikon in the beginning were the ruggedness of the camera and lens, and the consistency of my results.  I stayed with Nikon film cameras until June of 2008, as I knew what I would get and the Nikon Coolscan 4000 was delivering excellent results.  It took seeing a photo of a model wearing violet contact lenses shot at 3200ISO in a dimly lit bar to convince me to go digital.  That I could actually tell the model had contact lenses and there was very little noise made me realize that hand held night photography was now possible.  I have been very happy with the results.

Would I recommend Nikon, sure.  But if you are just starting out, do not buy a camera just because someone writes good things about it.  Canon, Pentax and Nikon all make very good cameras.  Go to your local camera store and try out the cameras.  Get a feel for how the fit your hand, the weight, and shoot them at your desired rep rate.  Buy the one that best fits your needs.  The reason I word it this way is simple, you will enjoy using the camera that feels best, but you will regret getting one that feels awkward.

Keep shooting!